Nature- John Stewart Scott (1826-1877) and Mary Jane Little (1836-1883)

For the Nature/Nurture prompts I’m going to do a two part series on the two families of my 2x great grandmother Margaret. The first is her “natural” family John Stewart Scott and Mary Jane Little.

John Stewart Scott

John Stewart Scott was the oldest son of John Scott and Sarah Stewart, born in Hancock West Virginia about 1826. He was the great-great grandson of the John Scott I wrote about for the first prompt. John Stewart Scott lost his mother when he was sixteen and lived with his father and stepmother, Jane Wallace, in their West Virginia home until he married at the age of thirty-eight. Even after his marriage he did not move far from home, living next door to his father and brother James. He signed up for the civil war draft in 1863, but probably did not fight.

John Stewart Scott’s wife was Mary Jane Little. I wrote about her parents, Jeremiah Little and Margaret Douglas, several months ago. She was an only child, born about 1836 in Dumfries Scotland. Her family emigrated from Scotland to Ohio when she was in her early teens. Her father was a Tailor and her mother died not too long after immigrating. In 1860 Jeremiah Little was running a Tailor shop in Steubenville Ohio, right across the river from West Virginia and not too far from where the Scotts lived in Hancock County and Mary Jane was working as a teacher and living in Allegany Pennsylvania. She probably met John while visiting her father in Steubenville. John Stewart Scott and Mary Jane Little were married July 5^th 1864 in Brooke County Virginia.

Mary Jane Scott

               Three years after their marriage their oldest son George was born in 1867. In 1870 their second daughter and my great-great grandmother, Margaret Douglas Scott, was born. The whole family was enumerated on the 1870 census. John Reported that he was a farmer and that his real estate was worth 600 dollars and his personal estate was worth 125 dollars. This was fairly low compared to his neighbors. But John’s father living next door had quite a bit of both real estate and personal wealth.

It was in 1872 that tragedy began to strike the Scott family. Little George died at the age of five and John’s third child, Mary Jones Scott, was born in 1873 and lived less than a year. In 1875 John and Mary Jane’s youngest daughter Sarah Jane Scott was born. However, John Stewart Scott himself died on March 22^nd 1877. His wife reported his death, giving his age as fifty-two. He was buried in Flats Cemetery with the rest of his family.

               Mary Jane, and her daughters Sarah and Margaret were left alone. However, they had support from their grandfather; John Scott Sr. He re-wrote his will after his son’s death such that most of his land would be sold to support his two granddaughters and his daughter-in-law as long as she remained a widow. He died less than a year after his son in November of 1877. The family continued to live in Hancock County and in 1880 they were enumerated on the census. Mary Jane was keeping house and Margaret and Sarah, ages 10 and 5, attended school.

George Scott

               In 1883 a final tragedy struck the Scott family. Mary Jane Scott died at the age of forty seven leaving her two young daughters orphans. Her death was not recorded, perhaps there was no one close enough to report it, but she was buried with her husband and two children in Flats Cemetery. Margaret and Sadie were only thirteen and eight at the time and were almost without close relatives. Their parents and all their grandparents were dead. Their mother had been an only child and any other family from that side was in Scotland. They did have a living Scott aunt and uncle, though their aunt was nearing seventy. But in the end neither their uncle nor aunt took them in. Margaret and Sarah’s lives would have been very different had it not been for the kindness of their father’s cousin, John R Scott, the subject of my next post.

John Stewart Scott and Mary Jane Little Scott