There probably would not be the Girl Scouts of America if not for Ambrose Gordon of Augusta. He and his wife, Betsey, had a son, William Washington Gordon, who had a son, William Washington Gordon II, who had a daughter, Juliette Magill Gordon, who became the founder of the Girl Scouts of America.

Ambrose was born June 28, 1751, on a farm in New Jersey. He served in the Southern campaign of the Revolutionary War and liked the South so much, he moved to Augusta after the war. He married on May 31, 1787 to Augustan Betsey Mead.

One of his greatest honors came when Augusta, then capital of Georgia, was visited in April 1791 by President George Washington. Ambrose, then a major, was assigned by the state government to lead a welcoming party to greet the president on the edge of town and escort him into the city.

Ambrose and Betsey's son, William Washington Gordon, became the first Georgian to graduate from the U.S. Army's military academy at West Point and mayor of Savannah. His granddaughter, Juliette, married William Low. She founded the Girl Guides of America in 1912. It became the Girl Scouts of America a year after its founding.