Biography of Andrew Scott, Arkansas

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Submitted by: Joy Fisher < >
        Date: 16 Dec 2007
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BIOGRAPHICAL AND PICTORIAL HISTORY OF ARKANSAS.
BY JOHN HALLUM.
VOL. I.
ALBANY: WEED, PARSON'S AND COMPANY, PRINTERS.
1887.

Entered according to act of Congress in the year eighteen hundred and eighty-seven,
BY JOHN HALLUM, 
In the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.


ANDREW SCOTT - SCOTIA, POPE COUNTY.

  About 1760, tradition says: An emigrant ship weighed anchor and hoisted sail at Sol
way, Scotland, bound for the English colonies in North America. On the deck of that ship
as she responded to the gale that filled her sails and rode the deep "like a thing of
life," stood William Scott and wife with tear-filled eyes and choking hearts as they cast
one long last lingering glance at the loved mountains of Scotland, that seemed to be
sinking into the sea and fading forever from the familiar sight of the emigrants. They
had several children with them and were candidates for favor and fortune in the new world
where toil is better rewarded than in either the high or low lands of Scotland.

  No true Scot ever bade farewell to Scotland without the generous tribute of a tear.

  "What woes wring my heart while intensely surveying
      The storm's glowing path on the breast of the waves;
    Ye foam crested billows allow me to wail,
      Ere ye toss me afar from my loved native shore."

  A sense of loneliness and oppression filled their minds, and burdened their hearts with
forebodings they could not shake off, which were, alas! too real and true.

  They died in mid-ocean, their bodies were wrapped in a winding sheet and committed to
the Atlantic in the presence of their weeping children, who were left penniless orphans
on the wave. The children were brought to New York and put on shore, without a known
friend on this side of the Atlantic. The public authorities took charge of and
apprenticed them to masters.

  At the expiration of his apprenticeship Andrew settled in Virginia, married Miss
Elizabeth Ferguson of Maryland, and on the 6th of August, 1788, was born unto them at
his homestead in Virginia a son whom he named Andrew, after himself.

  In 1808 the elder Scott with wife and children settled at St. Genevieve on the
Mississippi river in the then territory of Louisiana, afterward (1812) territory of
Missouri.

  The two brothers, John and Andrew Scott, inherited good intellects from their parents,
attended the common schools of that old French village and there laid the foundations of
their future career and usefulness.

  Each of these brothers married daughters of the celebrated John Rice Jones, one of the
judges of the superior court of Missouri, an extensive speculator in Spanish grants; he
moved to Texas, participated in her revolution and was the first postmaster-general of
the Republic of Texas. Judge Jones was the father of the celebrated George W. Jones,
delegate in congress from the territory of Michigan in 1835, elected one of the first
United States senators from Iowa in 1849, and re-elected in 1853, serving until 1859,
when he was sent as minister to Bogota, by President Buchanan; he also held many other
Federal offices.

  The author was acquainted with George W. Jones, and has frequently heard him relate the
exciting canvass attending his first election to the senate. For some time the issue was
grave and doubtful, and after many fruitless ballots by the legislature, he determined to
subordinate, if possible, another factor; he was a very fine performer on the violin. He
provided a supply of the best vintage, borrowed the best violin to be had, and invited
all the members of the legislature to a musical soiree. All were astonished at the
versatility of his talent, and the munificence of his generosity. The wine flowed and the
festival advanced, and he was encored many times and sustained the draft on his musical
genius heroically until three in the morning. When the ballot was taken at noon he was
elected to the United States senate by a handsome majority.

  John Scott, the brother of Andrew, was a fearless and brilliant man. My knowledge of
him is derived from the late John F. Darby, who settled in Missouri in territorial times,
and from the Hon. George W. Jones. He was a delegate to congress from the territory of
Missouri, and after her admission in 1821 was thrice elected to congress.

  In March, 1819, the territory of Arkansas was created by act of congress, and the
president by provision in the organic act was authorized to appoint three judges of the
superior court, who, together with the governor, were vested with legislative functions
and authorized to enact laws until the legislative machinery of the new territory could
be organized and put in motion. President Monroe appointed as judges of the superior
court, Andrew Scott, Charles Jouett and Robert P. Letcher. These judges and Robert
Crittenden, acting governor, as a legislative body convened at the capital (Arkansas
Post), on the 3d of August, 1819, and promulgated six statutes mentioned in the
historical sketch in the first part of this volume, and adjourned the same day.

  Judge Scott was a man of marked and very decided individuality; seen once, he never
faded from the observer's memory. He was small in stature, of blonde complexion, with
cold, gray, piercing eye, and long hair resting on his shoulders, sharp features and
aquiline nose. His temperament was nervous and volcanic, tinged with vanity and hauteur
which clouded his life and history. His abilities were acknowledged by all. The
impetuosity of his nature was to some extent the result of rough frontier influences
which had attended him the greater portion of his life, without that restraining
influence necessary to soften and modify such a character.

  In 1821, Joseph Selden succeeded the brilliant Robert P. Letcher of Kentucky as one of
the associate judges of the superior court of the territory. Early in May, 1824:, he
joined Judge Scott in a social game of cards with two ladies in Little Rock; during the
progress of the game Judge Selden made some remark to one of the ladies, to which Judge
Scott took umbrage and demanded an apology in imperious terms, which was refused.

  A challenge to mortal combat was accepted by Judge Selden, who designated an island in
the Mississippi river near Helena as the place and pistols as the weapons, at ten paces.
That polished scholar, writer and jurist, James Woodson Bates, brother to
Attorney-General Bates of President Lincoln's cabinet, acted as the friend and second of
Judge Selden, and Hon. Nimrod Menifee acted as the friend, second and surgeon for Judge
Scott. At the first fire Judge Selden fell mortally wounded - a strange, unhappy and
unfortunate occurrence; unhappy for the principal actors, and still more unfortunate for
the fame of Arkansas. Two judges of the highest tribunal in the jurisdiction, sworn
conservators of the peace, setting law at defiance. Dr. Menifee was subsequently killed
in a desperate encounter in Conway county, by ____ Phillips, and Phillips afterward died
from the effects of a wound received in the same combat.

  In 1829 General Edward Hogan, then an ex-officer of the United States army, and Judge
Scott were rival candidates for a seat in the territorial legislature from Pulaski
county, General Hogan having been elected in 1827. For some reason, of political origin,
bad feelings existed between the two hot-headed, imperious rivals, and when they met
General Hogan a man of powerful physique, knocked Judge Scott down. The latter rose with
sword drawn from his cane and thrust it several times through the body of his rival, and
he expired in a few moments. Before life ebbed away he snatched the sword from Judge
Scott and made one tremendous thrust at him, the sword passing through Judge Scott's
cravat. Soon after this Judge Scott moved to Pope county and settled on the Arkansas
river at a place to which he gave the name of Scotia, and there lived retired from public
life until his death in March, 1859.

  The Hon. John R. Homer Scott, of Russelville, his honored son, has erected a handsome
marble shaft at Russelville, which commemorates the memory of both mother and father. The
author regrets his inability to produce and perpetuate the portrait of this historic
character; more so because he has learned, from extrinsic sources, that a painting of
Judge Scott by one of the masters is in existence.