Henry A. Scott, a prominent retired merchant in Humboldt, Nebraska, was born in Hatfield, Massachusetts, on January 1, 1844. A Civil War veteran, he served in the 3rd Iowa Infantry and endured imprisonment in Southern camps before resettling in Richardson County in 1867. After farming his homestead, Scott moved to Humboldt in 1874, becoming a successful hardware merchant. He later co-owned Scott and Skalak, a thriving business for 15 years. Scott and his wife, Margaret Smith, were active in civic and social life. They traveled extensively and enjoyed their later years in Humboldt, where they built a comfortable home.
Henry A. Scott, the well-known retired merchant and businessman of Humboldt, Nebraska, has taken a prominent and influential part in business and public affairs in Richardson County for the past thirty-seven years, and has been a resident of the town of Humboldt for thirty years. His career has been one of wide scope and varied in its useful activities, and he and his estimable wife have probably enjoyed as deep draughts of wholesome and happy living as any other two people in the county. While pursuing ways of peace and pleasantness themselves, they have by no means been selfish in their aims or neglected the welfare of others, and their public-spirited and kind-hearted interest and efforts have manifested themselves in many ways for the betterment of the institutions and material progress of their community and city and county.
Mr. Scott is of Puritan lineage on both sides of the house, and comes of a family known and honored in America for many generations. He was born in old Hatfield, Hampshire County, Massachusetts, January 1, 1844. His grandfather was Thaddeus Scott, a farmer of old Hatfield. He married a Miss Doty, a descendant of Plymouth settlers, and they reared four sons and three daughters. The daughters married and had small families, and the sons are as follows: Gad Scott, a farmer, went to Dubuque County, Iowa, in 1856, and died at an advanced age, having been married twice but with no children; James died on the home place at old Hatfield when an old man, leaving no children; Alpheus and Lebeus were twins, the former being the father of Mr. Henry Scott. Lebeus was a prominent character in Massachusetts. He was a teacher and school superintendent, was an express messenger many years, was warden of the prison in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, and was popular with all parties and classes. He was an orthodox Congregationalist, which has been the religion of all the family. He married but had no children.
Alpheus Scott was born in the old home in October, 1824, and died in Richardson County, Nebraska, in 1876. In young manhood, he married Julia Russell, who was born in the same part of Massachusetts in 1828, a daughter of Charles Russell, a farmer. Their first child was Henry A. The second was Charles, who was born in Lorain County, Ohio, and was accidentally killed in a sawmill in Oregon, leaving a wife, one son, and two daughters. The third child is Mary, wife of David Weaver, of Boswell, Indiana, and has two sons; Annie, wife of Barton Hued, of Waterloo, Iowa, has a large family; Thaddeus, unmarried, is in Dubuque County, Iowa; Edward died at Epworth, Iowa, in middle life, leaving a wife and four children; Alpheus, unmarried, is in the state of Washington; Lizzie Martin died in Humboldt, Nebraska, in young womanhood, leaving one son; James is married and lives in Waterloo, Iowa; Hattie Bremer lives in Seattle, Washington; Jessie Haskins is in Tekoa, Washington, and has three children. The mother of these children died at Hebron, Nebraska, at the age of fifty-two.
Alpheus Scott was not a money-getter, but always lived well, and he and his wife were genial, whole-souled people, with hosts of friends, and were strong Congregationalists. He was a graduate of Berea College, studied law under Judge Striker at Sandusky, and was admitted to the bar in Iowa. He taught school while preparing for his profession. He left Erie County, Ohio, in 1852, and moved to Clayton County, Iowa, settling on a claim of forty acres, paying the regular price of a dollar and a quarter per acre. This was bare prairie, with the nearest neighbor two miles and a half away, and he began by building a round-log house of two rooms, in which he and his wife lived for three years. He then became one of the two founders of the town of Strawberry Point in the same county. He was engaged in law practice there for several years, and was one of the brainy and clear-headed members of the first constitutional convention of the state. The law firm was Murdock and Scott for two years. He also served as prosecuting attorney and county judge. He was a ready and rapid speaker, with quick wit and ability at repartee and debate, and could make a speech on any and every occasion. He was popular as an auctioneer, and in pleading before a jury he was tireless and earnest and convincing. He was a successful man and was helped much by his industrious and sympathetic wife, who was at all times devoted to the interests of her family.
Henry A. Scott had a limited education in the public schools and rather took to work and sport in his youth. In April 1861, he volunteered in the cause of his country, enlisting in Company C, Third Iowa Infantry. He was at the battle of Shiloh and throughout the western campaigns, and after three years veteranized in the same company and regiment. In Sherman’s campaign about Meridian, he was taken prisoner and endured incarceration in southern prisons at Cahaba, Alabama, Andersonville, Georgia, and Florence, South Carolina, from February 27, 1864, until he signed his parole on March 4, 1865. He participated in the grand review on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington in 1865, and again in 1903 as a member of the Nebraska delegation of Grand Army veterans. After the war, in May 1867, Mr. Scott came to Nebraska and homesteaded a claim of one hundred and sixty acres in Franklin Township, Richardson County, and farmed the land for several years and still keeps it under tenancy. He moved into Humboldt in 1874, and this has been his home and center of activity ever since. For about twelve years he was a salesman in the hardware and implement house of F. W. Samuelson, and he then opened up a business in the same line under the firm name of Scott and Skalak, which partnership continued most successfully for fifteen years, after which Mr. Scott withdrew from active participation in business affairs and has since been taking things rather easily. For the last few years, he has been traveling considerably, and he and his wife have enjoyed many of the fruits of their years of thrift and good management. He was not enjoying good health when he left business, but his subsequent free activity has almost completely rejuvenated him. He and his wife have been to the Pacific coast twice, having traveled the entire length of the coast down to old Mexico, and they also spent one winter in Florida. They reside in one of the pleasant homes of Humboldt, having erected it some five years ago, and he also owns a fine brick business block besides other residence property.
On September 22, 1868, Mr. Scott was married in his present precinct to Miss Margaret Smith, who was born in Licking County, Ohio, in October 1849, a daughter of Henry and Sophronia (Payne) Smith. Her father was a blacksmith in Ohio, where he died in old age, and his widow died at Blue Springs, Nebraska, in December 1903, in the eighty-first year of her age. Mrs. Scott is one of seven living children, two brothers and four sisters. Mr. and Mrs. Scott’s only son and child is Aretas, one of the leading dentists of St. Joseph, Missouri. He married Mary Lionberger. He was a graduate of the Humboldt high school at the age of seventeen, then took a course at the State University at Lincoln, and graduated from the Gem City Business College at Quincy, Illinois. The head of the latter school, D. M. Musselman, gave him a certificate graded at 97, one of the very highest marks, for he never gave higher than 98. Dr. Scott is a young man of much talent in various lines. He graduated with high standing from the Kansas City Dental College, and has since built up a fine practice in St. Joseph. He was secretary of the Dental Association in St. Joseph. He is a Master Mason, a Modern Woodman, and is a staunch Republican.
Mr. Scott has been a Republican for many years. He takes an active part in the proceedings of the Grand Army of the Republic and affiliates with Humboldt Lodge No. 40, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and with the Ancient Order of United Workmen. He has served as constable and is widely and favorably known in the county and state. He has taken an interested part in the campaigns for the past few years. Mrs. Scott is a member of the Presbyterian Church.
Source: Lewis Publishing Company, A Biographical and Genealogical History of Southeastern Nebraska, 2 volumes, Lewis Publishing Company, 1904.