November 10 – Peer Review I

From the peer review I learned how to critically analyze sentences, to try and make them as fluid and to the point as possible. Reading someone elses paper is a good way for them to make constructive changes, since it is an outside opinion from someone who has not seen it at all. I also learned more about the citations in Chicago Style. A few run on sentences were brought to my attention, as well as gramatical errors.

November 5 – Computer Lab: Photoshop

The biggest problem I have encountered while trying to make a website is Dreamweaver and getting familiar with it. I had trouble making the banner on the top and creating the separate tabs for different pages. I have not really been working on the project as much as I should, so I really haven't been able to learn how to use Dreamweaver. :(

November 3 – Library Research Day

I do have a solid thesis statement, and so far it reads: [Robert A. Josey's] gift the Robert A. Josey Boy Scout Lodge, gave the Boy Scouts of Walker County and surrounding areas, a place to hold their meetings and practice camping, cooking, construciton and other scouting skills. To this day, 75 years later, the Josey Lodge remains a Huntsville landmark, continuing to serve as a cherished meeting house for the Boy Scouts of Walker County.
The biggest research question I had was what New Deal Program contributed to the construction and finance of the building. I had a number of mixed stories when it came to this, and I couldn't seem to find any documentation. So I went to the Thomason Room and asked them. They didn't seem to now either, but they led me to the archives, and from there I was given access to a book filled with Huntsville Item papers from 1933 and 1934. From there I learned that it was the CWA, an early and short lived New Deal organization, not the CCC or the WPA.

October 29 – Computer Lab: Photoshop

One image that I took of the big wooden sign that faces Sam Houston Ave., I think is a good one to use as the homepage for my site. I like it because everyone who has been on Sam Houston Ave has probably seen it, and plus it's a good picture. Another I am trying to work with is a photo of an old newspaper clipping with a picture of all the Scout troops taken in 1930, inside a frame that is on the wall of the inside of the lodge. This one is going to need to be fixed on photoshop if possible, but I think it would be a good picture. Plus I have some other photos of the interior of the lodge.

October 27 - Roundtable: Current Progress Report

On the warm summer afternoon of June 17, 1934, thousands gathered at a beautiful, newly built, rustic log lodge, “nestled in a little ravine in the pine woods just south of the city”, to dedicate this great gift given to the citizens of Huntsville, Texas, by Robert A. Josey, a local self made millionaire and generous philanthropist. His gift, the Robert A. Josey Boy Scout Lodge, was given to the Boy Scouts of Huntsville. Thanks to his contributions this local landmark has served this organization for 75 years.
Mr. Josey was said to be “too modest” as all of Huntsville showed their appreciation for this lodge given by him to the local Boy Scouts of America. Marcellus E. Foster, founder of the Houston Chronicle, who grew up here in Huntsville, showed up to give tribute to Mr. Josey, despite a broken vertebra and the hot summer weather.
“Now you may suffer from the heat but my friend, Tony, (and he pointed to R. A. Josey, with whom he played on the site as a boy) my friend, Tony, is suffering from embarrassment. He doesn’t like this. He’s too modest… I wish there were more R. A. Joseys in the world. I wish there were more good boys to know their duty to their God, to their country, to their community, for these boys of today will be the R. A. Joseys of the future.”
Robert A. Josey’s Scout Lodge is a gift that is still cherished to this day by the Boy Scouts of Walker County. To Mr. Josey, who was a very smart businessman, he was making an investment in the wellbeing of his community. M. Harrison of Longview, President of The East Texas Chamber of Commerce said this at the dedication ceremony, “This lodge is an investment in human character that will pay eternal dividends. It is dedicated to those principle of righteousness, thrift, reverence and loyalty that have made America great.”
Robert Anthony Josey was born in Huntsville on March 28, 1870. He was the son of Evander Theophilus Josey and Mellissa Jane Cotton. Evander’s father, Theophilus Josey moved to Huntsville from South Carolina with his wife Mary Wilson, when Evander was a child. In Huntsville, Theophilus bought a house known as the “Raven” from Gen. Sam Houston. E.T. Josey became a teacher in Huntsville and ran a boarding home, until 1861 when he volunteered to serve in the Confederate Army, serving in Company K, Brown’s Regiment for four years, earning many decorations. After the war, he returned to Huntsville and married Mellissa Jane Cotton and together they had seven children. E. T. Josey served as a Walker County Tax Collector and was a deacon for the First Baptist Church in Huntsville for almost 60 years.
Robert A. Josey grew up in Huntsville and attended primary school there and after that he attended Sam Houston Teachers College, graduating in 1890. He also got a degree at Texas A&M University. In 1901 he began his career in the wild oil drilling campaigns of Spindletop field in Beaumont, Texas, where he is said to have drilled the second oil well there. He amassed a sizeable fortune and founded more wells in Oklahoma, where he was a leading figure in the emerging oil business there. After he sold his holding to the Texas Company for a reported $10 million in 1930, he moved to Houston. Mr. Josey acquired extensive holdings in the East Texas oil fields and held those until his death in 1954.
Even though Mr. Josey moved to Houston, he never forgot about his hometown of Huntsville. He performed many services and gave much to the town through his philanthropic work. In 1933, he donated $2500 for the creation of a new loanable fund to Sam Houston Teachers College to aid students who were trying to acquire a higher education, but lacked the funding necessary, especially during the era of the Great Depression. The fund was named “The E.T. and Melissa Josey Loan Fund”, in honor of his mother and father. Mr. Josey was quoted as saying:
“People have been forced by the happenings of the recent past few years to curtail their allowable expenditures for educational purposes. I believe that the maintenance of our civilization and the continued enjoyment of its benefits require educational training It is more than an individual question; it is a social question. I desire some part in encouraging the continued attendance of young people upon our schools and colleges. That the opportunity exists in Huntsville affords me much pleasure.”
In 1933, a local group headed by Tom Ball, (a thrice former Huntsville mayor, prominent local banker, and former U.S. congressman, for whom the city of Tomball was named) , asked Mr. Josey to help in the project to construct a building for the Boy Scouts. He happily agreed to help and sent Mr. Ball a letter giving him and the committee $10,000 for purchase of the land and construction of the lodge. The material for the construction was donated by J. P. Gibbs of Gibbs Brothers and Co. and included logs and stones from local forests and quarries. Lewis. E. Meekins of Austin was hired as contractor to build the log cabin style lodge designed by architect Mike Mebane and based on a scale model made by the Scouts themselves. The structure was built in 75 days as a Civil Works Administration project with a construction team of about 50 local men* and finished in 1934. The CWA provided additional funds for construction of the building, $8,000 for labor costs and $2,000 for materials.* The CWA was headed in Huntsville by

October 22: Computer Lab (Dreamweaver)

After two classes periods of working with Dreamweaver, my major concern with creating a website with the program is that I don't really know how to use it. I guess I understand the basics like creating rows and columns and creating links, but I seem to get confused in the spacing of the stuff I want to put on it. I seem to just get lost with all the buttons and precise measurements stuff. Nevertheless, I do enjoy trying to learn it and I think working with it is pretty interesting. Creating the site will be a good way for me to break my paper down into specific parts by creating the different links or pages.

October 20: Rountable Discussion

Title of Project: The Josey Boy Scout Lodge

Summary: My paper will be about the donation to the Walker County Boy Scouts of the lodge and surrounding area by Robert A. Josey. Main points in the paper will be how the lodge has served the Boy Scout organization in Huntsville, the principles the organization teaches to the Scouts, and the service the Scouts provide the city with. So far I have a lot of basic information about the lodge and the Boy Scouts from when I did the park project. I have a lot of newspaper clippings, obituaries, and a handout given at the dedication ceremony that is word for word Josey's speech he gave at the ceremony. I also have a lot of photos from the National Park project. I have met a Scoutmaster from one of the local troops, Mr. Smith, who will let me take a look at a scrapbook that the Scouts have at the lodge, but I yet to hear back from him. He has also told me about a book called Sam Houston Scouts: A History of Scouting in the Sam Houston Area Council. Also, I might go to see Mac Woodward to see what kind of information he might have on the lodge. I have a big newspaper clipping from the day after the lodge was dedicated that has a lot of good information and quotes to use in the paper. I think this will prove to be a valuable resource in writing this paper.

My thesis statement will be as follows: "His gift, the Robert A. Josey Boy Scout Lodge , gave the Boy Scouts of Walker County and surrounding areas, a place to hold their meetings and practice Scout skills. To this day, 75 years later, the Josey Lodge remains a Huntsville landmark, continuing to serve as a cherished meeting house for the Boy Scouts of Walker County.

Sources Examined:
1. McCormick, Harry" Robert A. Josey's Beautiful Gift to the Boy Scouts." The Houston Press, June 18, 1934

2. "Huntsville is Grateful To Houstonian for Its Fine Boy Scout Lodge" Houston Post, December 21, 1935.

3.Walker County Geneaogical Society and Walker County Historical Commission, Walker County Texas: A History

4. "Spindletop's R.A. Josey Dies at 83", The Houston Post, February 1,1954.


Outline:

I. Introduction
II. Body
A. The Background, Planning, and Construction of the Builiding.
of the Building.
B. Robert A. Josey's contributions and family history.
C. Detail of the structure and activities held there.
D. History of Scouts in the Huntsville area.
E. How the Scouts serve Huntsville.
F. Prominent local scouts.
III. Conclusion: How this simple investment has paid back the community. Robert Josey's service to Huntsville.