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George W. Scott Papers

Collection 119

 

AnchorBiography

George W. Scott was born in St. Louis, Missouri February 6, 1850. On April 9, 1872, he married Hester Sutton and they had five children. He died on November 30, 1920 and was buried in Edgerton, Kansas.

The December 17, 1920 issue of the Edgerton Journal credits Scott as being an adventurous youth. It claimed he participated in the Civil War at the age of twelve, serving in the U. S. Navy on war boats on the Mississippi River. When the war ended, he became a steamboat man on the Red River. He then became a Texas cattle hand, and came to Kansas in 1870 at the end of a trail drive to Springfield, Missouri. The Edgerton Journal reported that he arrived in Gardner with his horse, a saddle, a few clothes, and twenty-five cents.

When the town of Edgerton was started, Scott was one of its first residents, opening a business that included a stock of drugs. He later opened lumber yards in Edgerton and Gardner. He also sold seeds, small implements, insurance; had some mining and smelting interests; and invested in farm mortgages. He apparently owned property in Kansas City, the Edgerton and Gardner areas, and other areas, including a 20,000 acre ranch in the Texas panhandle. Scott moved to 4416 Summit, Kansas City, Missouri, in 1908 where he had built a large home for his family but maintained his business interests in Edgerton.

Scope and Content

The George W. Scott collection consists of three document boxes of material covering the period 1889 to 1899. The bulk of the material is business correspondence. Some of the letters relate to Scott’s lumber yards in Edgerton and Gardner, where he also sold grass and vegetable seeds, coal, and various types of small farm implements. Scott was also involved in selling insurance. Another portion of the collection is correspondence between Scott and Frank S. Hammond, Scott’s partner in a 20,000 acre ranch in the Texas panhandle. Much of the correspondence deals with their attempts to raise cattle, lease the land, and sell or trade the property. Hammond worked as a general manager for several railroads (Kansas City, Fort Scott, and Memphis Railroad Company; Kansas City, Shreveport, and Gulf Railway Company; and the Kansas City, Watkins, and Fuld Railway Company) that were in the process of expanding their lines, and mentioned these activities in his letters. Other correspondence relates to real estate activities in the Kansas City area, the Missouri and Kansas Association of Lumber Dealers, the Mid-State Wholesale and Retail Coal Dealers Association, and the Johnson County Fair Association. In 1893, there is some correspondence with a county official in Garfield County, Kansas concerning land sales. Scott apparently made farm loans and some of the correspondence relates to this activity. For example, Scott made a loan to a Kate Burns who owned property in Edgerton but was studying to be a doctor in Philadelphia. Her letters to Scott describe some of her activities interning in the poorer districts of that city.

This collection documents the activities of a local businessman engaged in a variety of financial ventures. It provides insight into business relations during this period.

July, 1978 P.A.M.

Contents List

Collection 119

Box 1
Correspondence—1889—June, 1891

Box 2
Correspondence—July, 1891—1895

Box 3
Correspondence—1896—1899
Correspondence, undated
Miscellaneous contracts and agreements
Representative vouchers, letterheads, advertisements, etc.