Thomas Davies Scott Biography


	This biography appears on pages 892-893 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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				THOMAS DAVIES SCOTT. 

	Since the spring of 1880 Thomas Davies Scott has resided upon the 
farm near Artesian which he now owns and occupies, and in the 
intervening period of thirty-five years he has witnessed a great change 
in the country, which at the time of his arrival was a frontier 
district and which has now become well settled with a prosperous and 
progressive class of people who are utilizing the natural advantages of 
the state for legitimate profit and for the benefit of the community. 
Mr. Scott was born in Birmingham, Warwickshire, England, August 1, 
1851, a son of Andrew and Mary (Davies) Scott, who were tenant farming 
people of Radnorshire, South Wales. The son acquired a common-school 
education in Great Britain and also spent three winter seasons as a 
pupil in a district school of Wisconsin following the emigration of the 
family to the new world. He started in business life as an errand boy 
in a hardware store at Birmingham but soon afterward his parents 
removed to Radnorshire, South Wales, and he became a timekeeper upon 
the Midwales Railway, then in process of construction. He afterward 
went to Brecon, South Wales, where he accepted the position of 
bookkeeper with a timber merchant, but disliking that employment, he 
gave it up and entered a blacksmith shop, following the trade there for 
three years. At the end of that time the parents decided to come to the 
United States and Thomas D. Scott made the voyage with them. 

	He always had a love for outdoor life and occupations and upon 
reaching Wisconsin in the spring of 1869 went to work as a farm hand, 
actuated by a desire to one day engage in farming on his own account. 
He spent six seasons in working by the month, after which he rented 
land for four seasons, but he felt that such a course did not pay and 
decided to remove to South Dakota, where he arrived in the fall of 
1879. In the spring of 1880 he filed on the land which he now owns and 
occupies and throughout the intervening period he has remained 
continuously upon this place, which he has converted from an 
undeveloped claim into a fine farm, bringing the fields to a high state 
of cultivation, dividing the farm with well kept fences, supplying 
shelter for grain and stock by the erection of good barns and sheds and 
providing a comfortable home for his family by the erection of an 
attractive residence. He has concentrated his efforts upon the 
development and improvement of this farm save that he has become owner 
of an interest in the Farmers Grain Elevator at Artesian. 

	On the 4th of July, 1885, in Sioux Falls, Mr. Scott was united in 
marriage to Miss Margaret Adelia De Laney, a daughter of Sylvanus and 
Margaret Le Laney, who came from Minnesota to the territory of Dakota 
in 1865, settling about six miles north of Sioux Falls, on the Sioux 
river. Our subject and his wife have five children, namely: Lewis D., 
Margaret A., James A., Walter and Mary. 

	Mr. Scott was reared in the Episcopalian faith. In politics he 
has always followed an independent course, now supporting the 
progressive party, but he will always vote for men and measures 
regardless of party ties if his judgment sanctions such a course. His 
fellow townsmen recognize his public spirit and devotion to duty and 
for the past eighteen years, by successive reelections, have kept him 
in the office of township supervisor. He has also been assessor of his 
township for eight years and has been treasurer of the township school 
for the past fifteen years. He regards a public office as a public 
trust-and no trust reposed in T. D. Scott has ever been betrayed.