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Joseph Scott
Born March 12, 1831 |
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Among the many men who have witnessed the rapid and steady development of Jones county from its early days is Joseph Scott. He was born in Crawfordsville, Montgomery county, Indiana, March 12, 1831, and was but six years old when his parents, Pryor and Ruth (Caraway) Scott, came to lowa. They reached Cedar county, May 10, 1837, exchanging a home in a country that was just emerging from its primitive state for one in which man had at that time done little toward reclaiming from its savage condition or toward wresting from the aborigines to whom it originally belonged. The mother who lived to be seventy years old, saw these conditions vanish and modern comforts supplant the hardships of early days, and when her husband died, aged eighty-nine years, nine months, and eight days, progress had advanced many stages farther-the wilderness bad become a flourishing agricultural district and pioneer days but a memory. Ten children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Scott, five sons and five daughters: Mrs. Margaret Allbaugh, of Mechanicsville, Iowa; Mrs. Mary Ellison, of Mt. Vernon, Iowa; Joseph, of this sketch; Henry, deceased; Mrs. Martha Mackey, of Mechanicsville; Jane, who died at the age of three years; Van, of Mechanicsville; Pryor, deceased; Andrew Jackson, deceased; and Mrs. Ruth Owens, of Benton county, Iowa.
Reared amid pioneer scenes, Joseph Scott might be said to have grown up with the country, to have progressed with its progress. He enjoyed but the most meager of educational advantages; hard experience was his best teacher and her lessons of industry and frugality have never been forgotten. They enabled him to acquire a homestead of two hundred and sixty-five acres on sections 34 and 35, Greenfield township, and to retain the twenty-five acres of the old family place in Cedar county. When modern machinery and improved methods lightened the burdens of the farmer, Mr. Scott availed himself of them, and his fields today are under as excellent a state of cultivation as are those of men of a younger generation.
In 1885 Mr. Scott married Miss Margaret Boyles, who was born April 4, 1832, and is a daughter of James and Nancy (Reed) Boyles, both now deceased. She was one of ten children, the others being: William Reed, deceased; Robert Alexander, also deceased; Thomas Jefferson, who resides in Mechanicsville, Iowa; Caroline, living near Anamosa; Scott, deceased; Lyman, deceased; James M., residing in Guthrie county, Iowa; Albert, deceased; and David, deceased. Two of the sons, Robert Alexander and James Madison were soldiers in the Union army during the Civil war. To Mr. and Mrs. Scott have also been born ten children, six sons and four daughters: James, residing in Hayes county, Nebraska, has seven children. Mrs. Laura J. Kohl lives in Mechanicsville and has five children. David W. is a resident of Laredo, Missouri. Mrs. Ruth Vanderbilt, living in Marion, Iowa, has ten children. One of her sons, Joseph, born October 13, 1882, was reared by his grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Scott. On the 21st Of March, 1906, he married Miss Bertha Robinson. Margaret L., the fifth of Mr. Scott's family, lives at home. Thomas J. resides in Cedar county and has one child. G. W. lives in Mechanicsville and has three children. Joseph R., died at the age of one year, two months and twenty-seven days. Mrs. Mary A. Pfeifer, residing in Johnstown, Nebraska, has had two children, one now deceased. Frank A., the youngest of this family, lives at home.
Mr. Scott is a firm democrat in his political views and always casts his ballot at elections. He is a member of Patmos Lodge, No. 155, A.F.&A.M., of Mechanicsville, and of lodge No. 166, I.0.0.F.. of the same town. With his wife and daughter Margaret he belongs to the Daughters of Rebekah and in former years was always a conspicuous figure at the social gatherings. A man who has wrested success from the most difficult of conditions, he well deserves the comforts he now enjoys. The people who have Witnessed his life as it has been lived from day to day, have seen the happiness that reigned in his home, do not begrudge him his prosperity, but rather trust that the remaining years of his life will be spent in greater peace, softened by warmer friendships. Mr. Scott is not a member of any church, but his wife is a devout Presbyterian.
Source: History of Jones County, Iowa, Past and Present, R. M. Corbitt, S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., Chicago, 1910, p. 622. |
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