Timmonsville Boy Scout Troop___Late 1940's

Roscoe Fountain names the fellows:

Front row, Sam Baroody, Billy Baker, Bubba Huggins, Albert Wheless and unknown.

Second Row, Anky Carter, unknown, Heywood Askins, James Evans, Keith Palmer, unknown, unknown, and Tubby Layton.

March 31,2012

Stewart Carter found his father's boy scout collection and there are lots of pictures. He shared this great photo March 29, 2012 on our Timmonsville Facebook group. I decided to write this article to preserve the conversation that followed the posting of the photo. The photo was taken sometime from 1947 to 1949, somewhere in South Carolina. The two scout leaders are Stewart's dad, Anky Carter and Tubby Layton.

As usual a long thread of conversation began the moment, Roscoe Fountian and Jackie Simpson saw this picture. Jackie was sure she recognized Tubby Layton on the right. And Roscoe (our Timmonsville historian) knew nearly every one of the boys in the photo. Roscoe recognized Sam Baroody , Bubba Huggins, Albert Wheless, Heyward Askins, James Evans, and Keith Palmer in the picture also. He thinks maybe Billy Baker is next to Sam Baroody and Jackie thinks she recognizes Don Hill as second from the left on the front row but Roscoe thinks Don would be too old for this group of boys. These two have amazing memories. Roscoe thinks Hal Anderson, Glenn Hill, Leon Thompson & Jimmy Floyd could also be in the photo. He remembered that Hal became an Eagle Scout, so he would have been in the Scouts at the time the picture was taken, but Roscoe just could not pick him out. He is planning to print the picture and use a magnifying glass to identify the mystery boys and I am sure he will... so....stay tuned.

Roscoe said "I joined [the scout troop] during the end of 1947 or the first of 1948. You had to be 11 years old and I joined soon after my 11th birthday. I rode my bike to the Carter house [on Byrd Street] and saw Anky's mother. She asked me if I was 11 and told me that Anky was at work at Anderson's Guano [Fertilizer] Co. on Main Street by the railroad track.I think Jody Hawkins owned the Company at that time." [Anderson's was across the street from the current Post office in a building similar to the Truluck Farm supply building on Brockington Street]

Donna McLaughlin, who loves anything Timmonsville, noticed something strange about the picture so she asked "Does anybody else think it's odd that Mr. Layton has on a suit?"

But Roscoe Fountain had the answer. He said "The Carters owned a large tract of land on the Pee Dee River, I think Dupont and/or the Paper Mill bought it. Anky had a cabin in the woods not far from the river. There was an artisan well and supposedly, a hermit who lived in a tent in the woods near the river. I saw his tent , but never saw him. They called him 'Ermit the Hermit', but his real name was allegedly, Barney. We slept in the cabin, had a fire in the fireplace for light.We always had a campfire and roasted hotdogs and marshmallows and played games. It was a great place for the Scouts. Often, other grownups would come down in the afternoon to help, so maybe that's why Tubby still had on a suit. I remember, Bub White and the Shaid boys coming down too."

Please post your comments if you know any of the scouts.