Gilbert, Frank T.  "Historic Sketches of Walla Walla, Whitman, Columbia and
Garfield Counties, Washington Territory; and Umatilla County, Oregon." Portland,
OR: Print & Lithographing House of A.  G.  Walling, 1882.  p. a35.

JOHN SCOTT

	lives upon a farm seven miles east of Walla Walla, W.  T., just at the base
of the Blue mountains.  It is a pleasantly located home among the hills, where a
large family has grown or is growing up, to remember in time that the sad,
pathetic little song by Howard Payne, has a lodgment in the human heart that
grows stronger with each passing year of life.  In the life of the writer it has
never been his experience to have met, in another nook of the world, a family so
large with so little discord, so much of all the qualities that make home happy
; a place to each more attractive than strange lands, the glitter of a city
life, or the gilded enchantment lent by distance to the outside world.  The
father of this family was born in Belmont county, Ohio, May 13, 1816.  In 1828
he removed with his parents to Monroe county, Ohio, where in 1836, on the 28th
of April, he was married to Miss Mary Edwards, of Washington county, in the same
State.  In the fall of 1849 he removed to VanBuren county, Iowa, from there to
Corydon, Wayne county, and in the spring of 1857 to Paris, Linn county, Kansas.
At Paris he became a hotel keeper, and for a year made money, when the Kansas
troubles started afresh between the Republican and Pro-Slavery parties, and
there followed a season of incipient war that was the forerunner or initiation
of the Great Rebellion, which followed in 1861.  Keeping a hotel, on occasions,
became a busy life, more exciting than profitable.  As a sample: Montgomery, the
Republican leader, came to Mr. Scott's place and ordered breakfast for a company
of sixty men, and paid for the same by neither hanging the proprietor, nor
burning his property, the honor of their presence being his only reward.  When
the time approached for the election of 1860, Mr. Scott concluded he would seek
for his family a section less liable to political convulsion, and consequently
moved to Clay county, Missouri, calculating to return when the impending storm
had passed.  The election, instead of bringing quiet, inaugurated the Civil War
; and he, being a Union man, was obliged to leave Missouri in the fall of 1861,
in the night with his family, abandoning his property to whoever chose to take
possession of it.  His next temporary home was in Corydon, Wayne county, Iowa,
from where the next May (1862), he started to cross the plains, and after a six
months' journey arrived in Grand Ronde valley, where he wintered, and reached
Walla Walla in the spring of 1863.  The journey across the continent was a long,
tedious, exhausting one, and when Grand Ronde was finally reached, Mr. Scott
found himself forced to begin life anew in a strange land.  To help him at the
outset he had neither money nor provisions, but had bad health, a sick son, a
ready helpmate, a willing and industrious family of children, energy, and
ability.  With these the future was brighter with hope than was the past with
its misfortunes.  A homestead claim was soon taken up within a mile north of his
present residence.  Success crowned their efforts, and with the years came
prosperity, until the homestead has grown to an 800-acre farm.  It is all fenced
and all under cultivation, except 40 acres of timber land.  The improvements can
be best appreciated by reference to the view of same accompanying this work.
	The children of Mr. and Mrs. Scott are all living, except their daughter
Margaret E., who married George Wagoner and died in Benton county, Oregon, in
January, 1880.  Their living family consists of Harriet R., married to Seth
Ferrel, living in Tehama county, California ; Rachel, married to John S.  Mann,
living in Kansas ; Minerva A., married to William Mahar, living in Walla Walla
county, W.  T.  ; Mary F., wife of Bennett Witt (See view of his farm).  Their
boys are William J., Isaac N., Sardine C., Abijah W.  Byron A., and Charles W.
All of these live, either at home or near by, the first and third named being
married. In 1878 four of them raised 15,000 bushels of wheat and 2,000 bushels
of oats, besides doing enough work with their machinery for neighbors to leave
them $300 more than enough to pay for all their hired help. all of them work
together as one family, keeping no account of time, nor thinking of asking from
the others pay for what they do.  Mr. Scott has twice been elected by the
Democrats to represent Walla Walla county in the Territorial Legislature.

* * * *

Submitted to the WA.  Bios Project in February 2007 by Diana Smith.

Notice: These biographies were transcribed for the Washington Biographies
Project.  Unless otherwise stated, no further information is available on the
individual featured in the biographies.