Some Interesting History of the Scott Family, Who were Early Settlers by Miss Emma Scott.
[Partial Extract]
My father, J. Randolph Scott, was born Dec. 8, 1812. He was the fourth son of John and Martha-Patterson Scott of Washington, Washington county, Pennsylvania. His ancestors came fro Scotland and Ireland, the Scotts in 1670, Agnews in 1717 and Pattersons in 1724 to Chester county, Pa., and secured large tracts of land in the “Manor of Mark,” from William Penn’s sons, in what is now Lancaster county, Pa., the richest agricultural county in the United States. They were Scotch covenanters.
My mother, Asenath Hicks, was born April 8, 1820. She was the second daughter of Asa and Anna Cox-Hicks of Barnesville, Belmont county, Ohio. Her ancesters, the Stubbs, Maddocks, Stantons, Bailys and Cox, came from England and Wales in the early years of 1700 to Chester county, Pa. . . .
Their contentions under British rule fitted the Agnews, Scotts and Pattersons to fill colonial offices in Pennsylvania and to take official rank in the Revolutionary war. Father’s grandfather, Lieutenant James Patterson, was with General George Washington when he crossed the Delaware river and captured 1000 Hessians and British at Trenton, N. J. Dec. 26, 1776. He was put in charge of these captives and took them to prison at Lancaster, Pa., his home town. His grandfather, Hugh Scott, was a major in this war. He moved from Gettysburg, Pa., in 1763, to Washington, Pa., when his son John was one year old.
Father’s parents and brother died in 1834. In the spring of 1836, he, in company with his brother, James Patterson, came to Illinois in quest of land. They visited Chicago, then a village. They each bought land at Geneseo; visited Peoria, also a small place; viewed the country over and selected land; went to Springfield to attend the government “land sale” and secured 560 acres of land – 80 acres of timber, uncle 160 and father 320 prairie land in section 31, township 26, range 3 W, at $1.25 per acre. Their land patents were signed by President Martin Van Buren. They returned to Pennsylvania and moved out in the spring of 1837 via the Ohio and Illinois rivers to Pekin, Ill. Uncle Patterson and family set up housekeeping in Washington, and father made his home in the family of Abraham VanMeter . . .
The Scott brothers were well educated in the common schools in Washington and Jefferson college of their home town. J. Patterson was an evangelist, teacher and farmer; father a hatter by trade, tanner, surveyor and farmer. Uncle taught schools in Washington and Morton . . .
Father’s first farming in Illinois was in partnership with William Sample at Walnut Grove. Mrs. Sample was a cousin of father’s and they lived in the house now the home of Mrs. John Watson and daughters on Jefferson street. The Samples were from “Little Washington,” Pa., too, as it was then called to distinguish it from the capital of the nation. We now designate our pretty little city by Washington, T. C., to differentiate it, too, from Washington D. C.
Grandfather, John Scott, established the stage coach line from Brownsville to Washington and Pittsburgh and on to Steubenville, Ohio, and owned a great many horses . . .
In October of 1848, father, mother, Anna Hicks who was mother’s sister, William Sample, his wife and two sons Hugh and Theodore made an overland trip to Barnesville, Ohio, and Washington, Pa., in a covered wagon fitted up with springs. Their travels were of six weeks’ duration over miles and miles of corduroy roads and bridges. There were many stretches of swamps filled in so as to make travel possible. This was their first visit east, after coming to Illinois eleven years earlier. The Sample family had located, some years prior to that date, on a farm known as “Sample’s Corners” near the Buckeye Church. On their return in December they stopped for the night at Sam Stumbaugh’s north of Deer Creek, Ill., where Theodore, about two years old, was severely scalded by causing a cup of hot coffee to be spilled on him. He bore this scar through life, as he did others that came to him. At the age of sixteen years he enlisted in the 14th Illinois Cavalry as a buglar, but threw his bugle away when crossing the Ohio river. When asked why he did it he said, “I took that method of getting into the army; now I am in and that is all I want”. He was a messenger and after several almost miraculous escapes he was captured and was in Andersonville prison, Ga., five months and twelve days. He came from that “pen” a skeleton of his former self, was exchanged and honorably mustered out of service of the Civil war. He served the T. P. & W. railroad, beginning as brakeman, and held all the positions – baggageman, freight and passanger conductor, yardmaster and depotmaster at Logansport, Indiana and retired as a pensioner several years before his death. The family moved from “Sample’s Corners” to their Washington home, the house now owned by Miss Kate Wohlgemuth, when Hugh, Theodore and Sarah attended school in the seminary. While William and Theodore Sample were in the Civil war the family moved to El Paso. Hugh was a very capable man and was assessor and sheriff of Woodford county, and Sarah was an efficient teacher there until her death in 1875. Hugh having died in 1871.
