Noel P. Amstead was born on December 15, 1895 in Austin, Texas. His father, Joe Amstead Sr., was the proprietor of the Cuban Cigar Manufacturing Company in Austin. He mother was Maggie Schroeder Amstead. Noel was active in the Boy Scouts of America and worked as an Assistant Scoutmaster and Scoutmaster for the organization. He is credited for being involved in the Field Day event at Pease Park with Austin Troop #1 on February 12, 1916. Amstead married Martha Boerner in the early 1920s. Martha was born in Travis County on December 31, 1897. She worked as the treasurer of the Texas Congress of Parents & Teachers for much of her career.
Martha died January 25, 1989 and Noel followed her on December 31, 1992.
The collection consists of a combination of personal items and materials related to the Boy Scouts of central Texas. Among the personal items are family photographs, some of which were taken at 503 W. 15th Street, the house next door to where Noel grew up. The majority of the correspondence is from Noel to Martha Boerner during the years 1917-1921, the time period directly preceding their marriage. Additionally there are multiple newspaper clippings about the death of Capt. George H. Cantrell in 1925. Lastly, there are membership cards certifying Noel's membership in the Alpha Ro Chapter of Alpha Phi Omega in the 1930s and three unidentified metal identification tags.
The Boy Scouts series contains a scrapbook of newspaper clippings about Boy Scout events and news in the Austin area from 1922-1927. There is also a folder of newspaper clippings that are organized by month for the year 1928 that were most likely intended to be part of the scrapbook. Some of the pages of the scrapbook were in poor condition and those pages were photocopied to preserve the information and added to the collection. Also included are photographs of Boy Scout events taken in the 1910s and 1930s. In addition there are membership cards certifying Noel's membership in the Austin Area (Capitol Area) Council of the Boy Scouts of America.
This record series is indexed under the following controlled access subject terms.
Open to all users.
None.
Materials were dontated by Helga Curtis, who found them in a garage.
Noel P. Amstead Papers (AR.2009.069). Austin History Center, Austin Public Library, Texas.
Donor #: DO/2009/057
Donation Date: 2009
Scrapbook is in very poor condition and is in the queue to be preservation photocopied and will be discarded once this project is complete.