Grave site of Alexander SCOTT, died 1859

SCOTT, GILMER

Posted By: Joey Stark
Date: 5/18/2011 at 22:37:07

Transcribed from "Jefferson County Records"
by Orville & Mary Prill, and compiled by D.A.R. Log Cabin Chapter #862 of Fairfield, Iowa, 1964
Volume 3, Pages 269-272

Clipping from the collection of Mr. R.T.H. GILMER, probably from a Des Moines newspaper, about 1913.

(Photo of Alexander SCOTT)

MAN WHO BUILT FIRST STATE HOUSE LIES IN UNMARKED, NEGLECTED GRAVE

Memory of Alexander SCOTT Revered at Annual Meeting of Pioneers' Association. Effort will be Made to Have Legislature Mark Resting Place....

Above an unhonored grave in a neglected spot in Des Moines with neither stick nor stone to mark its location, may be reared a noble monument to commemorate the life and deeds of Alexander SCOTT. Mr. SCOTT built and paid for the first state house in Des Moines and gave to the state of Iowa later a part of the ground upon which now stands the present capitol. Fifty-four years after his burial the pioneers of Des Moines ask that the citizens of Iowa honor the man who made the erection of the magnificent capitol possible.....

Alexander SCOTT's grave, according to statements of the pioneers, is located at a place never to be guessed as a burial place. It lies just south of Vine Street, midway between East Eleventh and Twelfth streets. Unsightly outbuildings are crowded around it. There is nothing there now to mark his burial place. Once there was a fence about the grave placed there by a brother, long since dead, but it has been torn down. A friend planted a tree by the side of the grave, but several years ago this too was cut down. All that remains now to mark the grave is a shattered stump.

SCOTT was the pioneer of pioneers of Des Moines.... Because of his great love for the Des Moines river valley, he asked that his body be buried on a knoll overlooking the wide sweep of the prairie and on a spot designated by him. It is the hope of the remaining pioneers of Des Moines that public spirit will prompt the citizens of Iowa and Des Moines generously to do honor to the man who made the location of the capitol possible for Des Moines. ...As the result of his generosity to Iowa, Alexander SCOTT died penniless...

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"Des Moines Capital"
Friday, December 6, 1918

PIONEER MONUMENT WILL BE ERECTED AT GRAVE OF SCOTT, DONOR OF STATE HOUSE TRACT

After more than half a century the state of Iowa has made provision to honor the hardy old pioneer who made the present location of Iowa's state house possible by donating a portion of the grounds and helping to build the first building. His remains lie buried on a high bluff near the southeast corner of the capitol extension grounds, which he himself chose as his last resting place, which choice his relatives and friends respected when he died. Now the state executive council..... is arranging to have the pioneer's monument, which stands in the center of the Locust street entrance to the capitol grounds moved to the grave of this man whom local historians record as the pioneer of pioneers.

To the present generation this lonesome, out-of-the-way spot seems a queer location for a grave. But SCOTT came to Polk County with the Indians in 1843 and his wife was an Indian girl. It was the custom of those early old timers to satisfy their adventurous and romantic natures by choosing a picturesque spot for their last resting place. And SCOTT picked out the high bluff overlooking the great river valley which in those days was virgin valley farm land but which advancing civilization has made a network of railway lines with factories and homes and busy streets. This is the way the late L.F. Andrews, an old time newspaper man, in his "Pioneers of Polk County" tells it:

"One day, years ago, SCOTT was standing with some friends on the point of the bluff south of the present capitol overlooking the grand view of the river valley and his fine farm on the plateau. He said, in a very impressive way: 'When I die I want to be buried here where we stand.' In accordance with that desire his body was brought here by his brother John followed by a cortege of his loving friends and citizens and there buried. The burial plot was purchased and deeded to Lee township. A tree was planted and for a time friends, now dead, maintained a cheap board fence about the grave. Now it is marked only by gross neglect, to the shame and ingratitude of the richest state in the union and of a people who profess a love of justice, of patriotism, of public spirit and the exaltation of the righteous."

That was written almost fourteen years ago. The neglect and ingratitude which the old historian scores is about to give way to recognition and honor tho long delayed.

"Alec" SCOTT, as he was called, came to Iowa and Polk County in 1843 with the dragoons and furnished products for the garrison located at the mouth of the Raccoon River known as Ft. Des Moines, from the section of land he cultivated. When the Indians left Iowa he went with them to Kansas as an Indian trader, but came back in 1846 and purchased 500 acres along the Des Moines River, comprising a portion of what is now the capitol grounds. He built a double log house to the southeast of the present location of the soldiers' monument. Being across the river from the settlement of Ft. Des Moines, with no bridges, he established a ferry. This was in 1846 when there was considerable emigration westward, and SCOTT is reported by Mr. andrews to have done a lucrative business. In 1849, during the California emigration, over 600 horses and as many people were ferried across in a single day.

His connection with the donation of a portion of the state house grounds is recorded by Mr. Andrews: "..... SCOTT executed his agreement to the very letter at a great loss to himself, carried the first state house to completion, donated the site for it and also most of that on which the state house now stands, tho then quite unlike what it now is. It was covered with forest trees and dense underbrush.... When the state house deal was over SCOTT had little left."

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"Des Moines Register"
Monday morning, December 16, 1930
Pages 1 & 2

CITY'S RULER RESTS UNDER LONELY SLAB
by Donald Grant.

On the windswept brow of Capitol Hill, overlooking the railroad tracks and the southeast bottoms, is the grave of Willson Alexander SCOTT, Des Moines' first citizen. The lonely slab of granite which marks the grave of Mr. SCOTT is muddy around the edges, where urchins of the neighborhood have wiped their shoes.... It is alone on the grassy bluff at the southeast corner of the state house grounds....

Early in 1857 Mr. SCOTT reached the pinnacle of his career. He was the most influential man in the community, himself possessor of most of the community.... Then came a series of events which spelled financial ruin and death to Des Moines' first citizen. .... Mr. SCOTT, known as the man who built the state house, became a bankrupt homesteader. Finally, in 1859, he joined the rush for gold in the west, traveling under the banner, "Pike's Peak or Bust." Seeking to recoup his fortune, the first white man to come to Des Moines started across the prairies.

June 23, 1859, in a tent on the barren plains near Fort Kearney, Neb., Willson Alexander SCOTT, 41, died. They brought his body back to Capitol Hill and buried it on the only piece of property left of Mr. SCOTT's formerly vast holdings. He was buried at the place he had requested to be laid, on Capitol Hill, where he could see the city of Des Moines, a little village of log houses. There the grave still lies, overlooking the smoking city that grew where he first stood.

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Loose clipping in Mr. GILMER's collection:

On a knoll southeast of the state house in Des Moines is a large granite slab which marks the grave of the pioneer who pre-empted the ground upon which the capitol building now stands and donated it to the state. The inscription upon the slab reads as follows:

"Sacred to the memory of Wilson Alexander SCOTT who gave to the State of Iowa the greater part of the land where stands the Capitol. Born in Crawford County, Indiana, Nov. 20, 1818. He acquired some 500 acres of land hereabouts and settled on the site in 1846. Overwhelmed by the financial crash of 1857, he died near Fort Kearney, Nebraska Territory, enroute to Pike's Peak, June 23, 1859. By his expressed wish his body was returned and on Nov. 1, 1859, interred in earth, which as his homestead, had been exempted from seizure for his debts. Erected in 1925 by the State of Iowa."

*Transcribed for genealogy purposes; I am not related to the person(s) mentioned.