ISAAC R. SCOTT
The Scott family from whom the subject of this sketch is descended was founded in America by three brothers who came from Scotland and first settled in Boston, Mass., in the seventeenth century. One
of them finally located in Bellingham, Mass., while the other two went with Roger Williams to Rhode Island and took up land on the Blackstone River. Their descendants have for generations been
prominent factors in the civil, social and commercial life of New England and are numbered among the most progressive and substantial citizens. Larned Scott, son of Nathaniel and the father of Isaac
R., was born in Cumberland, R. L, and became a mill architect and engineer of considerable note. He erected many of the older mills in New England, among them being one in Uxbridge, Mass., the
Atlantic Delaine Mills in Providence, and Lonsdale mill No. 3 in Lonsdale, R. I. In 1832 he moved with his family to Lonsdale and established a machine shop, and there his wife, Joanna C. Clark, a
native of Cumberland, R. L, died in 1833. His death occurred in Providence in 1852. They had three children: Isaac R. of Utica, and William L. and Mary, both deceased.
Isaac Raze Scott, eldest son of Larned and Joanna C. (Clark) Scott, was born in Cumberland, R. L, August 5, 1817, and inherited the sturdy and thrifty traits of character that distinguished his ancestors. He received a common school education in his native town and in addition, while the family were in Lonsdale, attended an academy in Wrentham, Mass., for a period of six months. As a boy he showed great aptitude for mechanics, and during the intervals of school and work spent much time in the shop of his father. This sort of play, this fondness for the use of tools, helped him to acquire under his father's eye a practical knowledge of mechanical work before he began to learn his trade. About 1835 he entered his father's shop and commenced the active application of his trade of machinist, but the next year went to Woonsocket as foreman in the repair shop of one of the textile mills. In the spring of 18639 he went to Newton Upper Falls, Mass., to take charge of the repair shop of a plant then known as the Eliot Mills, a cotton manufactory, where he remained until October, 1844. Soon after going there he made the acquaintance of Otis Pettee, whose shops were shortly destroyed by fire. Mr. Pettee then bought the Eliot mills and Mr. Scott's sphere of action was greatly enlarged, he having been made foreman of the shops and placed in charge of the work of erecting new machinery as well as doing repairing. In 1844 he became mechanical agent of the Boston Manufacturing Company at Waltham, Mass.; where he remained for twenty-eight years, or until 1872. This company, besides manufacturing cotton, then built machinery and did considerable repair work, and after about two years in charge of the machine shop Mr. Scott was made superintendent of the entire plant. In 1860 he became the agent, succeeding Ebenezer Hobbs. When Mr. Scott first went to the company the plant consisted of 11,000 spindles, while the bleachery had a capacity of two tons of coarse cotton cloth per day; the stock was valued at about $600 per share, par $750. When he left it the plant contained 43,000 spindles, the bleachery and dye house had a capacity of fourteen tons of a greater variety of product per day, and the stock could not be bought for less than $1,410, the par value in the meanwhile having been raised to $1,000 from the earnings of the mill. He gave the directors six months' notice of his desire to resign; at their request this was extended a month and the board sent him a most complimentary letter besides presenting him with a check for $5,000.
During the next ten years Mr. Scott made Waltham his home, enjoying more pleasure than ever before in his life, yet remaining pretty active, serving as an ex- pert before the courts on mechanical cases, particularly those connected with water works, and in this capacity he was employed by the city of Boston for one year. Immediately after resigning the agency of the Boston Manufacturing Company he constructed the Waltham water works under contract. On the 14th of March, 1882, Mr. Scott came to Utica to erect and superintend the equipping of the first mill of the Skenandoa Cotton Company. This mill, known as No. 1, had 10,000 spindles, running altogether on hosiery yarns, and upon the completion of the work Mr. Scott, who, in the opinion of one of the directors (a man widely known in cotton- mill circles in this country and in Europe), was one of the most successful mill man agers he ever met, was invited to take the entire management of the plant. Mill No. 2 was completed in 1887 and contains over 13,000 spindles; No. 3 was built in 1893 and contains more than 25,000 spindles: the entire spindlage of the plant is about 51,600 spindles. The original capital of $200,000 has been increased to $600,000.
To Mr. Scott's practical ability and active management as superintendent is largely due the wonderful success of this great corporation. He is a man of wide experience, and is one of the oldest and ablest active mill managers in the country: From the first he has given his attention to the practical operation of the mill and until 1893 performed the entire work of supervision alone; he was then given an assistant. in the person of D. W. Gray, formerly of Lonsdale, R. I. Mr. Scott also attends to the buying and selling, and in performing this work travels on an average 1,000 miles each month. His entire life has been spent in mills, and by close application to the practical mechanical parts of his work, and later to the business end, he has steadily advanced through every stage to the highest post in his calling. His career has been one series of successes, and all have been attained by his own efforts. He possesses a natural inclination for mechanics and an ambition to master every detail. These qualities, combined with great executive ability and sound judgment, and a rare power of concentration, led him eventually into his present position--the manager of a mill erected and equipped under his superintendence, attending to the practical operation of the plant, and buying everything that goes into it and selling its product, which amounts to over a million dollars annually. To combine these duties certainly calls for a rare combination of intellect and ability, and this ability, in all its strength, in a man seventy-nine years of age, is extremely rare. In politics Mr. Scott was originally a Whig and since about 1856 he has been an unswerving Republican. He cast his first vote for William Henry Harrison for president in 1840. During the war, while a resident of Waltham, Mass., he took an active part in raising a company of volunteers and served as chairman and treasurer of the committee which had charge of the recruiting. Twice he visited this organization in the field and looked after its interests during its term of service. He is a member of Fort Schuyler Club of Utica, and since taking up his residence here has manifested a keen interest in the welfare and advancement of the city.
Mr. Scott was married in December, 1838, to Miss Sarah A., daughter of Robert and Patty Whipple, all natives of Smithfield, R. I. They have had two children: Edward S. Scott, of Rogers, Ark., and Mary C., who married William S. Hall, of Perth Amboy, N. J., and died in 1895.
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