Draft:H Karl Butler

H Karl Butler memorial at Camp Manatoc

H Karl Butler was born in Akron, Ohio in 1822. He was the grandson of Edwin Merrill, an Akron clay products industrialist. Butler was born with Pott's disease which is tuberculosis of the spine. He was disabled, his back was deformed, he walked with a limp, and he suffered constant joint pain. He was a successful businessman, political aid, philanthropist, and a major benefactor to the Akron Area Council, Boy Scouts of America. He donated the land on which Akron Area Council (now Great Trail Council) built Camp Manatoc, which opened in 1923.

Butler grew up in Akron and acquired a love for camping and the outdoors through George Atwater, his pastor at the Church of Our Savior. Atwater created an organization for boys called the Young Crusaders. In 1900, Butler went on the group’s first campout, 10 years before Scouting existed in the US. David Atwater, who was George’s son, wrote in 1980: “I knew Mr. Karl Butler well and he always recalled that as a boy he went camping with my father, the Rev. George Atwater, who led an organization known as the Young Crusaders. The good times Karl Butler had there influenced him in his generosity to the Scouts and to [Camp] Manatoc.”

After attending Buchtel College (which later became the University of Akron), Butler became the personal aid to the senator from Ohio, Charles Dick. In 1905, Butler and his brother Merrill moved to Cuba to run a sugar plantation. He returned to Akron around 1912 and went to work in the clay products family business.

Butler enjoyed the outdoors and loved camping. In 1919, he purchased 200 acres of land near Peninsula, Ohio. He camped on the land and invited his friends as often as he could.

Merrill Butler, who then lived in California, was interested in Scouting. During a visit early in the 1920s, Merrill took Karl to visit Pasadena Council’s new camp, Cherry Valley on Santa Barbara Island.

The Boy Scouts of America was founded in 1910. In 1914, Akron Ohio had a Scout Council, and in 1916, hired a professional. Scouting grew quickly in Akron, because Akron grew quickly as the “Rubber Capital of the World.” As the number of Scouts grew, so did the need for a camp. A special committee was organized to find land for a camp, but it was unsuccessful. The committee explained their situation to a group of prominent Akron leaders. One of those leaders was Parke Kolbe, the President of the University of Akron and Karl Butler’s close friend. Kolbe mentioned the need for a camp to Butler, who offered the use of his land near Peninsula, just north of Akron, in what is now the Cuyahoga Valley National Park.

Camp Manatoc officially opened on Butler’s property in 1923 with some 50 boys. “Manatoc” means “a high outlook” or “high plateau” in Algonquin, and at that time was a place where there was a spectacular view of the Cuyahoga River Valley.

By 1924, Butler had set up a camp near the dining hall and stayed in it many nights. Garland Christian remembered Butler in camp that summer: “He was a nice man and very polite and he would talk to you and treat you nice. I remember he sat in some kind of chair because of his back. I don’t believe he had full use of his legs if I remember right. I don’t know whether we had wheelchairs in those days. But he was in some kind of a cart of something that would get him around. And he stayed there in his own tent. Obviously, he didn’t get around much because of his condition. He just would sit a lot. But every once in a while, he’d come down to the parade grounds when they were having retreat or something special and he would make his appearance. It was always ‘Mr. Butler.’ We never called him Karl.”

Butler died in 1926. In his will, he left the camp property (by then, 414 acres) to the Akron Area Council, but with a condition. Butler required the council to raise $100,000 within five years to expand and improve the quality of the camp. Specifically, the provision was that the council could buy the land for one dollar if it could raise the $100,000 in five years. If not, the council would be required to purchase the land from the estate. Plans were quickly underway to raise the money. In 1929, the Great Depression devastated the American economy hindering fundraising.

By 1931, the leaders of the council realized that despite the economy, they needed to move forward with raising the $100,000 or lose the camp property. They also realized that they had outgrown the present camp and needed to build an entirely new one, which would be located on the southern part of the property. The three major Akron rubber companies (Goodyear, Firestone, and Goodrich) contributed the entire $100,000 with the stipulation that the councils raise and additional $125,000, giving the council at least $225,000 to build a new camp. The campaign was successful and raised more than enough to build the second Camp Manatoc, which was dedicated in June 1932.