Monday marked 100 years to the day since Boy Scout Troop 111 was chartered in Gloucester, and dozens of past and current members of area Boy Scout and Cub Scout troops congregated at the troop’s log cabin on Main Street on Saturday to celebrate the historic milestone.

Troop 111 was chartered on Oct. 14, 1919 by Ware Episcopal Church and what is now Grace Covenant Church. President Woodrow Wilson even signed the troop’s charter, which survives to this day.

In 1910, Chicago-based publisher William Boyce would start the organization we now know as the Boy Scouts. At the time there were numerous outdoor-oriented clubs and organizations for boys and young men based on the British model of scouting, though they were more loosely organized than Boyce’s outfit would come to be.

The establishment of a national office, recruitment of young professionals from the YMCA organization, and the writing of a handbook laid a foundation for the group. A subsequent congressional char...