Biography of Thomas Harlowe Scott - McDowell Co. VA


The History of West Virginia, Old and New 
Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., 
Chicago and New York, Volume II, 
pg. 520 


THOMAS HARLOWE SCOTT is a highly educated and thor- 
oughly efficient lawyer, with a good practice established at 
Bluefield, where he has been located for the past eight or 
nine years.
Mr. Scott was born at Fire Creek in Fayette County, 
West Virginia, January 6, 1883, and still has the best years 
of his life before him. His parents were Charles Henry 
Franklin and Barbara (Bilbie) Scott, natives of Virginia. 
His father for many years was foreman of the coke yards 
of the Caswell Creek Coal and Coke Company.
Thomas Harlowe Scott had an early environment con- 
veniently removed from poverty as well as from luxury, 
and as a youth he learned the value of thrift and work and 
most of his education above the common schools he acquired 
through his own efforts and earnings. He graduated from 
the Bramwell High School of West Virginia in 1897, then 
attended the Concord Normal at Athens, West Virginia, 
securing his diploma in music in 1899 and graduating in 
the academic course in 1900. For about a year following 
he was assistant bookkeeper for the Lick Branch Collieries 
of the Norfolk Coal and Coke Company, now part of the 
Pocahontas Fuel Company. In the fall of 1901 he left 
this employment to enter the University of Virginia at 
Charlotteville, where he spent two years in his preparatory 
course and in 1904 entered the University of Michigan, 
where he continued his law studies until graduating LL. B. 
in 1907. Mr. Scott was admitted to the bar at the age 
of twenty-four, and for five years engaged in practice at 
Pineville, Wyoming County, West Virginia. He was asso- 
ciated with James H. Gilmore and was also United States 
commissioner, and in that capacity had some very interest- 
ing cases before him.
In the fall of 1913 Mr. Scott located at Bluefield, where 
he has given his time to a general practice. He is a mem- 
ber of the County Bar Association, is affiliated with the 
Knights of Pythias and is chairman of the Judiciary Com- 
mittee of the Grand Lodge of the state. He and Mrs. Scott 
are active in church work, he as a member of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church, South, and Mrs. Scott as a Presbyterian.
In his professional career Mr. Scott has the invaluable 
aid and inspiration of Mrs. Scott, who spends much of her 
time with him in the office, and is a very practical assistant 
to a progressive lawyer. Mrs. Scott is a graduate also of 
the State Normal School at Athens, and has taught in the 
public schools of the state. Mr. Scott married at Charleston, 
West Virginia, October 9, 1918, Mrs. Roberta Higginbotham, 
formerly Miss Roberta Kesler, of Lowelt, West Virginia, 
daughter of H. F. and Ella (Lively) Kesler, natives of 
Virginia. Her father was a farmer, took a very active part 
in public affairs, and for over twenty-five years was engaged 
in educational work and at one time was county superin- 
tendent of schools in Summers County, West Virginia. 
Mrs. Scott represents a prominent family on her mother's 
side. She is descended from Cottrell Lively, who was a 
soldier in the Revolutionary war. Col. Wilson Lively, son 
of Cottrell, was a member of the State Senate of Virginia 
during the Civil war and dropped dead of heart failure at 
Richmond when he heard of Lee's surrender. Mr. Frank 
Lively is now one of the justices of the Supreme Court of 
West Virginia.


Submitted by Valerie F. Crook <vfcrook@earthlink.net> 

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