Scott Ancestors

Before our recent trip to Oklahoma I had learned that some of my ancestors, Dr. Solomon Johnson Scott and his son, Stacey Reeves Scott were buried in two cemeteries I would be passing near.  Dr. Solomon Johnson Scott, who was my great, great, great grandfather was buried in a rather large cemetery in Sherman, Texas, but because of directions given to me by a previous researcher, I was able to find his resting place without much trouble.

On the other hand, finding Stacey Reeves Scott and his family in the Old Town Cemetery in McAlester, Oklahoma was not quite as easy.

Gail volunteered to help me and we must have made quite a spectacle dashing from one monument to the next.  It reminded me of the final scenes in “The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly” when Lee Van Cleef and Eli Wallach were running through the battlefield cemetery looking for the grave with the gold in it.  After about half an hour or so, our efforts paid off and we found Stacey Reeves Scott and some of his family.

Only about 50 miles separated the final resting places of father and son.

Solomon’s other son William Addison Scott, stayed in Iowa and married my great, great grandmother, Martha C. Cooper.  William and Martha had three children, William Hamline, Martha Ann (my great grandmother), and Charles Wesley who only lived a few days.  I mention this because I found this interesting obituary for William Hamline Scott.

William Hamline Scott lived in Mt. Ayr, Iowa and was married to Florence Belle Glendenning but at some point he left her for a much younger, under age girl. He later wanted to come back and Florence wouldn't have him.

The Mount Ayr Record-News,  May 27, 1925

DESPONDENCY CAUSES SUICIDE

Lifeless Body of W. H. SCOTT Found by Neighbor Yesterday.

The lifeless body of W. H. SCOTT, for more than a third of a century a respected citizen of Ringgold county, was found yesterday afternoon about three o'clock in the woodshed at his home in the SWANK property in west Mount Ayr, where it had lain for several days. The body was first discovered by Mrs. Rachel OLNEY, the next door neighbor, who reported to J. E. WOOD, and Sheriff STEPHENS and Dr. Samuel BAILEY, county coroner, were called. A .38-calibre "Special" Smith & Wesson revolver, which lay beside the body with one hand still resting on the grip, showed that death had been self-inflicted and a note found on the table in the dining room left no doubt that despondency had led the man to take his own life. The note read as follows:

"May 26 - I have got to the place where life is a torment.  I am completely broken down in body and mind. I have not been right for the past month. I would far rather be dead than to be alive in the condition I am in. So don't worry. Think it for the best. Goodbye."

The note lay on the table in the dining room, in the open tablet where it had evidently been written by the light of a lamp which sat near by.  Relatives were notified and the body was taken to the Rhoades undertaking parlors, where it was prepared for burial. The funeral was held this afternoon at the undertaking parlors, conducted by Rev. Jay Kirkendall, pastor of the Methodist church, and the interment was in Rose Hill cemetery.

Mr. Scott was a man of quiet and unassuming disposition and although he had resided in Mount Ayr for two years had formed few acquaintanceships. Most of his time was spent at his home, where he had a good garden. He was industrious and to all appearances was content to live a quiet and secluded life.

Mr. Scott was born March 20, 1856, at Glenwood, Iowa, the son of Dr. W. A. Scott.  In childhood he moved with his parents to Marion county, Iowa, where he grew to manhood.  About forty years ago he came to Ringgold county, settling in the Redding vicinity, and thirty-two years ago was united in marriage with Miss Belle Glendenning.  For many years Mr. and Mrs. Scott lived in the vicinity of Redding and Delphos.

Nelson Mason, a nephew of Mr. Scott, now serving as secretary to Senator Frazier of North Dakota, was reared in their home and they became the foster parents of two daughters of Mr. Mason whose mother passed away several years ago. The daughters make their home with Mrs. Scott at Oskaloosa and last fall visited at the home of their foster father in this city.

A few days before his death Mr. Scott filed in the office of the clerk of the district court a will, which was today opened and read. The will leaves to Mrs. Scott the use of his property until her death when it goes to the daughters of Mr. Mason.

Monkey On My Back

As I get older I become increasingly aware of my own naiveté.  I was raised to believe in the old fashion traits of honesty, integrity, industry, and perseverance, rules I have tried, not always successfully, to live by.  While I was doing this, it now seems that my elected representatives have been blatantly ignoring these rules and setting themselves up at my expense!

When I was a teenager, government jobs were a “fallback” position, something you undertook if nothing else was available.  Never did I realize that, with the help of unionization, these government jobs would mature into little pockets of self interest where nepotism, self-promotion, corruption, and greed would proliferate to produce windfalls of benefits!

Lifetime medical coverage after only minimal investiture, retirement income that often exceeds income from working years, severance packages that may include payment for unused “sick days” that often amount to tens of thousands of dollars!  The list goes on and on but the results are the same, higher taxes for those of us who work in the private sector.  From my own experience, I have learned that it is not unusual for government workers to promote each other just prior to retirement so that they can collect retirement benefits from a higher base position!

If you are in the private sector, you have watched your IRA’s dwindle with the stock market crash and stood by helplessly as the government denied you your social security “cost of living” raise.  Not so for government employees.  Even though their retirement funds are invested in the stock market also, they will not take the same cuts as you and I.  The government will maintain their standard of living out of what the private sector has remaining, through higher taxation.

This situation is a travesty and will only be corrected by a complete market crash or a total devaluation of the dollar and I hope to see it come about.  My government should work for me, not the other way around.  I’m sick of this one-sided love affair.  Government, get off my back!

As a side note:  I see triple digit inflation on the horizon.  The only way we will ever get out from under the national debt is to pay it off with cheap worthless dollars!  Get rid of your dollars, buy a railroad or something.

Utopia

I have a problem with college professors who remain safely hidden behind the ivy covered walls of academia and have never had to deal in the real world.  These are the same people, lacking life experience, who are teaching our children!  Is it any wonder there are so many student protests about our country’s involvement in international disputes?  “Peace not War” is what they preach to our children.  It’s a utopian and lofty ideal, but not realistic.

Utopia is a lonely place.  It can only exist where there is a solitary soul.  If there is more than one person, one of them will invariably have more than the other.  When that condition exists the weaker will covet the stronger and try to make conditions equal.  Maybe it’s a natural law like in the world of physics where everything tends to equilibrium, or maybe its just plain old greed, but in either case this state of equilibrium is the goal of commune-ism.

“All for one and one for all.”  It worked well for the Three Musketeers, but in the real world, liberalism taken to that extreme will not work!  Unless you are willing to give up what you have to anyone who asks for it, you will create dissention.  The minute you say “NO” to somebody you have established dissention and it will grow.  Your only hope at this point is your ability to defend yourself.

The same rules apply when human groups become larger.  There will always be at least two factions in any society, and they will only exist in harmony as long as the rules of civilization are in place and enforced.  Imagine, for a moment, what would happen if we were suddenly without laws or regulation.  Do you think there would be roving bands of thugs roaming around taking what they want?  You can count on it.  This is exactly what happened during the middle ages when the Romans pulled out of central Europe.

When human groups are large, they are called countries and the dissentions between them become wars.  Just like the roving bands of thugs, there is always a country ready to move in when they detect a weakness in their neighbor.  Witness the Japanese invasion of China in 1931 and 1937,

Japanese troops in Manchuria

the 1939 attack on Poland by the Germans,

German Blitzkrieg on Polish column

or the North Korean invasion of South Korea in 1950.

Fighting in the streets of Seoul, South Korean

  The list is long and examples permeate modern history, but the point is the same.  If you are not willing to fight for what you have then you will not have it long.