SAMUEL EGNEW SCOTT. A quiet and honored citizen of Jack county whose baronial possessions on Ten Mile lie on both sides of the common boundary of Jack and Clay counties comprising a farm and ranch—one of the chief estates of that beautiful, undulating prairie—is Samuel E. Scott, whose advent to the county dates from the year 1875 and whose achievements here mark him as one of the factors instrumental in bringing to the county its present state of domestic development. First as a settler on Crooked creek, where he improved what is now the Pickett farm, and then to the grassy sward of Ten Mile, we find in him and in his progeny a citizenship worthy of public confidence and greatly to be desired.
Mr. Scott is one of those settlers who came to Texas by degrees and stages, having begun his journey and having stopped some years in the state of Arkansas, residing in Saline and other counties, and on coming to this state stopped for a brief time in Tarrant county, engaging in the pursuits of the farm at the various points while so en route. His birth occurred in York district, South Carolina, January 22, 1844, a grandson of the Irishman from Bellewana, John Scott, who founded the family in the Palmetto state during the days of slave-owning and the moneyed aristocrats of the south. A Miss Egnew became the wife of John Scott and their children were: William, who died in South Carolina; Samuel, Mary and Sarah, all died unmarried; and John, the father of our subject.
John Scott Jr. was about fourteen years of age when the family left Erin’s Isle and he passed his youth on a slave-burdened plantation, yet learning the shoemaker’s trade. He became a planter himself, in time owned slave labor and won substantial results by his efforts in the several walks of life. He married Sarah White, who died in Arkansas in 1859, passing away in Dallas county, while he himself died in Prairie county, in 1858. Of their issue, Mary passed away unmarried; Amelia is a resident of Bowie, Texas; Nancy, wife of W. L. Smith, of Jack county; Ada, widow of F. G. Brantsford, of Newport, Texas; and Samuel E., the third child and subject of this notice.
Having been taken into Arkansas Mr. Scott was brought up amidst the primitive conditions of that state and his advantages for an education were of the most meager sort. He managed to learn to read and write. He enlisted in Company C, Third Texas Cavalry, having come to the Lone Star state in 1859 and stopped in Cherokee county. His colonel was Greer and his regiment was under Gen. McCulloch. He fought at Wilson Creek, and Elkhorn, crossed the Mississippi in 1862 and participated in the battles of Corinth and Iuka, the Chickamauga and helped to recover the Confederate retreat to Atlanta. He took part in the Atlanta campaign and when the city fell he returned north with Hood and helped fight the battle of Franklin and on this march was taken prisoner and incarcerated at Camp Morton, Indiana, and there held to the end of the war. He reached home, in Arkansas, in May, 1865, and resumed civil pursuits there as a farmer until 1874, when he brought his family to Texas and made his temporary stop in Tarrant county.
He began at the bottom of the ladder, after the war, as was the rule with the rank and file of the Confederate soldiers, had not even a change of clothes. There was nothing left him but his muscle and an ample stock of industry to work it and this resource has been ever present since and is responsible for his favorable financial condition today. He brought little to Jack county with him beyond a team and wagon and the fifteen hundred acre farm which he now possesses speaks in meaning terms of his achievements on Texas soil.
Mr. Scott was first married in Arkansas, January 10, 1869, to Miss Mary McKnight, who died after four years of married life. The two children of their union are: Emma, wife of W. S. Graves, of Lone Grove, Indian Territory, with children, Ollie, Rupert, Clinton, Noah; Adda Scott married James Daugherty, resides in Grayson county. For his second wife, whom he married in 1874, Mr. Scott chose Miss Mary Hayes, a daughter of John Hayes, of Tennessee. Of the children by this marriage, Lela married W. H. Boyd, resides at Carlsbad, New Mexico, and is the mother of Inoris; John, of Jack county, married Sallie Wells and has a son, Ford; Lee; Winifred, of Jack county, married Othello Nelson and has a daughter, Opal; Bertha, wife of J. D. Reeder, of Jack county, has no children, and Roscoe, Effie, Maud and Ruth complete the family circle.
Mr. Scott is a Democrat and a Missionary Baptist.
Source: B. B. Paddock, History and Biographical Record of North and West Texas (Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co., 1906), Vol. I, p. 556-557.