Information Sheet

 

 

R         Scott family.

453                  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.  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 at Rolla, and served on the board of the Missouri Federation of Women’s Clubs for eight years.  George R. Dean was a well‑known professor of mathematics at MSM who had studied with Charles P. Stein­metz at the General Electric Laboratory in Schenectady, New York.  From this union were born Ha­zel Dean (1893‑1983), and Reginald Scott Dean (1897‑1961).  Hazel Dean obtained degrees from North­western Univer­sity and Radcliffe College (Harvard University), and was awarded the Ph.D. in eco­nomics at the University of Southern California (USC).  During the 1950s Ha­zel Dean was USC’s Dean of the School of Library Science.  Reginald Scott Dean received a degree in metal­lurgy from MSM at the age of sixteen, and obtained his Ph.D. at the University of Maryland.  He had a distin­guished career with the Western Electric Company and was later director of the met­allurgical divi­sion of the U.S. Bureau of Mines.  While with at the Bureau, he was responsible for the construc­tion of the Bureau’s building at Rolla.  He married, first, Alberta Northern, and, then, Mattie McGregor, 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’s Drug Store at Rolla.  After serving as an apprentice, he became a registered pharmacist in 1890.  Scott served as manager of the store until 1905, when he and Dr. A. C. McComb bought the business, which took the name Scott Drug.  John W. Scott became the sole owner in 1908.  In ad­dition to the pharmacy, Scott handled textbooks and school supplies for MSM students, and ex­panded into the sales of musical instruments and sheet music.  Scott was an accomplished musician himself, and was the founder and director of the Rolla town band, symphony orchestra, and cornet band.  He also organized the MSM Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) band in 1926 and di­rected it free of charge to the school until 1946.  For nearly sixty years in Rolla, there was scarcely 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 Missouri Methodist Conference from 1888 to 1896.  Stella Scott significantly contribut­ed to the management of Scott Drug and assisted MSM stu­dents with illnesses and money problems.  To the union of John and Stella Scott were born Olive Scott (1897‑1972), and James Walter Scott (1899‑1984).  Olive Scott attended the Illinois Women's College and was a St. Pat's Queen at MSM.  She married John M. Morris in 1919, a mining engi­neer (MSM 1919) whose career included a post at the U.S. Bureau of Mines sta­tion in Rolla.  Olive Morris was a pipe organist at various churches around the county, includ­ing the Rolla Methodist Church during the last twenty‑five years of her life.

 

To this union John M. Morris, Jr., was born in 1925.  A U.S. Navy veteran of World War II and a graduate of Northwestern University, John M. Morris, Jr., ultimately took over op­eration of the Scott family business and expanded it into Scotts Books & Music, Scotts Hall­mark, and Medi­cal Center Pharmacy, all at Eighth and Pine streets.  He also served on the boards of Boat­men’s Bank and Rolla Municipal Utilities, and the Missouri State Board of Education.

 

John M. Morris, Jr., married Lenore Jones in 1947.  She is the daughter of Floyd E. (1895‑1971), and Gladys Jones (1901‑    ).  Floyd Jones was a station agent for the Frisco rail­road and a Rolla businessman.  Lenore attended Lindenwood College and was a St. Pat’s Queen at MSM in 1946.  She was active in the operation of the Scotts stores, and has been co­ordinator of several Republican political campaigns. To John and Lenore Morris were born John M. Morris III (1951‑    ), and Susan Lenore Morris (1953‑    ).  John Morris III graduated from Northwest­ern University and received 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 the University of Missouri-St. Louis.  She is a homemaker and teacher in Chester­field.  In 1979 she married Bill Miller (1955‑    ), a corporate executive. To this union were born David Miller (1982‑    ), and Caroline Miller (1984‑   ).

 

John M. Morris, Jr., and Lenore Morris continued the operation of 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 to the Western His­tori­cal Manuscript Collec­tion.

 

The Scott family collection has been arranged in three parts.  The first and largest section consists of photographs and papers of John W. Scott, of his business enterprises styled as J. W. Scott & Company, and of the activities of the Scott, Morris, and Dean families, especially Stella Sappenfield Scott and Olive Scott Morris.  Included are John W. Scott’s personal ac­count books, 1889‑1921, papers concerning a suit involving the Scott building on Pine Street, and papers re­garding the subsequent operation of the business.  In addition to many photo­graphs, there are sev­eral items of biographical and genealogical interest, such as Dean family vital records from a family bible.

 

Section II includes photographs and historical material pertaining to the town of Rolla.  Of most interest are the records 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.  The records also indicate some of the venues at which the bands per­formed, and the expenses incurred.  Also in this section are miscellaneous materials such as pro­grams of events at the Rolla High School, 1915‑1926, a story on Harold Griggs, an Afri­can-American employee of Scott Drug, and poetry written by his wife, Adele.  There is also a large collection of photographs and postcard views of Rolla and surrounding areas.  Some of the post­cards were published by John W. Scott for sales through his store, while others were sent by friends of Olive Scott, in whose pa­pers they were found.  The postcards have been re­tained by the family but have been copied on 35mm slides.

 

Section III is entirely on microfilm.  It consists of materials retained by the donors.  Most im­portant in this series are the scrapbook of John W. Scott and the catalogs of the Western Con­ser­vatory of Music.  John W. Scott’s scrapbook contains broadsides, announcements and pro­grams for over one hundred musical productions in which Scott was interested or involved, in­cluding those of the Rolla Symphony Orchestra, the Rolla town band, and the MSM ROTC band.  Most of the productions took place at 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 by Ephraim and Olive Scott of the Western Conserva­tory of Music.  Most of the programs include the names of the performers and the titles of se­lections.

 

The material on the Western Conservatory of music includes programs for commence­ment exercises and general catalogs for the school at Rolla and Chica­go.  The catalogs are il­lustrated and contain brief biographies of faculty members and a description of the curricu­lum.  Material on the Western Conser­vatory is extant for 1887‑1918.

 

The final folder in the collection consists of itineraries and corre­spondence regarding the Rus­sell Brothers Circus, which was headquartered in Rolla during the 1930s and 1940s on grounds near the site of Civil War Fort Wyman.  John W. Scott was a friend of the circus owner, Charles W. Webb, and probably looked after the troupe’s musical instruments.  Scott also traveled with the cir­cus on several occasions, playing the trombone in the orchestra during its perform­ances between Rolla and Downer's Grove, Illinois.  The folder of circus memorabilia contains post­cards bearing the Russell Brothers schedules for 1937‑1941, and also correspon­dence with sev­eral circus employ­ees, including Charles W. Webb.

 

The Scott family papers are useful for research on the town of Rolla during the first half of the twentieth century.  In addition to material on prominent local families, the collection includes information on entertainment at formal and informal events at Rolla and the sur­rounding areas, and on education in music as offered by the Western Conservatory.

 

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