Michael J. Anuta - Early Scouting

Excerpt from Michael J. Anuta: an Autobiography

Privately published, c2006

Used by permission of the editor, Janet Anuta Dalquist

The program known as Scouting was conceived by great men to be used by leaders and followers to provide a program of activities for the in-spiration and growth of boys to become the highest examples of men. Scouting was a significant experience in my life. Having had a background of isolated country life, it filled a deep void. It brought me out of a class of country bumpkin to live on a level with my peers. I found that growth was possible through applying a pattern of activity with achievement. Scouting’s philosophic ideals and program, commencing with the obligation, the Scout oath, the twelve Scout laws, and the simple daily good turn spurring the merit badge program, laid out a pattern in many areas of life. One had duty to God and his country, to humanity, to keep himself physically strong, mentally awake and morally straight–obligations which can be applied uniformly in all directions. It certainly was applicable in my employment, law practice, judicial service, service as a prosecuting attorney, in my memberships in Rotary International and the Civil Air Patrol. Rotary International’s motto, “Service above Self” and its objectives of international friendship, good will, and world understanding easily associate with the Scouting promise. Likewise, my thirty-six years in the Civil Air Patrol of the U.S. Air Force Auxiliary, as a volunteer pilot helping those who were lost or in distress, supported the twelve Scout laws and the daily good turn. My Scouting principles were deeply applicable in my Masonic Lodge memberships – brotherly love, relief work, and truth. I indeed found much in the growth of my religious faith where an orderly life program meant added value and meaning.

In October of 1913, when my family moved to Milwaukee, the change in life style was most dramatic for a country boy. In elementary school I had known nothing of any youth program. But in the first three months in Milwaukee I thought I might become a newsboy in addition to my Madison Street school work. I was sent some papers by William D. Boyce, publisher of the Chicago Ledger and Toledo Blade. Milwaukee at that time had a full complement of daily newspapers. There were the Milwaukee Journal, Milwaukee Sentinal, The Daily Free Press, and German and Polish newspapers. Milwaukeans preferred to read their own newspapers. The newspapers William D. Boyce sent me did not sell at all. However, I examined them and happened to find an article on the organization of the Lone Scouts of America. This activity especially appealed to a lone farm boy, and I eagerly applied for membership. I became a member sometime in 1915.

When our family moved to the Ellen Street house in Bay View I ob-served some boys engaged in activities on a vacant lot nearby. They were Boy Scouts of Troop 26 of the Milwaukee Council of Boy Scouts of America under Scoutmaster Fred W. Apel, a family neighbor. I became a member of that troop as a Tenderfoot on April 18, 1917.

I participated in all of the troop activities in our meeting room at the Dover Street school, including rallies and camps such as Camp Owl and Camp Clovernook. I competed with other troops in signaling and other activities. In 1917, 1918, and 1919 I marched in the July Fourth parades with our troop down Grand Avenue from Fourteenth Street to the U.S. Post Office on East Wisconsin, in addition to celebrations of the Armistice in November 1918. During World War I, under an order of President Wilson, I was a “dispatch bearer” in the war effort. Scoutmaster Apel saved my life by getting me out of the way of a charging automobile on the street where we were assembling for a parade. We were lifelong friends to his death at the age of 105.

All Scouting tests are taken before certified examiners and become official records of the Boy Scouts of America. I took my tests before Scoutmaster Fred W. Apel, Walter H. Roloff, a Field Executive, and before William L. Davidson, the Scout Executive whose office was in the First Wisconsin National Bank Building on East Water Street. My first-aid test was taken before a Civil War veteran, Dr. William J. Cronyn, who was a most thorough instructor and examiner, and I will never forget what constitutes a compound comminuted fracture!

I advanced through Second and First Class, Star Scout and Life Scout ranks and earned twelve merit badges toward my Eagle rank but, as a working boy, I did not have the time to complete my advancement to that rank. I sought employment and began educational programs. This kept me from becoming an Eagle Scout, however, I kept my interest by assisting the troop in Neenah-Menasha and also after Marianne and I moved to Menominee and our children began to attend school.