Daniel Scott Biography


	This biography appears on pages 1104-1108 in "History of Dakota 
	Territory" by George W. Kingsbury, Vol. V (1915) and was 
	scanned, OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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				DANIEL SCOTT. 

	With the history of development and progress in the northwest 
from pioneer times to the present Daniel Scott, of Sioux Falls, is 
closely connected, his memory forming a connecting link between the 
primitive past and the progressive present. Ask him any question 
concerning early events and the chances are that he can give the 
desired information, for as a pioneer journalist and real-estate dealer 
he gained an intimate knowledge of and broad experience in all the 
phases and features of frontier life. He is a native of Montgomery 
county, New York, and a son of Peter and Catherine Scott. 

	Reared in the east. Daniel Scott acquired his education in the 
public schools of Utica, New York, and made his initial step in the 
business world in the field of journalism. In 1860 he purchased the 
Ogle County Press, a weekly, published at Polo, Illinois, which he 
owned and edited until the first call for seventy-five thousand troops 
was issued by President Lincoln. He joined the army for a three months, 
term and afterward enlisted for three years. He became a member of 
Company H, Fifteenth Illinois Volunteer Infantry, and served in the 
Missouri campaign. He was honorably discharged at Jefferson Barracks on 
account of physical disability. As soon as possible, however, he 
reenlisted, joining the Ninety-second Regiment of Illinois Volunteer 
Infantry, but failed to pass muster. The spirit of loyalty and 
patriotism, however, was there and it was a bitter disappointment to 
him that he could not do further active work for his country at the 
front. After the war he conducted a paper at Union Mills, Pennsylvania, 
and also at Corry, Pennsylvania, being there located at the time of the 
oil boom. At length he sold out there and made his way to Sioux City, 
Iowa, where he arrived in 1869, securing a situation on a weekly paper 
published by George D. Perkins. On the 19th of April, 1870, the Perkins 
brothers began the publication of the Sioux City Daily Journal, of 
which he was city editor for six years. During the summer seasons Mr. 
Scott took trips on the steamers into the interior, trading with the 
Indians. He went with General Stanley in 1873 on an expedition against 
Sitting Bull and during his residence in South Dakota in pioneer days 
he had many exciting experiences with hostile Indians. He traveled on 
the Upper Missouri and Yellowstone rivers from 1871 until 1876, having 
the trading privilege on the steamboats plying those streams, and 
carrying thousands of dollars worth of goods, which he sold at the 
trading posts of the northwest. Years afterward Mr. Scott wrote of the 
district through which he traveled as "wholly abandoned to lawlessness 
at that time. The only feeling of safety law-abiding sojourners enjoyed 
was in the immediate vicinage of the military posts, widely scattered 
upon the banks of those streams. Yet these white outlaws were the real 
pioneers and civilizers of those Indian infested regions and 
contributed as much, if not more, than did the soldiers in taming 
Sitting Bull and his hostile followers, as well as the other 
recalcitrant savages. These pioneers were not there by choice, but 
chose it as a refuge of safety from the minions of the law. They 
certainly were a tough bunch, yet a prominent factor in the extension 
of civilization into that howling wilderness. Not a few of them were 
bright, affable, interesting and friendly to those refusing to tote 
shooting irons and minded their own business. Their friendship was an 
encouraging and a profitable asset to me. Whenever some drunken 
bulldozer attempted to bluff me they would step in and the bum took a 
walk instantly. Therefore I still, and always will, retain a 
sympathetic and kindly regard for those old plains highrollers. It 
requires all kinds of people to reduce a lawless frontier region to a 
civilized basis and those old fugitives did their part for that 
country." 

	Mr. Scott first visited the territory to report a prize fight for 
the Sioux City Journal. Learning of the existence of gold in the Black 
Hills from old fur traders, he made the first public announcement of 
the fact through the columns of the Journal. His paper has also given 
to the public many other items of interest and value concerning the 
natural resources of the northwest. What he has done for Sioux Falls 
can scarcely be overestimated. 

	It was in February, 1877, that Mr. Scott left Sioux City for 
Deadwood, where he arrived in March, and in connection with Charles 
Collins he began the publication of the Deadwood Daily Champion. Soon 
afterward, however, he became connected with the Deadwood Times, with 
which he was associated until 1882. During that and the succeeding year 
he was with the Bismarck Daily Tribune, after which he returned to 
Deadwood, and in 1883 came to Sioux Falls, driving across what was then 
the desert from Deadwood with his wife and son-a strenuous and 
hazardous trip. He became city editor of the Daily Press and continued 
with that publication until his frontier journalistic career covered 
more than fifty years. He developed the first real-estate boom in Sioux 
Falls in 1887, selling out Scott's first addition to Sioux Falls at 
Sioux City, Iowa, in a single day. He owned and held a controlling 
interest in eight different additions to Sioux Falls and his efforts 
have been a potent force in advancing its growth, progress and 
improvement He had the prescience to discern something of what the 
future held in store for this great and growing western country and, 
acting according to the dictates of his faith and judgment, advanced 
its interests far toward the point of prosperity through inducing many 
settlers to locate there. Speaking of the period of his early life in 
Dakota territory, he said: "My frontier experience was unlike the 
homesteaders in that it was transient, diversified and very checkered, 
extending hundreds of miles beyond the boundaries of civilization into 
regions inhabited by wild Indians and white outlaws, where the bark of 
the revolver was recognized as the final decision in all personal 
controversies." 

	On the 14th of March, 1866, in Freeport, Illinois, Mr. Scott was 
united in marriage to Miss Augusta H. Hunter, a daughter of Mr. and 
Mrs. John Hunter, who were pioneer residents of South Dakota. They 
settled on a homestead adjoining Sioux Falls in 1870 and occupied it 
until their deaths. It has been platted into city lots and is now one 
of the attractive residential districts of Sioux Falls. Mr. Hunter was 
the first justice of the peace in Sioux Falls and in many ways was 
closely associated with its development and upbuilding. To Mr. and Mrs. 
Scott has been born a son, Mark D., who married Miss Eva Kuhn. 

	From early manhood to the present time Mr. Scott has been an 
earnest supporter of the republican party, finding in its platform, as 
he believes, the best elements of good government. He is a member of 
Joe Hooker Post of the Grand Army of the Republic of Sioux Falls and 
his military record is one of the many creditable chapters in his life 
history. All his life he has been actuated by a spirit of devotion to 
the general welfare, and gave evidence of his substantial and sincere 
interest in the public good during his two years, service, 1885-6, in 
Sioux Falls as alderman and again as alderman of Sioux Falls from 1895 
until 1899 and again in 1909. His official acts were fraught with good 
results, and thus in public life as well as in business affairs he has 
promoted the welfare of the city in which he makes his home. There is 
perhaps no man in the state who can give a more intimate and accurate 
account of the history of pioneer in, in Dakota than Mr. Scott. As a 
trader and newspaper man he was brought in contact with every phase of 
life here. When he entered the territory to trade with the soldiers, 
Indians and settlers in 1871 not a foot of railroad had been laid in 
the territory. Yankton was the only town of any importance west of 
Sioux City for a distance of about two thousand miles. He had to meet 
men who, having fled from justice, had taken refuge in the then 
unsettled district; he had to meet men who thought no more of taking 
the life of a fellow man than of the wild game around; he had also to 
mix and mingle with the convivial sporting element and on more than one 
occasion his life was in danger. But he seemed to know just how to meet 
each situation and to handle the man involved, and thus it is that he 
came through such experiences, adding each one to a fund of interesting 
reminiscences of pioneer times.