Joe Spangler Haskell was one of the first Eagle Scouts in Chattanooga and was one of two Chattanoogans to attend the 1920 World Jamboree.  He was born July 10, 1904 to Evan Charles Haskell and Fannie Mayo Haskell (nee Brassell).

In October 1919, Haskell was among those that made "the first demonstration hike of the fall" to Camp Raccoon where a number of boys were examined.  There, Joe passed the examination in first aid, signaling, tracking, scout's pace, fire making and cooking, which completed his second-class examination.

As a Star Scout in Troop 1, Joe Haskell (along with Life Scout Robert Sims of St. Elmo Troop 19) was selected to represent the Chattanooga Council at the 1920 World Jamboree at no expense.  The boys were selected to participate based on merit, a practice many Councils participated in, so that only Scouting’s best would be present.

The Scouts received a brand-new uniform of the latest design and complete new equipment.  Haskell, a fifteen-year-old freshman at Chattanooga High School, was the highest ranking Scout in the city because Eagle Scout Richard Savory (Savery) was in Michigan and Eagle Scout Paul Bush was in Mexico.

On June 30, 1920, Haskell and Sims left for New York, from where they sailed for England.  They joined the other American Scouts in New York on July 2, and travelled to Fort Hamilton where they were outfitted and trained, and then sailed on July 5 to England on the transport Pocahontas, which was furnished by the government without cost to the boys.

While in New York, the boys paraded up Fifth Avenue to Sheeps Meadow in Central Park with a fifty-five piece Boy Scout band from Denver in the lead. The drum major was only thirteen years old. The scouts passed in review before Col. Colin H. Livingstone, president of the Boy Scouts of America; Maj. Lorillard, chairman of the reception committee; and Borough President Henry H. Curran, who welcomed the boys to the city. Dr. John H. Finley, state commissioner of education, was also in the reviewing party.  Curran told the boys that he hoped America would never again have to prepare for war, but if that time came, it was these boys that one day might have to fight. With that end in mind, Curran said he knew the scouts would uphold the military and athletic traditions of the United States, urging them to ‘lick everybody’ they met in the competition at the Jamboree. The Scouts dined that evening at the Waldorf-Astoria.

The participation fee was $200, but Haskell’s fellow troop members at First Baptist Church donated his expenses. Of the nearly 310,000 Boy Scouts in America, Haskell and Sims were two of only 304 to participate in the Olympia, England Jamboree, which ran from July 30 to August 7, 1920.  The boys enjoyed the greatest Scouting event that had ever taken place, the first World Jamboree.In September 1920, Haskell described to a local church group his visit to London and subsequent visits to the battlefields of France and Belgium.Joe's father, Charles, was later Scoutmaster to the 1929 World Jamboree.Joe went to Harvard medical college and Loma Linda Medical college of California and for a while was associated with the City health department of Los Angeles.Joe Haskell married Ethel Mae Andre and had 3 children.  He died in 1986 in or near Florence, Montana.

1920-06-30 - High Honor for Scout Haskell

1920-07-26 - Boy Scouts in London En Route to Jamboree

1933-10-21 - Joe Haskell Princetonian Med