Marion County, West Virginia Biography of GEN. WILLIAM WALTER SCOTT This biography was submitted by Valerie Crook, E-mail address: The submitter does not have a connection to the subject of this sketch. This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit organizations for their private use. All other rights reserved. Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other means requires the written approval of the file's author. This file is part of the WVGenWeb Archives. If you arrived here inside a frame or from a link from somewhere else, our front door is at http://www.usgwarchives.net/wv/wvfiles.htm The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 538 Marion GEN. WILLIAM WALTER SCOTT, former brigadier general of the West Virginia National Guard, still keeps his vot- ing residence at Fairmont, where he began the practice of law thirty years ago, but duty early called him to Wash- ington, where he was an assistant in the Department of Justice and where for the past decade he has handled a large volume of practice, largely in the Federal Courts and as a member of the Bar of the District of Columbia and the Supreme Court of the United States. General Scott was born at Fairmont in 1879, son of Newton J. and Mary S. (Scott) Scott. His parents bore the same family name but were not relatives. Newton J. Scott was a Union soldier in a West Virginia regiment during the Civil war. The family is of old Virginia stock of Scotch ancestry. William Walter Scott, grandfather of his namesake, was the son of Thomas Scott, a Virginia soldier who lost an arm in the battle of New Orleans in 1815. General Scott's maternal ancestors lived in Arm- strong County, Pennsylvania. William W. Scott after leaving the common schools be- came a practical printer and entered the printing estab- lishment of the West Virginian of Fairmont, West Vir- ginia, a weekly news sheet. Later he became manager of the Mannington Times, of Mannington, West Virginia, He read law in the office of Scott & Meredith in Fairmont, was admitted to the bar in his home county and began prac- tice in 1892. While in Washington he continued his studies in the National Law School, from which he received two degrees, Master and Bachelor of Laws. Mr. Scott went to Washington in 1897 to become assis- tant in the office of Joseph McKenna, attorney general in President McKinley's cabinet, now a justice of the Su- preme Court. In the attorney general's department Mr. Scott was assigned to the defense of suits against the United States, duties that took him at times to distant parts of the United States. His work in the Department of Justice continued until 1912, in which year he resigned, his resignation being effective January 1, 1913. He then established his present offices for private practice in the Woodward Building. General Scott handles a general prac- tice, but chiefly as representative of clients in suits against the United States. He is one of the lawyers of highest standing in the West Virginia bar. For two years after leaving the Department of Justice he edited the reports of the United States Court of Claims. His practice in that court, particularly in the preparation of his briefs, has received high commendation from the bench. His connection with the West Virginia National Guard began in 1894. That year he organized and was made captain of Company G at Fairmont, a unit of the First West Virginia Regiment. Subsequent promotions made him major, lieutenant colonel, colonel and finally, in 1905, bri- gadier general by appointment of Governor Dawson in command of all West Virginia troops in the National Guard composed of the First and Second Regiments. General Scott kept up his active connection with the National Guard during his official connections in Washington. He is a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason, and is a past master and past high priest at Washington. He married Miss Claudia Rice, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. A. O. Rice, of Fairmont, West Virginia, and a niece of Col. Dick Fast of Morgantown, West Virginia. General Scott has a son, Capt. William Ward Scott, of the United States Marine Corps. He was educated in the schools of Washington, the University of Michigan, and joined the Marine Corps in February, 1917, before America entered the war. He was made a second lieutenant, and by sub- sequent promotions became captain. During the greater part of the war he was in command of a detachment of Marines on board the Galveston, escorting and convoying troops and supplies to France.