MONTAGUE — “A Boy Scout hero who gave his life for another” is enscribed on the gravestone of teenager Edward S. Goodnow, who died on Aug. 29, 1917, while saving another from drowning.
On Sunday, the Western Massachusetts Council of Boy Scouts of America will host the Edward S. Goodnow Centennial Court of Honor at 1 p.m. at Goodnow’s gravesite in the Locust Hill Cemetery, 540 Turners Falls Road.
According to researcher T. Gregory Motta, Goodnow was a 17-year-old Scout from Troop 14 in Springfield when he drowned in Enfield, Conn. After rescuing one drowning victim in Shaker Pond, Goodnow tried to rescue a second rescue and died in the attempt.
Young Goodnow’s death and the drowning deaths of three other Scouts in similar rescue attempts — deaths only two weeks apart — shocked the founders who had started Boy Scouts of America only seven years earlier. “It shocked them that, while they had motivated thousands of these boys to help other people at all times, suddenly these boys were dying in the effort.”
Working with the American Red Cross, Boy Scouts of America started requiring Boy Scouts to pass a swimming test and they went on to train and educate them on life-saving techniques, said Motta.
Goodnow and the other three boys who died trying to save drowning victims became the first four Scouts to receive the Boy Scouts’ first Gold Honor Award for heroism.
Motta said Goodnow was part of the Goodnow family that founded the Shelburne Falls cutlery that eventually became Lamson & Goodnow. He had just visited friends at Moore’s Corner (North Leverett) two weeks before he died, according to a 1917 Greenfield Recorder-Gazette article. The article said Goodnow had lived there “a few years ago.” In the Locust Hill Cemetery, Goodnow shares a gravestone with his father, who died in 1955.
Goodnow had a twin sister, Ruth, whose two sons, now aged 91 and 94, will be attending this ceremony. Motta, who will be speaking at the ceremoney, believes the Goodnows may bring a photo of Edward Goodnow and his gold medal to the event. The family has recently paid to have the gravestone engraved with the epitaph: “A Boy Scout Hero Gave His Life for Another.”
The local Boy Scout Council has issued a special limited addition Council Shoulder Patch to commemorate the occasion (100 have been issued, at $15 each).
The ceremony will be less than an hour long, and there will be a reception afterward at the Community Room of the Montague Police Department, about three miles north of the cemetery.