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"Spokane and The Spokane Country - Pictorial and Biographical - Deluxe Supplement." Vol. II. The S.J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1912. (No author listed.) pgs. 170-174.
The spirit of enterprise must be the dominant factor in the life of an
individual who makes his way into a new and undeveloped country, willing to
meet the difficulties and hardships incident to its uphuilding in order to
enjoy the opportunities and advantages, there offered. Such a spirit was
possessed in large measure by Rudolph Bowman Scott, who became one of the best
known and most prominent men of the northwest. He possessed marked force of
character and left the impress of his individuality upon all public movements
or business concerns with which he became in any wise closely connected. He
therefore did much for the benefit of the Spokane country through his
activities in farming, real estate, mining, and fire and life insurance. He
arrived here in 1883, having made his way from Denver, Colorado, to Coeur
d'Alene three years before. His labors were therefore an effective force in
shaping the history of not only the western part of Washington but of the
state in general. He was an American of Indian, African and Scotch extraction.
His birth occurred in New Haven, Connecticut, November 16, 1846, and he came
of New England ancestry. His maternal grandfather was a Pequot Indian chief,
who married a Scotch woman and fought on the side of liberty throughout the
war of the Revolu-tion. His paternal grandfather was a West Indian African of
the Toussaint l'Ouverture stock and the son of a Barbadoes planter sent to New
Haven, Connecticut, to be educated at Yale College.
Rudolph B. Scott pursued a course of study in the Lancasterian School
of New Haven, Connecticut, where among his class-mates were four who afterward
became governors. He learned the trade of a wood carver in Chauncey Jerome's
clock manufacturing establish-ment in New Haven, Connecticut, but at the time
of the Civil war put aside all business and personal considerations to espouse
the cause of the Union. Already he had become deeply interested in political
questions and in the situation of the country prior to this time. He was a boy
when in 1859 Abraham Lincoln made campaign speeches throughout Connecticut and
in the celebration Mr. Scott carried a torch in the procession in New Haven.
He and a brother enlisted for service in the Civil war. He was in the North
Atlantic Squadron on board the United States gunboat Chicopee and was one of the men that volunteered to accompany Lieutenant Cushing when he blew up the
rebel ram Albemarle. At the capture of Plymouth, North Caroline [sic], Mr.
Scott was severely wounded. Following the close of the war he engaged in
mining in Colorado, New Mexico and Washington and was at one time connected
with the United States mail service, being United States mail agent from
Chicago, Illinois, to Danville, at the time of the historic republican
convention held in Chicago in 1880. While the three hundred and five delegates
stood solid for U. S. Grant for president Mr. Scott held back forty thousand
copies of the Cincinnati Enquirer which were full of abuse for General Grant
and were intended to flood Chicago and defeat Grant's nomination. The copies
did not arrive until the day after the convention, too late to harm his old
comrade.
Mr. Scott had an extended acquaintance among prominent men throughout
the country and was one of the leading representatives of the Grand Army of
the Republic, in the work and activities of which he took a very helpful part.
He served on the staff of Commander Cosgrove of the department of Washington
and Alaska, and was an aid-de-camp of the staff of Russell A. Alger,
commander-in-chief of the Grand Army of the Republic. He also served as chief
mustering officer of the department of Washington and Alaska and in 1893 was a
member of the council of administration while in 1894 he was a delegate from
Washington and Alaska to the twenty-fourth national encampment at Boston. He
served as inspector of the de-partment in 1890 and five years later as chief
mustering officer. At Seattle, he was elected junior vice commander of the
department of Washington and Alaska at the department encampment, on the 22d
of June, 1889. Mr. Scott was also a delegate from Spokane county to the state
convention that organized the state of Washington held at Walla Walla in
September, 1889, and was a delegate to the state convention held at Seattle to
elect delegates to the national convention at Minneapolis.
Mr. Scott came to the northwest in 1880 and spent three years in the
Coeur d'Alene mining country. In 1883 he arrived in Spokane and was one of the
first men to establish a fire and life insurance agency here, his company
paying all claims in the great fire of 1889. For several years he was manager
of the Pequot Mining & Milling Company of Spokane. He continued actively in
business until after the outbreak of the Spanish-American war, when he
enlisted at Seattle on the 25th of April, 1898, as a private of Company B,
First Washington Veteran Artillery, continuing with that command until
November 1, 1898, when by reason of the close of the war he was honorably
discharged at Seattle with the rank of first lieutenant. He was called to
public office in 1902 when appointment of President Roose-velt made him United
States Chinese inspector, which position he filled for four years, when in
1906 he resigned on account of ill health. It was three years later that he
passed away, his death occurring March 23, 1909.
Mr. Scott was survived by a widow and three children. On the 4th of
September, 1883, in Denver, Colorado, he had wedded Miss Adele A. Wagner, a
daughter of H. 0. and Susan (Lyons) Wagner. The father was a well known
character in the anti-slavery days in connection with his service in the
operation of the underground railroad. At one time at his home in Chicago he
entertained John Brown, the martyr of Harper's Ferry, and twelve fugitive
slaves, all of whom he assisted on their way to freedom in Canada. H. 0.
Wagner, Jr., a brother of Mrs. Scott, was for five years United States consul
at Lyons, France. Mrs. Scott was born in Chicago and by her marriage has
become the mother of two sons and a daughter: Rudolph B., a civil engineer in
the city service; Henry W., who is spending his time in Mexico and Panama; and
Addie S., at home. Mrs. Scott has been quite prominent in the Woman's Relief
Corps and was the patriotic instructor for the department of Washington and
Alaska which was installed June 22, 1899. She is also widely known in
connection with her work in the Independent Order of Foresters, being the
first vice chief ranger in the first companion court organized in the state of
Washington. For the past twelve years she has been its financial secretary and
in 1904 and 1905 was the department inspector.
In addition to Mr. Scott's connection with the Grand Army of the
Republic he was also prominent in various fraternal organizations. In Masonry
he attained the thirty-third degree of the Scottish Rite and he was also
widely known as a leading representative of the Independent Order of
Foresters being deputy supreme chief to Oronhyateka. the Mohawk Indian, who
is the supreme chief of the order. Mr. Scott represented Spokane in the high
council of the Independ-ent Order of Foresters in 1897, 1898 and 1899. He was
a personal friend of Chief Joseph, the great Indian chief of the Nez Perces
tribe, and went to Washington, D. C., in 1897, with Chief Joseph and his
chiefs to present their cause before the Indian commission and the president.
Again he accompanied them in 1900 and he did much to formulate public opinion
in favor of Chief Joseph during the past few years. He was major general of
the department of the northwest of the Union Veterans Union. His religious
faith was indicated by his membership in All Saints cathedral. He died March
23, 1909, and thus passed from the scene of earthly activities one who had
been a most unique and interesting figure on the stage of action in the
north-west. His character and reputation were alike above reproach. He was a
great reader and possessed a remarkable memory so that he could call to mind
at almost a moment's notice any of the important historical events which have
had to do with molding the department of the northwest. He was himself a great
lover of outdoor life and of nature. One of his marked characteristics was his
loyalty to his friends who could count upon him under any and all
circumstances. He ever held to the highest ideals yet was charitable in his
opinions of others and was always ready to extend a helping hand to uplift a
fellow traveler.
Submitted by: Nancy Pratt Melton
* * * * Notice: These biographies were transcribed for the Washington Biographies Project. Unless otherwise stated, no further information is available on the individuals featured in the biographies.