Mary Sophia (Wright) Scott (1838-1910)

WRIGHT, SCOTT

Posted By: Dorian Myhre (email)
Date: 2/14/2017 at 12:33:33

From Nevada Representative September 13, 1910 (front page)

OBITUARY

DEATH OF MRS. MARY S. SCOTT

Mrs. Mary Sophia Scott, widow of the late Col. John Scott, died Saturday forenoon at the Victoria Hotel in Des Moines and was buried Monday forenoon in the Scott family lot, in the Nevada cemetery. Mrs. Scott had been in uncertain health for a long time; but her condition had at no time recently suggested that she was likely soon to pass away and her final illness was of only a few days duration. She and her daughter, Miss Mary Avis Scott, returned to Des Moines only a little more than a week before her death, having spent the summer in Minnesota; but she was taken worse on the train home.

Mary Sophia Wright was born October 19, 1838 at Freeport, Illinois was married there on November 24, 1862 to Col. John Scott of Nevada and died as stated at Des Moines on September 10, 1910, aged 71 years, 10 months and 22 days. At the time of their marriage Col. Scott was in the field as commander of the 32d Iowa Infantry; but upon the completion of his military service they reestablished the home at Nevada, where the colonel had first located in 1856, and here they continued to reside until 1898 when they removed their home to Des Moines. There they lived very delightfully until the colonel's death there in September, 1908. Since then Mrs. Scott and her daughter have continued the home and have continued the old hospitality, although for considerable periods they have been away. This summer they rented the home and went to Minnesota for a few months, and it was while waiting to get possession once more that Mrs. Scott died at the Victoria Hotel.

Mrs. Scott was a woman of education and of very notable talents and executive ability. Wherever she was she was an active and moving spirit in whatever was of common interest. She was fitted to adorn any social station and the place she occupied she instinctively made a social center. She was conspicuously identified with the Iowa representation in the expositions at New Orleans in 1885 and at Chicago in 1893, and her position in these maters was but an index of her qualities and activities. Strong in character and discerning in her understanding, she naturally took hold of things and made them go, and her genuine interest in all matters that ought to interest at home or abroad made her an exceedingly attractive and useful woman. Perhaps her last interest that really lasted was in the "Thimble Club" of Nevada ladies, which she organized and with which she retained her active connection through all the dozen years after her removal from Nevada.

Mrs. Scott leaves her only daughter, Mary Avis, and the grandchildren of her husband by his first wife. The funeral at Nevada on Monday consisted of a procession from the Short Line depot to the cemetery, where the ritual service of the Protestant Episcopal church was conducted by Canon Bell of Des Moines. Besides a large number of local friends there were present of the family and Des Moines and other outside friends, Miss Mary Avis Scott, Mrs. Carrie Blattner, Judge Cole and daughter Mrs. McMartin and Mr. Frank N. Jacks all of Des Moines, Col. Geo. W. Crossley of Webster City, Hon. W. W. Goodykoontz of Boone, and Mrs. Effie Lauer of Chicago.