Story of Historic Photo Revealed

The photo shown below is of Dr. E. Urner Goodman. It was taken in front of the fireplace in his “Brotherhood Lodge” at his home in Bondville, VT, which as you can clearly see in the background. The hearth was constructed of stones and bricks contributed by Order of the Arrow lodges in existence at that time around the country. Notice the “Unami” (WWW #1, Cradle of Liberty Council, Philadelphia, PA) stone and the “Immokolee” (WWW #353, Chehaw Council, Albany, GA) stone in the background.

Photo of Dr. E. Urner Goodman

This photo was taken in preparation for, and as a memento for Passaconaway Lodge #220, who hosted the 1962 Area 1-A Section Conclave in Manchester, NH. The original prints of this photo were presented to Mowogo Lodge #243, Northeast Georgia Council, Athens, GA – now Pendergrass, GA (Displayed since 1962 on the mantle in the Administration Building at Camp Rainey Mountain); Passaconaway Lodge #220, Daniel Webster Council, Manchester, NH; Achunanchi Lodge #135, Choccolocco Council # 1, (1921-99), Anniston, Alabama, AL (Merged); and the photographer.

**An interesting side note is that the original print presented to Passaconaway Lodge may have been lost in a fire in the Lodge at Camp Leo (now called Camp Bell) sometime in the 60’s or 70’s. (This point needs verification).

The photographer relayed the following story about visiting Goodman at his home:

“I had called Goodman several weeks earlier to ask for a chance to stop by and visit him and to invite him to the conclave, for which I was the Section Adviser.

“By this point in his life, Goodman was very famous and was constantly being visited by admirers – scouts and scouters alike from all over the country. I think he was probably the second most famous living scouter in the country behind (William) Green Bar Bill (Hillcourt), even though Goodman was Bill’s boss for about 20 years!

“Over the years, OA Lodges from around the country had given him gifts for visiting their lodges and people were forever bringing him tokens and totems. He had this little museum out behind his house. I think it may still be there. Notice the bricks behind him in the fireplace? They were from stones sent from all over the country from as many lodges as they had back then – there were a lot more of them then than there are now.

“So . . . on the appointed day, the Section Chief and I drove over from New Hampshire to Goodman’s home. We rang the bell, and who should answer, but Goodman himself. The old man was dressed in his regular clothes, which was kind of a shock to us. Because we had met before, he knew me and remembered what I was there for. He said,’ I guess you’ll be wanting a photo. We’ll go down to the lodge for that.’ He invited us in, excused himself, and returned 15 minutes later in full regalia. He wore his dark olive wool dress uniform with all the decorations he had become so famous for, which you can clearly see in the photo.

“Then he invited us down to his Lodge, where we took the photo. He was very cordial and we spent a good hour or so just talking about the Order of the Arrow and Scouting. Goodman told us how he was looking forward to the upcoming conclave and that he would be in proper attire. After he had clearly had enough of us, he apologized and said that he was to meet some other scouts later that day and that he needed to rest.

“It was quite an afternoon, and one that I will always remember. Now that I am older than Goodman himself was on that day, almost 50 years later, I can still remember every detail of Goodman’s uniform.”

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