Scott

James Scott (1829-1891) was born in Pennsylvania to parents who were both born in the state. Sometime before 1858 he married Ann Marie Simpson (1829-1897), who was born in New York and whose father came to the states from Ireland. A descendant told us that James was “a member of ‘the old Fischer family’ and that he was born and lived most of his life in Hope’s Hollow.” (We assume this is in the area of the present-day Hope’s Hollow Road that begins near the intersection of  Swallow Hill and Greentree Road).

In the 1860 Census, the couple are farming land in Upper St. Clair township using the Mt. Lebanon Post office. They have a two-year-old daughter Elizabeth Kerr (1858-1870). Ten years later, the 1870 Census lists the Scotts as farming land in Scott Township (their post office was listed as Green Tree). A nearby neighbor was August and Rosa Abbott. At that time, they had three children: William, 8; John, 6: and Annetta, 4. Elizabeth had died earlier that year. 

By the 1880 Census, James is listed as a laborer with three children: William, 17; John, 16; and Emma, 14 (the 1970 Census probably got her name wrong).

What the Census misses—and what was a sad fact of life in the mid- to-late-1800s—was the infant mortality. On the Scott marker we see that in addition to Elizabeth/Eliza, who died at age 11;  James and Ann buried several other children: Joseph (1865-1865), age 2 months; Oliver (1868-1868), age 2 months; Clara (1870-1871), age 8 months; Samuel (1873-1873) age 5 months; and Anna (1880-1881) 9 months. Emma lived to age 20 (1866-1886).

By the time James and Ann died—at age 62 on April 19, 1891, and at age 68 just six years later, respectively—they had buried seven children. They did live long enough to see son William (1862-1904) marry Margaret (1863-1932) in 1888.

The Scotts’ sons William and John T. were farmers in the Mt. Lebanon area in 1900 (a nearby neighbor was George and Mary Ann Jackson). John T, is living with his brother’s family, which consisted of  three children: Howard, 11; John H (1890-1912), 10; and Emma, 8.  William died just two years later at age 40 at his Mt. Lebanon home on Friday, August 1, 1902.  

On the 1910 Census, Margaret is living on Bower Hill Road next door to Louisa and Albert Davis and two doors from Albert and Emma Snider.  Living with her are her three children Howard, 21, a plumber; John H, 19, a packer at a hardware store; and Myrtle, 18. Also living with her is her 46-year-old brother-in-law John T, a roller boss on country roads. Two years later, her son John H. died at age 22. In 1920, Margaret is still at 658 Bower Hill with brother-in-law John and daughter Myrtle, a nurse. Her son Howard and his family are living next door. By the 1930 Census, Margaret has moved to 664 Shady Drive East and is living with her brother-in-law and an English nurse/servant named Mary Hardman. Margaret died in 1932. John does not appear on the 1940 census, so he probably passed sometime between 1930 and 1940. We do not know why he is not buried in St. Clair Cemetery with his parents, siblings, and the sister-in-law with whom he lived for 30+ years.