Will J. Scott

[Source: Francis White Johnson and Ernest William Winkler, A History of Texas and Texans, Volume 3 (1914), page 1111]

For the past seven years postmaster of Denison, Will J. Scott is one of the citizens of that community whose long residence, success in business, and high personal character entitle them to the best distinctions in public life, and the position to which he has been called he has rendered faithful and intelligent service in the public interest.

Will J. Scott, who is Scotch-Irish descent, was born February 14, 1853, at Lexington, Kentucky. He has an uncle, Rev. Robinson Scott, who for twenty-five years was president of the Belfast Methodist College in Ireland, and who left one child. Mr. Scott's parents were William and Elizabeth C. Scott. His father was born in Belfast, Ireland, and his mother in Norfolk, Virginia. They were married and came to Kentucky in 1850, the father being a lawyer by profession, also a farmer and stock raiser, and had a home near Lexington, Kentucky. Later he retired and lived in the city of Lexington until his death in 1860. The mother died in 1898 while living at Denison with her son. There were only two children, and the older, Robert Scott was born in 1851, and died in 1856.

Will J. Scott is a man of superior education, and is a graduate of Kentucky University at Lexington. He is a pioneer of Denison, having lived here since 1873, at which time the town comprised only a collection of business and residence houses grouped about the railroad terminal. Mr. Scott was one of the early pioneer postmasters of Denison having been appointed to the office in 1877 by President Hays, and filling the place for four years. Roosevelt in 1907 appointed him to the office, and by reappointment under President Taft in 1911, he is now in his second consecutive term, which will expire in 1915. He has always been a Republican, and has given much effective aid to his party in Texas and the south. Fraternally he is affiliated with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, belongs to the Denison Commercial Club, and is a member of the Episcopal church.

Mr. Scott was married October 9, 1875, at Denison to Miss Ella J. Jennings, a daughter of J. W. Jennings of St. Louis, Missouri. Her father was a successful flour manufacturer and lumber man in Denison for several years and later was engaged in railroad brokerage business at No. 1 Broadway in New York City, and his death occurred in that city in 1909. No children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Scott.

As a Denison pioneer, Mr. Scott is familiar with every phase in the growth and development of this city, and is one of the most enthusiastic boosters of not only Denison, but of all north Texas. He is a man of wide acquaintance of much travel. He served as presiding judge of the Racing Department of the Texas State Fair for fifteen years, and during that time traveled all over the United States, visiting other fairs and race meetings in the interest of the great Dallas attraction. Mr. Scott spends his vacations chiefly at Asbury Park, Atlantic City, and other eastern resorts.

He takes great pride in the Denison of the present day with its twenty thousand people, with its good banks, schools and churches, the largest federal building in the South used exclusively for post office purposes, with various modern office buildings, a one hundred thousand dollar high school, nine ward school buildings, and many other improvements which mark the progressive character of the citizenship. A distinction which could not be forgotten is that Denison had the first graded public school in Texas. Mr. Scott speaks of various other features which are patent in a consideration of Denison's position in the list of Texas cities. The M. K. & T. Railroad shops have a payroll of $20,000 a month, and the post office payroll will average about $110,000 a year. One hundred and fifty postal clerks have their headquarters in Denison which is the division point in the railway mail service, and for that reason the post office has special importance in the Southwest.