First Girl Scout Page 9

  Daisy was determined to keep her girls in Glen Lyon by teaching them usable domestic skills and introducing career ideas. The land was rocky, with poor soil, so it was hard to grow much of anything. Flocks of sheep grazed on whatever they could find in the valley. Daisy taught herself how to card and spin the raw wool on a spinning wheel, and she shared her knowledge with her Girl Guides. She even located a shop in London that promised to buy the yarn. As fall and winter approached, the girls had to spin the wool in the dark, because their families couldn't afford to burn extra candles for light.

  Daisy also encouraged her girls to raise the healthiest, and therefore the best-producing and tastiest, chickens in the glen. Although there is no written record of it, she apparently found a farmer who taught them all about the birds. In the autumn, when the local lodges filled with hunters, Daisy's Girl Guides supplied them with chickens and eggs.

  All too soon, it was time for Daisy to return to her home in London for the winter. She surprised the village's postmistress by asking her to take charge of her patrol of Girl Guides while she was away. The postmistress agreed.

  Daisy at her spinning wheel in Scotland. Girl Scouts of the USA-JGLB

  In London, Daisy again signed up for sculpting classes at night, and she filled her calendar with social events. But her energies were still centered on the Girl Guides, and she started two new patrols there, including one in Lambeth, a poor and dangerous part of the city.

  Then the ever-restless Daisy prepared to sail to America. She asked some adult committee members of the Girl Guides in London to continue working with the main group there. Daisy then told Rose Kerr, another volunteer whom she knew only slightly, to take charge of the second patrol of girls in Lambeth.

  Mrs. Kerr protested, saying that she didn't have the time and wasn't really good with girls. She recalled how Daisy responded: " 'Then that is settled,' she said serenely, turning her deaf ear to me. 'The next meeting is on Thursday and I have told them you will take it.'"

  Daisy promised to pay the expenses for the Lambeth girls, and as she was leaving, she added, "And I should like you to give them a good tea every week after the meeting. Good-bye."

  Scottish Girl Guides learning how to light a fire. Girl Scouts of the USA-JGLB

  Despite Daisy's abrupt departure, she and Rose Kerr became friends over the years. And as Rose learned, she was just one of many acquaintances and friends who encountered what she described as Daisy's "genius for not hearing any excuses or refusal or, in fact, anything she did not want to hear. She simply smiled at you—and what a smile was hers—and said, 'Here are the girls. You will start at once.'"

  On January 6, 1912, Daisy set sail for New York on the ocean liner SS Arcadian. It was going from London to the West Indies and then on to New York. General Sir Baden-Powell was onboard too, for the start of his world tour to visit the Boy Scouts in America and elsewhere. Daisy and B-P talked about how she might sow "the seeds of the Girl Guide movement in her own country for the first time."

  While onboard, Daisy met the other first-class passengers, including Miss Olave Soames, a young woman who was traveling with her father to the West Indies. Olave was drawn to Daisy, recalling, "There was something magnetic about her, so clever and so witty she was. Interested in herself and interested too in other people, full of enthusiasms and with vision and vigour, determined at this moment to start guides in her own home land."

  Miss Soames and B-P fell in love during the brief sea journey, even though Olave was just twenty-three and B-P was fifty-five. They became secretly engaged. Olave left the ship in the West Indies with her father, but she later reminisced about that romantic voyage: "There we met on board ship, there we fell in love, and there we decided to marry."

  Later, many friends and family, including Olave Baden-Powell, would repeat the story that B-P had once proposed marriage to Daisy and she had turned him down, saying that he should have children. Despite the refusal, they formed a lifelong friendship.

  Following her sea voyage on the SS Arcadian, Daisy visited friends in New York and New Jersey before boarding a train for Savannah. As the train chugged south and crossed the Savannah River, Daisy finally spotted the familiar Georgia fields where cotton would be planted later in the spring. There were forests of pine trees, live oaks, and palmetto palms. She had crossed the Atlantic Ocean between Great Britain and New York many times and had taken the train up and down the East Coast, but her eagerness to introduce Girl Guides to her country made this particular trip seem to take forever.

  Robert and Olave Baden-Powell shortly after their marriage. The car was a wedding gift from the Boy Scout organization in Great Britain. Scout Association Trustees

  She recalled the wonderful summers of her childhood, playing with all her cousins along Georgia's Etowah River, hiking, swimming, and trapping fireflies in jars. Before long, all of America's girls would have the opportunity to have as much fun as she and her cousins had so long ago. It was all part of her plan.

  Years later, Rose Kerr wrote about how she envisioned Daisy's arrival in Savannah that spring. "Imagine a woman, delicate, no longer young [and] handicapped by deafness, deliberately setting out to conquer the United States for Girl Guiding! Had she been a woman to be daunted by difficulties, she would have thrown it all to the winds."

  As Mrs. Kerr clearly understood, Daisy did not feel daunted or handicapped. She felt exhilarated with anticipation as she stepped off the train. A porter loaded her many trunks and belongings into a large car, and Daisy climbed in after them, with her Pekingese named Chi-chi in her arms. According to her nephew Arthur, the dog was "a moth-eaten specimen ... whose back legs were so much longer than those in front.... Daisy loved him." Polly Poons squawked in her cage as the car began to clatter over cobblestone streets.

  Leaning out the window, Daisy saw the city's familiar squares decorated with fountains, statues, and ancient oaks draped in Spanish moss. Dogwood trees and azaleas were in full bloom. It was early March, and all of Savannah was awash in color.

  Whenever she returned to Savannah, Daisy arrived at this train station with her trunks and pets. Georgia Historical Society

  Daisy settled into her parents' home at 10 East Oglethorpe because she had rented out her house. She was eager to update her family and friends about everything she had been doing in Great Britain. Daisy had written home about her new dreams and direction in life, but it would be so much easier to explain everything in person!

  One day not long after her arrival in Savannah, she called her cousin, Nina Anderson Pape. "Come right over," she shouted into the telephone. "I've got something for the girls of Savannah and all America and all the world, and we're going to start it tonight!"

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  Launching a Dream

  NINA WAS EAGER to find out what unusual idea her beloved cousin had this time. Knowing Daisy, it was sure to be a doozy!

  That evening, Daisy's brown eyes sparkled, and Nina thought she looked more relaxed than ever. Daisy shared the story of her first meeting with General Sir Robert Baden-Powell at the luncheon and how they discovered many common interests, from sculpture to their love of young people, even though neither of them had children of their own.

  Nina learned from Daisy that B-P had started an organization in England called the Boy Scouts. And Daisy also told her about meeting his sister, Agnes, who had started the Girl Guides. Thousands of young girls had already joined.

  Daisy was wildly enthusiastic about the success of the three patrols she had started in Great Britain, and now she was back in Savannah, ready to bring Girl Guides to all of America. Because Nina was a school principal, Daisy thought she might have some valuable suggestions. Daisy explained that as Girl Guides, the girls would learn self-reliance and skills that would help them be successful adults both during their careers and at home as parents. In addition to honing their domestic abilities, the activities would expose the girls to other useful knowledge, such as first aid. And they would encourage the girls to
be physically fit.

  In 1912, many women of Daisy's social status lived a restricted life. Daisy intended to break down those walls of tradition. She wanted the upcoming generations of girls to grow with the changing world—where some women were getting involved in local and national elections, going to college, and even seeking careers outside the home. Daisy believed that they could and should do anything they wished!

  Nina hoped that the organization would give Daisy something meaningful to do. She mentioned a group of Savannah girls who belonged to a nature-oriented camp. They met every Saturday at Bona Bella Woods, just outside the city, to learn about plants and animals and to cook their supper over a campfire. The program was run by W. J. Hoxie, a naturalist and a retired military officer. Nina thought maybe some of these young women would want to be Girl Guides as well.

  Nina Anderson Pape was Daisy's cousin and the principal at a local girls' school. Girl Scouts of the USA-JGLB

  On March 2, 1912, Daisy wrote to Mamma, who was in Chicago. She bragged about an article she had written for the Savannah Morning News about why young women should join Girl Guides, saying, "I may become a literary genius if you remain away much longer." After her mother's return, Daisy recruited her and ten friends to be on the first board of Girl Guides in America. She also told her sister Mabel that she was creating a new handbook for American girls. She asked the naturalist W. J. Hoxie to write the sections that were inspired by his outdoor program in Savannah, and with Agnes Baden-Powell's permission, she adapted parts of the English handbook for Girl Guides. "I am deep in Girl Guides," she wrote to Mabel. "You must not be bored with G.G.s as I can't write of anything else."

  Shortly after her meeting with the board members, Daisy invited some local girls, including those suggested by Nina, to a tea party at her mother's house. Mrs. Gordon, as spry and tart-tongued as ever, later commented that her daughter served a tea that was fancy enough for the president of the United States. Daisy showed her young guests pictures of busy Girl Guides in England, shared with them the existing official handbook, and discussed the badges they could earn for mastering skills such as knot tying or nature studies. By the end of the afternoon, the girls were eager to join and excitedly chatting among themselves about what their uniforms should look like.

  There are several different versions of what happened in Savannah on March 12, 1912, the historic day when Daisy held her first official Girl Guide meeting at the Louisa Porter Home in Savannah. We know that seventeen girls signed up that day and were divided into two groups, the White Rose patrol and the Carnation patrol. At the top of the register, Daisy wrote the name of her twelve-year-old niece and namesake, Margaret Eleanor "Daisy Doots" Gordon, even though she was twenty-three miles away at Myrtle Beach Plantation in Richmond Hill with her family at the time.

  Daisy selected two mothers to be the adult leaders of the patrols and, before anyone could protest, handed over her copy of the English handbook to one of them. She smiled. "Here are the girls. You will start at once." As Rose Kerr noted, in the years to come, these two simple and much-repeated sentences would become familiar, and sometimes feared, by other women Daisy selected to help the organization.

  Doots would later write about her Aunt Daisy's surprise visit to the plantation after the first Girl Guides meeting, in Lady from Savannah: The Life of Juliette Low.

  "You've made me a what?" Doots asked.

  "A Girl Guide. All the girls in Savannah are going to be Girl Guides."

  "Why?"

  "Because it is a wonderful thing to be," Daisy replied.

  "How did you make me into a Guide?"

  "I put your name down." Daisy was beginning to be impatient.

  Daisy listed what the girls in Savannah would be doing together: cooking, learning first aid, taking nature hikes, wearing uniforms, and earning badges. Doots had no choice but to agree with her strong-willed aunt. After all, she had already "joined," thanks to Daisy. Because her name topped the official March 12 list, Margaret Eleanor "Daisy Doots" Gordon became the first Girl Guide in America. When the name of the organization was changed to Girl Scouts in 1913, the Girl Scouts in the USA claimed her as the first Girl Scout as well. It was an honor Doots later cherished.

  During her visit with her brother and his family that spring, Daisy also created a sculpture of her niece's head. Doots recalled "sitting perched on a high stool for hours and hours each day while Aunt Daisy, completely absorbed in shaping the moist clay, even forgot meals." When the sculpture was completed, Daisy dashed back to Savannah.

  Within a few short weeks, some sixty Savannah girls belonged to Girl Guides. Soon, women from other cities were contacting Daisy for information about how to start their own groups. There was no doubt in her mind that with hard work, Girl Guides would soon spread across the country. It was just the beginning, and Daisy was elated!

  Unlike today's female athletes who wear lightweight shorts and tops, women and girls in the early twentieth century were expected to be fully covered by clothing while playing sports or enjoying outdoor activities, as this photograph of a 1913 Savannah Girl Scout basketball team shows. Girl Scouts of the USA-JGLB

  The girls designed their own uniform patterns, selected the fabric, and pinned, cut, and sewed them. They wore blouses with sailor-style collars, knee-length skirts of heavy dark blue cotton twill, and light blue sateen ties. Large black hair ribbons and long black stockings rounded out the ensemble.

  This 1936 document contains the signatures of the girls who officially registered their names as Girl Guides (now Girl Scouts) on March 12, 1912. Girl Scouts of the USA-NHPC

  The Girl Guides also traced a trefoil, a three-lobed leaf, onto felt and cut it out to make a Tenderfoot badge. This badge signified a girl who was just starting out and learning about scouting and her individual patrol. Eventually, the word patrol was replaced with troop. At first, each patrol or troop was named for a flower, shrub, or tree. But decades later, as the organization grew, the troop names were replaced with numbers, such as Troop 695. The number of badges and pins changed over time too. Girl Scout insignia are still made of metal and cloth, as they were in 1912.

  That spring was particularly busy for Daisy. Once again, President Taft, along with his daughter, Helen, visited the Gordons from May 1 to May 3, and Daisy was there to help her parents receive them. Her Girl Guides also made their first public appearance in their new uniforms in a May Day festival in a Savannah park, where they performed some English folk dances. They made quite an impression, and soon more girls wanted to join Girl Guides and wear the uniforms.

  When she was satisfied that the organization was well established in Savannah, Daisy headed back to England to check on her property. While she was away, the stable and servants' quarters at the back of her rented house on Savannah's Abercorn Street were transformed into the Girl Guide headquarters, where the girls met every Saturday. A vacant lot across the street was used for games.

  Miss Edith Johnston, who would become the first national secretary of the Girl Guides in the United States, commented that the girls kept busy while Daisy was gone. "We played games on our vacant lot. We took hikes, especially bird hikes, keeping bird notes and greatly enjoying our nature study. We formed an inter-troop basket-ball league." The Savannah Morning News even printed a weekly column about what the various groups were doing.

  Daisy's father rode by the headquarters and wrote his daughter in mid-May: "The rooms were packed with them like a swarm of bees.... You are certainly giving a great deal of pleasure to a large number of individuals."

  From this desk, Daisy wrote hundreds of letters to friends and acquaintances, inviting them to help her achieve her dreams and goals for America's young women. The desk could be disassembled and shipped easily, so Daisy may have moved it back and forth between her homes in Savannah and Great Britain. Girl Scouts of the USA-JGLB

  From England, Daisy wrote letters to her new Girl Guides in Savannah. Miss Johnston recalled that they were "filled with quaintly misspe
lled words" and shared details about what the English Girl Guides were doing. The Girl Guides was still a young organization there, too, but they had an official headquarters in London. Daisy visited and asked question after question in an effort to find out what was working and what was not. She hoped to apply what she learned to her organization back in the States.

  Brimming with information and carrying handfuls of badges, she returned to Savannah. There, Daisy visited every troop. She talked to each of the leaders. "Miss Daisy," as the girls affectionately called her, had found something meaningful to do with her life.

  But suddenly, all of Daisy's plans came to a grinding halt. In mid-August, Papa became very ill, and Mamma summoned the family to his bedside. Papa grew sicker and sicker, and on September 11, 1912, he died. William Gordon was buried in Laurel Grove Cemetery near his daughter Alice. In Savannah, flags flew at half-mast in his honor. Letters praising his service to his country, his state, and his community arrived from around the world.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  The Dream Builds