Page 41 - Robeson Living Summer 2021

to sponsor a Boy Scout Troop. Pinchbeck was named Assistant
Scout Master with W.G. Revels as Scout Master by 1940 Pinch-
WE SUPPORT OUR FARMING FAMILIES!!!
beck had moved into the main leadership role.
Pinchbeck said “the man who insprired me to work with boys was
Father Flanaganm the man who start Boy’s Town”. Flanagan had NO FARMS - NO FOOD!!!
said “if you want to make something of a man, start him right as
a boy”.

When the troop was started scouts as most everything was segre- Chester says, "Why did the cowboy name
gated. There was scouting for white, for blacks even for Catho-
lics but no scouting for Native Americans. Tri-racial segregation
was a way of life in Robeson County even having three separate his horse Flattery?
bathrooms for the races. Pinchbeck’s troop camped other places
than where white scouts camped for the first ten years. He worked Because it got him nowhere!
with Ray Swayze, national chairman of the integration of the Boy
Scouts of American, and they engineered the end of segregation
with the white troops.

The first newspaper account of Pinchbeck and the Boy Scouts ap-
peared in the November 23, 1938 issue of The Robesonian where
it reported that the Scout Court of Honor where eighteen boys
were promoted from tenderfoot to second class. In 1940 he hosted Farm and Family Center LLC
Walter and Bertha shortly after they were married the first Scout Camporee for Native Americans ever in the district. 4530 NC Hwy 211 East
Also, that year the troop was the first Native American troop to
1943 issue of The Robesonian reported that “Walter Pinchbeck camp at White Lake where they spend lots of time swimming and
has a job keeping Mary Alice and Jimmy from carrying baby playing softball against troop 40 from Madison, NC each troop Lumberton, NC 28358
William Henry with them as they do their duties on campus”. won a game.

Mary Alice remembers the large impact her father had on the col- Scouts is not all about fun and outdoor adventures during WW (910)738-7392
lege campus. He looked after the students, he drove the athletic II they also did their part of national defense in March of 1942
bus and would find ways to get pocket change for the athletics. the troop collection 22,740 pounds of scrap paper. Pinchbeck told
Pinchbeck retired from Pembroke State College after twenty- the newspaper that it “was their answer to the needs of national
eight years and three months in late June 1969. At the time of his defense. The troop was one of the most active in the county at this Your neighborhood farm center for all your
retirement, he was presented a plaque, easy reclining chair and time and parent troop of many other troops in the area. farming & animal care needs!
a check by Dr. English E. Jones, President of PSC. Pinchbeck
replied to the gifts “I just feel happy to be alive. I found lots of In November 1942 the troop award the rank of Eagle Scout to five
things at Pembroke that I could have found no where else. I am young men it was very unusual for so many boys to complete the
just thankful I had the opportunity to be here. I feel wonderful, tasks at the same time.
humble and thankful for what you have done”.
In 1950 he took his first scout troop to the National Boy Scout Southern States
One of his biggest hurts concerning the college was the burning Jamboree in Valley Forge, New Jersey. They also attended in
of old main, he told Professor Eliades in the last interview the California in 1953, back in Valley Forge in 1957 and Colorado
thing he would like most in life was the rebuilding of Old Main. Springs in 1960. He also led two scouting expeditions in New products now sold
“It is a good structure” he said, “It’s worth taking care of and it’s Mexico in 1949 and 1955.
a legend now among all Indians”. Old Main is the most recogniz- at Farm and Family
able symbol at the college originally constructed in 1923, gutted In 1968 he was included in the publication “Outstanding Civic
by fire in 1973. In fact, the fire happened the day that Pinchbeck Leaders in America”. He was presented the Wood Badge, the
was being interviewed by Lew Barton. He told “it was willful ar- highest training award a scout master can receive in 1956 but he
son, and we watched the building burn and I know I felt terrible. said the high point was in 1948 when he was awarded the Silver
When I first knew the building why the high school was there. It Beaver, the highest council award in scouting. He was the first
was a lot of life, lots of history went through there. The burned Native American in NC to receive the award. In additional to A FEED FOR
shell of a building was restored reopened in 1979 it houses not his troop, he helped establish five more Boy Scout Troops around
only classrooms but the Native American Resource Center. Pembroke and a Cub Scout troop. During the summers he carried
the boys in camping trips in the NC mountains averaging between EVERY
Boy Scouts 60 and 70 boys.
Pinchbeck joined the Pembroke Chapter of the Woodman of the
World in 1938. The group was looking for a project and decided NEED!!!!

Robeson Living ~ Summer 2021 Page 41