Clay Co., KS AHGP-Portrait and Biographical Album of Washington, Clay and Riley Counties-John R. Scott
Portrait and Biographical Album of Washington, Clay and Riley Counties Chapman Brothers, Chicago, 1890
JOHN R. SCOTT, Manager of the Dispatch,
published at Clay Center, is regarded by the
citizens of Clay Center and vicinity, as a
gentleman of sterling worth, upright and
trustworthy, and is justly held in high esteem. His
business qualifications are only equalled by those
which constitute the most desirable elements in a
citizen and a member of society. A native of St.
Lawrence County, N. Y., Mr. Scott was born Aug.
22, 1862, and is the son of James S. and Margaret
H. (Bishop) Scott.
This branch of the Scott family is of Scotch-
Irish descent, but for many generations have been
residents of the United States, most of them living
in Pennsylvania, where the grandfather of our subject,
William Scott, was born in Beaver County.
He there spent his lifetime on a farm, dying about
the year 1861. His wife was a Miss Young, who
passed away a few years prior to the decease of her
husband. They had a family of five sons and three
daughters, one daughter dying about the time
of reaching womanhood. Robert G., a farmer in
McDonough County, Ill., died about the year 1875.
James S. Scott departed this life July 18, 1889.
Five of his children yet survive. William is farming
in Dakota; David is pursuing agriculture near Page
City, Iowa; John Y. is a machinist, and lives at
Parsons, this State; Elizabeth is the wife of Andrew
Waterson, a farmer at Beaver, Pa.; Rebecca is the
wife of David McKeague, who is farming near
Beaver Falls, Pa. James S. Scott was born in
Beaver County, Pa., Aug. 8, 1823, and received his
early education in the common schools of his native
county, which he attended until he was seventeen
years old. He then began an apprenticeship at
blacksmithing, at which he worked for about four
years. Desiring, however, to obtain a better education,
he left his trade and entered the University
of Western Pennsylvania, at Pittsburg, of which he
was a student four years, being graduated in 1848.
Next he entered the Theological Seminary of the
Reformed Presbyterian Church, at Philadelphia,
where he fitted himself for the ministry, and in the
spring of 1851 was licensed to preach. He spent
one year in the home mission work in what was
then the Western States�Ohio, Indiana, Illinois,
etc.
In November, 1852, Mr. Scott was married to
Miss Prudence Morrow, and they settled in Monmouth,
Ill., where he was stationed as pastor of
the Reformed Presbyterian Church. He remained
with that charge until 1859, and in the meantime
his wife. Prudence, died in less than a year after
their marriage. In November, 1854, Mr. Scott was
again married. Miss Margaret H. Bishop becoming
his wife. In 1859, Mr. Scott returned from his native
county, and again for a year engaged in mission
work. In the spring of 1861 he removed to
St. Lawrence County, N. Y., where he supplied two
churches.
Mr. Scott continued this work in the Empire
State until 1869, when he returned to Beaver
County, Pa., where he left his family while he came
to Kansas, at the request of the Western Presbytery.
He did not intend to make his home in this
State, but the Presbyterians were so urgent in their
call for his services that he set aside his own inclinations,
and in 1870 returned to Kansas with his
family, and took up one of the first homesteads
entered on the uplands, about four miles south of
Clay Center. There he built a house and reared
his family, and there made his home until his
death. For sixteen years after coming to Kansas
he was stated supply of the Republican City Church,
his connection with it continuing until 1886, when
he gave up regular pulpit work, often, however,
preaching for other pastors.
For many years Mr. Scott was a sufferer from
muscular rheumatism, but notwithstanding this
drawback he accomplished much literary work
in addition to his regular pastoral duties. Among
other things, he compiled a song book, with music,
and a translation of the Book of Psalms from the
Hebrew, both of which were completed a short time
before his death. Before, and during the War of
the Rebellion, he wrote much on the subject of
slavery, of which he was a bitter opponent. His
strong expressions of opinion on this subject sometimes
got him into difficulty, he being compelled to
leave one church on account of his strong antislavery
sentiments. To all the leading questions
of the day he gave much study and thought. He
was a man of decided convictions on all questions
of right and wrong, and his influence was always
cast on the side of the weak and the oppressed.
Upright and conscientious in all his acts, his character
was above reproach, and the esteem of his fellow-
men was his in a marked degree, even of
those who differed with him on questions of policy.
By his first marriage James S. Scott became the
father of one child, Elizabeth, now the wife of
James Chesnut, a farmer of Blaine Township,
Clay County. Of his second marriage there were
horn ten children, one of whom, Andrew Riley,
died in infancy. The nine living are: Margaret
R., the wife of G. H. Fullington, the present
County Treasurer; Agnes J., wife of R. C. Hall, a
farmer of Rock County, Neb.; Mary E., wife of
Rudolph Trechsel, a farmer of Blaine Township;
William E., a farmer of Ellis County, this Slate,
and who married Clara E. Foote ; John R., the subject
of this sketch; Helen M. and James S., living
with their mother; Viola J., the wife of John Chestnut,
Deputy Sheriff, and a farmer of Blaine Township;
and Addie Bella, living with her mother.
When his parents came to this State. John R.
Scott was a lad eight years of age. He commenced
his education in the district school, and worked on
the home farm until reaching his majority. Later,
he attended the High School, in Clay Center, from
which he was graduated in 1886. He then entered
the office of Stratton & Morgan, Abstracters,
with whom he staid one year, and then spent the
following year in another office in the same business.
He then established an office of his own, but
closed it nine months later and engaged with Mr.
William Docking. Upon the latter assuming control
of the Dispatch, he made Mr. Scott its editor
and manager, a position which he is now filling
creditably to himself and satisfactorily to all concerned.
He is a member of the Reformed Presbyterian
Church, of Republican City, and since his
residence in Clay Center, has been a supply teacher
in the Sabbath-school of the Presbyterian Church.