PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL
RECORD OF OKLAHOMA
HON. A. C. SCOTT, A.M., L.L., M.,President of the Agricultural and Mechanical College, at Stillwater, is one of the most influential educators and public men of Oklahoma. The possessor of talents of an unusually high order, he has, during the past few years, devoted these talents to the cause of education, with a success that is not only gratifying to his friends, but also beneficial to his commonwealth. His identification with the institution of which he is now the head dates from February 1898, when he was appointed to fill a vacancy in the chair of English literature. Accepting the professorship, he entered upon his duties with a zeal and efficiency that soon won the commendation of the board of regents, and by this body he was elected president of the college July 1, 1899. He has since given his attention closely to the discharge of his varied and responsible duties. He has won the confidence of the people and the warm friendship of the students, while his executive ability has gained the respect of his associates and co-workers in the institution. Since he became president, the chemistry and library buildings have been completed, the facilities of the institution otherwise greatly extended,. And both the instructional force and the student body doubled in number. Besides filling the office of president, he continues to act as professor of English literature, a department which his broad reading and literary culture qualify him to fill with the highest credit. His influence as president has been unsparingly used for the benefit of the institution. Nothing has been left undone, the doing of which would advance its interests. His high happiness has been in promoting its prosperity, and his zeal in its behalf has known no limit.
Nor is the name of President Scott associated alone with the college. He is known, also through his connection with public affairs from the beginning of the territory’s history. Coming to Oklahoma April 22, 1889, he at once began the practice of law in Oklahoma City and was a prominent figure in the stirring events incident to the founding and upbuilding of that city. In 1893, he was appointed executive commissioner for Oklahoma at the World’s Fair, and remained in Chicago from March until June 15, when he resigned. In 1894 he was elected to the territorial council of Oklahoma, and served in the third general assembly as president pro tem. of the senate. During his term he secured the passage of many important bills, among them the present bond law and the law founding the Historical Society. He passed through the senate a bill abrogating capital punishment, but it was defeated in the house. Another bill, permitting prize fighting in Oklahoma, passed the house, but he secured its defeat in the senate. He was a candidate for a second term in 1896, but was defeated by a fusion of the opposing parties. Always an effective public speaker, he was about this time the recipient of flattering offers from the lecture field, and had under serious advisement a proposition to enter upon that work, when the offer of a chair in the Agricultural and Mechanical College caused a change in his plans and gave him an opportunity to enter a work which speedily led on to the chief place in the institution.
A review of the Scott ancestry shows that the family came from Scotland to America in an early day. Alexander Scott, who was the son of a Revolutionary soldier, was a native of Pennsylvania, and served in the war of 1812, after which he engaged in farming and milling near Pittsburg. His son, John W. Scott, M. D., was born near Pittsburg, and , after graduating in medicine, practiced in Indiana until the spring of 1858, when he went to Kansas. He built the first house erected in Olathe. The strain of professional work proved too much for him and he was obliged to relinquish his practice. He then settled on a farm in Allen county. For years he was a member of the legislature (both territorial and state ) of Kansas, and he served a speaker of the house and as president of the senate. In 1872 he was appointed land commissioner of the Leavenworth, Lawrence & Galveston Railroad with headquarters in Lawrence, and gave his attention to disposing of the Kansas lands owned by the railway company. Settling in Iola, Kans., in 1876, he embarked in the drug business.
Later he accepted an appointment as United States agent for the Ponca, Pawnee and Otoe Indians, with headquarters at the Ponca agency. On a change of administration he resigned his position and resumed the drug business in Iola. Under President Harrison, in 1889, he was appointed a member of the board of government inspectors of stock in Kansas City, and from that place came to Oklahoma in 1893, settling in Lincoln county on a claim. He was living there in 18998, when he was elected to the territorial legislature, but he died during the opening days of the fifth general assembly. At the time of his death he was seventy-six years of age. During the Civil war he served as surgeon of a Kansas regiment. Fraternally, he was a Mason.
Dr. Scott’s wife, was Maria Protsman, who was born in Vevay, Ind., her father, William, having removed from Kentucky to Vevay in an early day. His mother was the daughter of a Revolutionary soldier, who bell at Bunker Hill. Mrs. Scott is now living in Stillwater. Of her eight children, the following survive: W. A., who was formerly a member of the Oklahoma legislature, and is now postmaster and a merchant at Clifton Okla.; W. W. , who is assistant purchasing agent for the Choctaw railroad at Memphis; Belle C., of Stillwater; A. C., Charles F., congressman-at-large for the state of Kansas; and Mr. E. C. Franklin, of Lawrence Kans., whose husband is a professor in the University of Kansas.
Near Franklin, Johnson county, Ind., A. C. Scott was born, September 25, 1857. In the spring of 1858 his parents removed to Kansas, and he was reared principally in Iola. In 1873 he entered the University of Kansas, from which he graduated in 1877, with the degree of A. B., and as valedictorian. After graduating he taught for three years. Meantime, during the summer of 1878, he traveled in Europe, visiting points of historic interest in the British Isles and on the continent. In 1880 he received the degree of A. M. from his alma mater. In 1882 he was elected clerk of the district court of Allen county, and while filling that office he also studied law and was admitted to the bar. Resigning the office 1884, he entered the law school of Columbian University, at Washington, D. C. from which he received the degrees of LL.B and LL.M in 1885. Returning to Iola, he carried on a law practice for four years, until the opening of Oklahoma, when he became a citizen of the new territory. In 1892 he was appointed a member of the board of town site commissioners of Oklahoma City and served as its secretary. This position consumed much of his time during 1892, and until he went to Chicago to take charge of the placing of exhibits at the fair. In 1892 his name was urged as a candidate for governor by his own county and many other counties of the territory. He has always been a stanch believer in Republican principles, and has taken an active part in national and territorial campaigns.
During his residence in Iola he was made a Mason, and is now a member of Oklahoma City Lodge No. 3, A. F. & A. M. He is also connected with the Knights of Pythias and the Ancient Order of United Workmen, besides which he is a charter member of the Commercial Club of Stillwater and the Territorial Bar Association. The Beta Theta Phi and the Phi Beta Kappa number him among their members. In religion he is of the Presbyterian faith. He was married in 1894 to Miss Lola Smeltzer, who was born near Frederick, Md., but in childhood accompanied her father, D. B. Smeltzer to Iola, Kans., where she grew to womanhood. She received her education in the grammar and high schools, afterward studying music for two years at the New England Conservatory, Boston. Mrs. Scott is state secretary of Oklahoma and Indian Territory of the Federation of Women’s Clubs.
Portrait and Biographical Record of Oklahoma (Chicago: Chapman Publishing Co., 1901), 817.Transcribed for OKGenWeb by Mary Charles Dodd Hull, February 1999.