Person:James Scott (7)

R453 Scott family. Papers, 1874-1957. Twenty-five folders.

These are photographs and miscellaneous papers of the Scott family of Rolla, Missouri. Included are the personal papers and memorabilia of John W. Scott (1870-1950), a businessman and musician who directed the Rolla town band and other local ensembles, catalogs of the Western Conservatory of Music operated by Ephraim H. Scott at Rolla, Missouri, and Chicago,Illinois, and other materials pertaining to the Dean and Morris families, and the town of Rolla.

James Homer Scott (1824-1888), his wife Eleanor Scott(1833-1920), and their three children came to Rolla from Galesburg, Illinois, in 1871(Note from Jerry Lou...was in Knox Co. Illinois in 1880) . James was a Methodist minister whose talents included writing and building reed organs. Ultimately the family moved into a home at 12th and Main streets, not far from the campus of the Missouri of Mines and Metallurgy (MSM).For ten years, the Rev. James H. Scott was district superintendent of the Methodist Conference.

James and Eleanor Scott had three children. The oldest child,Ephraim Homer Scott (1858-1925), attended MSM in 1873-1875, and,later, the Beethoven School of Music in St. Louis. In 1883, he established the Western Conservatory of Music at 5th and Main streets in Rolla. The conservatory, very much a Scott family operation, was a center for vocal and instrumental music education at the turn of the century. The conservatory was moved to the Kimball Building in downtown Chicago, Illinois, in 1910,whereupon Rolla became a branch of the operation. Ephraim Homer Scott married Annie Lee in 1886.

The second child, Luella Cora Scott (1864-1941), was a graduate of Hedding College at Abingdon, Illinois. She taught school until her marriage in 1890 to George Reginald Dean (1865-1937).Luella Dean organized the Saturday Club and Civics Club atRolla, and served on the board of the Missouri Federation ofWomen's Clubs for eight years. George R. Dean was a well-knownprofessor of mathematics at MSM who had studied with Charles P.Steinmetz at the General Electric Laboratory in Schenectady,N.Y. From this union were born Hazel Dean (1893-1983), andReginald Scott Dean (1897-1961). Hazel Dean obtained degreesfrom Northwestern University and Radcliffe College (HarvardUniversity), and was awarded the Ph.D. in economics at theUniversity of Southern California (USC). During the 1950s HazelDean was USC's Dean of the School of Library Science. ReginaldScott Dean received a degree in metallurgy from MSM at the ageof sixteen, and obtained his Ph.D. at the University ofMaryland. He had a distinguished career with the WesternElectric Company and was later director of the metallurgicaldivision of the U.S. Bureau of Mines. While with at the Bureau,he was responsible for the construction of the Bureau's buildingat Rolla. He married, first, Alberta Northern, and, then, MattieMcGregor, both residents of Rolla. A stepson, James Jacobs(1917- ), received degrees from Penn State University and MSM,and pursued an executive career with Union Carbide Company.James Jacobs married Emily McCaw of Rolla.

The third child of James and Eleanor Scott was John Walter Scott(1870-1950), a prominent businessman and musician at Rolla.Scott attended MSM in 1886-1887 and worked as a clerk in Duby'sDrug Store at Rolla. After serving as an apprentice, he became aregistered pharmacist in 1890. Scott served as manager of thestore until 1905, when he and Dr. A. C. McComb bought thebusiness, which took the name Scott Drug. John W. Scott becamethe sole owner in 1908. In addition to the pharmacy, Scotthandled textbooks and school supplies for MSM students, andexpanded into the sales of musical instruments and sheet music.Scott was an accomplished musician himself, and was the founderand director of the Rolla town band, symphony orchestra, andcornet band. He also organized the MSM Reserve Officers TrainingCorps (ROTC) band in 1926 and directed it free of charge to theschool until 1946. For nearly sixty years in Rolla, there wasscarcely a concert or musical entertainment in which John W.Scott did not have a hand.

In 1896, John W. Scott married Stella Sappenfield (1874-1947),the oldest daughter of the Rev. Lewis C. Sappenfield(1848-1920), and Parilee Sappenfield (1854-1925). The Rev.Sappenfield was district superintendent of the MissouriMethodist Conference from 1888 to 1896. Stella Scottsignificantly contributed to the management of Scott Drug andassisted MSM students with illnesses and money problems. To theunion of John and Stella Scott were born Olive Scott(1897-1972), and James Walter Scott (1899-1984). Olive Scottattended the Illinois Women's College and was a St. Pat's Queenat MSM. She married John M. Morris in 1919, a mining engineer(MSM 1919) whose career included a post at the U.S. Bureau ofMines station in Rolla. Olive Morris was a pipe organist atvarious churches around the county, including the RollaMethodist Church during the last twenty-five years of her life.

To this union John M. Morris, Jr., was born in 1925. A U.S. Navyveteran of World War II and a graduate of NorthwesternUniversity, John M. Morris, Jr., ultimately took over operationof the Scott family business and expanded it into Scotts Books &Music, Scotts Hallmark, and Medical Center Pharmacy, all atEighth and Pine streets. He also served on the boards ofBoatmen's Bank and Rolla Municipal Utilities, and the MissouriState Board of Education.

John M. Morris, Jr., married Lenore Jones in 1947. She is thedaughter of Floyd E. (1895-1971), and Gladys Jones (1901- ).Floyd Jones was a station agent for the Frisco railroad and aRolla businessman. Lenore attended Lindenwood College and was aSt. Pat's Queen at MSM in 1946. She was active in the operationof the Scotts stores, and has been coordinator of severalRepublican political campaigns. To John and Lenore Morris wereborn John M. Morris III (1951- ), and Susan Lenore Morris (1953-). John Morris III graduated from Northwestern University andreceived the J.D. degree from Washington University in St.Louis. He is currently an attorney in Jefferson City, Missouri.Susan Morris has degrees from Northwestern University and theUniversity of Missouri-St. Louis. She is a homemaker and teacherin Chesterfield. In 1979 she married Bill Miller (1955- ), acorporate executive. To this union were born David Miller (1982-), and Caroline Miller (1984- ).

John M. Morris, Jr., and Lenore Morris continued the operationof the various Scott businesses until selling them in the 1980s.The Morrises are benefactors of the University of Missouri-Rolla(formerly MSM), and are the donors of the Scott family papers tothe Western Historical Manuscript Collection.

The Scott family collection has been arranged in three parts.The first and largest section consists of photographs and papersof John W. Scott, of his business enterprises styled as J. W.Scott & Company, and of the activities of the Scott, Morris, andDean families, especially Stella Sappenfield Scott and OliveScott Morris. Included are John W. Scott's personal accountbooks, 1889-1921, papers concerning a suit involving the Scottbuilding on Pine Street, and papers regarding the subsequentoperation of the business. In addition to many photographs,there are several items of biographical and genealogicalinterest, such as Dean family vital records from a family bible.

Section II includes photographs and historical materialpertaining to the town of Rolla. Of most interest are therecords of the Rolla town band and symphony orchestra,1892-1914. The record books include the names of band members,many of whom were from prominent old Phelps County families. Therecords also indicate some of the venues at which the bandsperformed, and the expenses incurred. Also in this section aremiscellaneous materials such as programs of events at the RollaHigh School, 1915-1926, a story on Howard Griggs, anAfrican-American employee of Scott Drug, and poetry written byhis wife, Adele. There is also a large collection of photographsand postcard views of Rolla and surrounding areas. Some of thepostcards were published by John W. Scott for sales through hisstore, while others were sent by friends of Olive Scott, inwhose papers they were found. The postcards have been retainedby the family but have been copied on 35mm slides.

Section III is entirely on microfilm. It consists of materialsretained by the donors. Most important in this series are thescrapbook of John W. Scott and the catalogs of the WesternConservatory of Music. John W. Scott's scrapbook containsbroadsides, announcements and programs for over one hundredmusical productions in which Scott was interested or involved,including those of the Rolla Symphony Orchestra, the Rolla townband, and the MSM ROTC band. Most of the productions took placeat Rolla, but the venues also included concerts at churches,schools and halls in Newburg, St. James, Salem, and Steelville.A few programs pertain to concerts and recitals staged byEphraim and Olive Scott of the Western Conservatory of Music.Most of the programs include the names of the performers and thetitles of selections.

The material on the Western Conservatory of music includesprograms for commencement exercises and general catalogs for theschool at Rolla and Chicago. The catalogs are illustrated andcontain brief biographies of faculty members and a descriptionof the curriculum. Material on the Western Conservatory isextant for 1887-1918.

The final folder in the collection consists of itineraries andcorrespondence regarding the Russell Brothers Circus, which washeadquartered in Rolla during the 1930s and 1940s on groundsnear the site of Civil War Fort Wyman. John W. Scott was afriend of the circus owner, Charles W. Webb, and probably lookedafter the troupe's musical instruments. Scott also traveled withthe circus on several occasions, playing the trombone in theorchestra during its performances between Rolla and Downer'sGrove, Illinois. The folder of circus memorabilia containspostcards bearing the Russell Brothers schedules for 1937-1941,and also correspondence with several circus employees, includingCharles W. Webb.

The Scott family papers are useful for research on the town ofRolla during the first half of the twentieth century. Inaddition to material on prominent local families, the collectionincludes information on entertainment at formal and informalevents at Rolla and the surrounding areas, and on education inmusic as offered by the Western Conservatory.

r525; 4 November 1991; John & Lenore Morris; gift

R686 Scott, Ephraim Homer, publisher. The Record, 1888. One folder.

This is Volume 1, Number 8 (November 1888) of The Record,published "In the Interests of Musical Culture and GeneralEducation" by Prof. Ephraim H. Scott, director of the WesternConservatory of Music at Carthage, Jasper County, Missouri.

Ephraim H. Scott, 1858-1925, was the oldest child of James HomerScott and Eleanor Scott. James Scott was a Methodist ministerwhose musical skills and interests were passed on to his family.The Scott family came to Rolla, Missouri, from Illinois in 1871.After education at the Missouri School of Mines at Rolla and theBeethoven School of Music in St. Louis, Ephraim H. Scottestablished the Western Conservatory of Music at Rolla in 1883.

The four-page Record contains advertisements of professionalsand businessmen in Carthage, and news of various educationalvenues such as the Carthage School of Art, the CollegiateInstitute, and the public schools. In this issue, Prof. Scott announced the removal of the Western Conservatory of Music toCarthage from Rolla, where Scott had founded the WesternConservatory seven years earlier. The removal to Carthage "wasto bring the institution nearer to its naturally developingterritory of patronage, the west, manifestly indicated by thefact that the greater portion of our pupils from abroad comefrom Kansas, Indian Territory, Texas and Southwest Missouri." AtCarthage, the conservatory was located in the same building asthe Carthage Collegiate Institute. The two schools were separatein organization, but cooperated so that "students of one mayreadily enjoy the advantages of both." In 1910, the WesternConservatory of Music was moved to Chicago. For additionalmaterial on the Conservatory, including catalogs and programs,see the Scott family papers, WHMC-Rolla collection R453.

r738; 5 November 1999; Lynn Morrow; gift

1. ↑ 1850 Montour Co. PA, Liberty Twp.
2. ↑ 1860 Peoria Co. Illinois Census.
3. ↑ 1870 Warren Co. Illinois Census (Kelly Twp).
4. ↑ ^4.0 4.1 1880 Knox Co. Illinois Census, Abingdon,Cedar twp.