History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century/4/John Scott

JOHN SCOTT was born in Jefferson County, Ohio, April 14, 1824. He attended the common schools until sixteen years of age when he began to teach. He came to Iowa in 1843 but returned to Ohio and Kentucky, teaching school until May, 1846, when he enlisted in a regiment of Kentucky volunteers fitting out for the Mexican War. In 1847 he, with Cassius M. Clay and seventy others, was taken prisoner and marched to the City of Mexico where they were held in captivity for eight months. From 1852 to 1854 he was editor of the Kentucky Whig. He removed to Iowa in 1856, locating at Nevada, where he was engaged in farming and real estate. In 1859 he was elected to represent the counties of Story, Boone, Hardin and Hamilton in the State Senate. He served in the regular session of 1860 and the war session of 1861 and then resigned to enter the Union army. Mr. Scott was appointed lieutenant-colonel of the Third Regiment and was in command at the Battle of Blue Mills, engaging a superior army of the enemy. In 1862 he was promoted to colonel of the Thirty-second Infantry where he served with distinction until May, 1864, being engaged in many severe conflicts. In 1867 he was elected Lieutenant-Governor of Iowa on the Republican ticket, serving two years. In 1870 Colonel Scott was appointed Assessor of Internal Revenue, holding the office until it was discontinued. He has been intimately associated with the industrial progress of the State for more than a quarter of a century and has been president of the State Agricultural Society, of the State Road Improvement Association, the Improved Stock Breeders' Association and delegate to the National Agricultural Congress. He was for many years an able contributor to agricultural journals. In 1885 he was again elected to the State Senate where he was the author of the bill to establish a State Board of Control for the various public institutions. He has several times come within a few votes of the nomination for Congress in Republican conventions. Colonel Scott is the author of several books. In 1849 he published a narrative of the imprisonment of himself and companions during the Mexican War. In 1895 he published a “Genealogy of Hugh Scott” and his descendants, and the “Story of the Thirty-second Iowa Volunteers.” In 1896 Colonel Scott was elected president of the “Pioneer Lawmakers' Association.”