Scott, Addison V.

The following data is extracted from Illustrated History of the State of Idaho.

Addison V. Scott is well known throughout southern Idaho as a shrewd and public-spirited financier and real estate operator, and Mrs. Adelia B. (Dugan) Scott, his wife, has wide distinction as having been the first women in Idaho elected to the office of justice of the peace, the important functions of which she is discharging with admirable ability. They were married in 1883 and are among the prominent families of Idaho Falls.

Addison Scott was born in Madison County, Iowa, January 14, 1858, and is descended from English-Irish ancestry. His forefathers settled early in Indiana, and Joseph Scott, his grandfather, became prominent in that state. Joseph C. Scott, son of Joseph Scott and father of Addison V. Scott, was born, reared and educated in Indiana, and there married Miss Eliza Jane Rawlings, a native of Indiana and daughter of Rev. James Rawlings, of the Methodist Episcopal Church, a man whose good life and good works had a beneficent influence upon the people among whom he lived and labored. Joseph C. Scott and Eliza Jane (Rawlings) Scott had eight children, only three of whom are living. The father died, in 1897, at the age of seventy-one. His wife, who was many years his junior, is now (1899) sixty-five years old. Addison V. Scott, their fourth child, was educated in the high schools of Iowa, principally at Burlington, and at the age of seventeen began to teach school. He was successful in the work, but a business career was more to his taste, and later he was a clerk in mercantile houses until he secured a position with a large real-estate, loan and banking firm. In 1883 he was called to the cashiership of the Creston (Iowa) National Bank, of which J. B. Harsh was president. He resigned the position four years later (1887) to go to Kansas. He did not remain long in the Sunflower state, however, but went to Colorado and there engaged in the real estate and banking business on his own account. In 1890 he came to Idaho Falls, from Denver, and opened a real estate and fire insurance office. He secured a combination of first-class fire insurance companies, and his knowledge of underwriting and his business ability were such than he soon gained a large and increasing patronage. He also dealt extensively in real estate for himself and others and platted Scott's Addition to Idaho Falls, which has been partially sold off and built upon, and built a hotel and a business block which are among the prominent buildings of the town. Soon after he came to southeastern Idaho, the importance of irrigation became apparent to him, and he became prominent in connection with the work of the Idaho Canal Company and later with that of the Marysville Canal & Improvement Company, which is doing much for the improvement of Fremont county, and of which he was elected secretary and treasurer, which positions he holds at this time.

Mr. Scott is a Republican and takes an active and helpful interest in the work of his party. While he lived in Iowa he was elected city treasurer of Creston, and since coming to Idaho he was appointed by Governor Willey one of the first regents of the state university. There is no movement for the public good that does not receive Mr. Scott's hearty indorsement and generous financial support, and Mrs. Scott is equally public-spirited. She is vice-president of the Ladies' Improvement Society, of Idaho Falls, an organization having for its object the improvement and beautifying of the town, whose work has been so effective that largely through its agency, directly and indirectly, Idaho Falls is cleaner and more attractive than many of her sister towns.

Mr. and Mrs. Scott, who are communicants of the Catholic church, did very much toward the building of the Catholic church at Idaho Falls and have labored otherwise to advance the cause of their church in the town of their adoption.

Source: Illustrated History of the State of Idaho

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