Scott, Lee

The following data is extracted from A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans.

Lee Scott. The career of Lee Scott, one of the well known figures in the business life of El Dorado, had been an illustration of practical and diversified activity, and had invaded various fields of endeavor. Mr. Scott had been identified with a number of lines of business, but more recently had given the greater part of his attention to oil and gas brokerage and the real estate and insurance business, and is accounted one of the leaders in these lines of commercial and industrial promotion. He is now quite heavily interested in some of the best oil and gas productions in the El Dorado field.

Lee Scott is a native son of El Dorado, and was born September 21, 1877, his parents being James and Jennie (Best) Scott. He is descended from Scotch ancestors, the family having been founded in this country by his great-grandfather, James Scott, who settled in Delaware and engaged in agricultural pursuits throughout a long life. The grandfather of Lee Scott, also named James, was born in 1800 in Delaware, and was a pioneer into Ohio and later into Iowa. In 1876 he came to Kansas and settled in Butler County, where he lived in retirement until his death in 1897. During the active years of his life he was a farmer and a developer of land. James Scott, father of Lee Scott, was born December 3, 1837, in Ohio, where he was reared and educated, and as a young man went to Montrose, Iowa, where he was married. For some years he was a mate on a Mississippi River steamboat, and while thus engaged enlisted, in 1861, in the First Iowa Cavalry, with which he served four years and nine months, or throughout the period of the Civil war. He took part in the campaigns in Missouri and Arkansas, much of his service being against the guerillas, assisted in repelling the raids of Quantrell and Price, and was wounded in the head in one of these skirmishes. In 1876 Mr. Scott came to El Dorado, where he conducted a dairy for a number of years, but later bought a farm northeast of El Dorado, on which he conducted operations until he sold it in 1904. Since that year he had lived in retirement. Mr. Scott is a republican and a member of Patmos Lodge, No. 97, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons. He married at Montrose, Iowa, Miss Jennie Best, who was born in that state in 1847, and died on the farm near El Dorado in 1900. They became the parents of eight children, as follows: Charles, in the mining business; Harry, who is a contractor living at Chandler, Oklahoma; Grace, who is the wife of Dr. F. E. Dillenbeck; George, an accountant, who lives in California; Lee, of this notice; Earl, who is assistant manager of a chain of mercantile establishments with headquarters at Gibson, New Mexico; Faye, who is the wife of Frank Crow, engaged in the lumber business at McAllen, Texas; Frank, who resided at Topeka and is in the insurance business.

Lee Scott was educated in the public schools of El Dorado, and after his graduation from the high school in 1897 engaged in engineering and surveying, being county sorveyor and county engineer from 1900 until 1907. He then became business manager of the Walnut Valley Times, but gave up journalism after one year and accepted a position in the United States government service as deputy surveyor and engineer in New Mexico. Three years later, in 1910, he returned to El Dorado and established the Scott-Embree Grocery Company, in the conduct of which business he was active until 1916, and in which he is still a silent partner. In 1916 he established his present business, oil and gas brokerage, insurance and real estate, and in this field had made rapid progress. His offices are located at 110 Gordy Street. His modern residence, at 201 North Atchison Street, was erected by Mr. Scott in 1913, and in addition he is the owner of an apartment house at the corner of Sixth Avenue and Mechanic Street and of other real estate at El Dorado. A republican in politics, he was elected to the city council on that ticket, and rendered his city and constituents excellent service in that capacity for four years. Fraternally he is prominent, being a thirty-second degree Mason, and a member of Patmos Lodge, No. 97, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons; El Dorado Chapter, No. 35, Royal Arch Masons; Wichita Consistory, No. 2, and Midian Temple, Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, of Wichita, and of Andrina Chapter, No. 92, Order of the Eastern Star, and El Dorado Camp, No. 647, Modern Woodmen of America. He also holds membership in the Eldorado Commercial Club and had been active in its movements. He is treasurer and a director of the Oil and Gas Company of El Dorado.

Mr. Scott married at El Dorado, in 1904, Miss Lida Lou Shelden, a native of Kansas and a daughter of Alvah and Mary M. Shelden. Mr. Shelden is deceased, and Mrs. Shelden is a resident of El Dorado. To this union there have been born three children, namely: Shelden, born September 9, 1905; Virginia, born December 24, 1911; and James, Jr., born June 8, 1913.

Source: A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans

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