Did Marseilles frustration aid in founding Boy Scouts?
Was frustration over prolonged legal wrangling in Marseilles a spur for Ottawan W.D. Boyce to establish the Boy Scouts of America in 1910? His grandson, Lee Mueller of Las Vegas, Nev., said he suspects so. At the Lone Scout Patrol Banquet Saturday at Pitstick Pavilion, Mueller detailed nearly a decade of legal challenges Boyce dealt with in trying to develop hydroelectric power in Marseilles more than a century ago. Mueller, as vice-president of the Marseilles Land and Water Power Company his grandfather once owned, also has had his share of difficulties in trying to build a new hydroelectric plant in Marseilles. Mueller told the banquet attendees he believes his grandfather’s troubles may have helped in his decision to incorporate the Boy Scouts of America. “He felt that this country could probably use an organization that would help create a more ethical and better class of businessmen and so he thought the Scouts would probably contribute to such an undertaking. “He really had a tim
