Agnes Scott College - Silhouette Yearbook (Decatur, GA)

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fll v8. Hones Scott ¥ ¥ ¥ ©OD ' S most perfect work is a noble woman. Who could help saying and believing this when he stands within the walls of Agnes Scott and remembers that this is a grand monument and tribute to the virtues of one woman who, though dead, yet lives in the grand results which her life and her influence have brought about. Thou, Agnes Irvine Scott, hast left thv impress on many through this school which has been raised to thv memory. Agnes Irvine Scott was born in Ballykiel, County Down, Ireland, June 13, 1799, and was the youngest of three children. Her father, William Irvine, died in the same vear which witnessed the birth of his youngest child, and six years later her mother was married to Edward Stitt, a distant relative. Novem- ber 29, 1814, Edward Stitt died, and the family then consisted of his widow, Man- Stitt, and her two d aughters, Susanna, then married to James Stewart, and Agnes. After her father ' s death Agnes Irvine made her home for several years with her uncle, James Irvine, who lived in Newry. James Irvine was very desirous of adopting his niece, but his plans in that respect were against the wishes of Agnes Irvine ' s mother, who did not wish to be separated from her daughter and who had decided to leave Ireland and come to America where she thought better advantages were offered to her children than at the old home in Ireland. It was on the 29th of March, 1816, that Mary Stitt, her two daughters and son- in-law sailed from Warren ' s Point, Ireland, for Philadelphia, and thirty-six days after they landed at the latter city. It had been no easy thing for Agnes Irvine to leave her comfortable home at Newry and take a long vovage in a small sailing vessel such as was then in use, and the trial was made even heavier by the loss of her sister Susanna, who died and was buried before the ship reached its destination. After landing in Philadelphia the small party traveled through the country by coach, for this was before the days of fast express trains, to their new home at Alexandria, in the interior of Pennsylvania. Here they settled among old friends and relatives, and here it was that Agnes Irvine was married to John Scott on the 29th of October. The Irvines were of Scotch-Irish stock, and of the true Presbyterian type, so it is not surprising to learn from the records that soon after reaching Alex- andria Agnes Irvine and her mother gave their letters of dismissal from the church at Kilkiel, Ireland, into the care of the Hartslog Presbyterian congre- gation. Of this church she was a member until the day of her death. John Scott died in 1S50, but his wife still continued to live in Alexandria. She died October 23, 1877, aged 78 years and was buried in the beautiful ceme- tary near Alexandria and overlooking the valley of the Juniata river. These are the simple facts, the outline of the life of one whose name to many women has become inseparably associated with the happiest part of their lives. To these and to all present students of Agnes Scott what has been written is enough, for they no not need to be reminded of the life and character of her whose name has become so dear to them. Let the pen then be silent and let not the hand of any, however tender, draw aside the veil, that the staring multitude may look into the inner life of this Christian woman.

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Col (3eotoe W. Scott ¥ ■ H HIGH-SOUNDING baptismal name, such as George Washington or Napoleon Buonaparte, is often united in a highly ludicrous way with a trifling character; why, we do not know, unless the weight of the name exerts a crushing force upon babyhood powers. The hero name and the unheroic life do not always go together, however, as the subject of this little sketch strikingly illustrates. George Washington Scott was born at Alexandria, Huntingdon County, Penn., on February 22, 1829 — just ninety-seven years to the day after the Revolutionary hero, whose name he bears, first saw the light. His boyhood and school-days passed quietly away on the picturesque banks of the blue Juniata; on attaining his majority, however, he set out to seek his fortune elsewhere. Not to California where the gold fever was drawing hundreds and thou- sands, but to the Land of Flowers did he direct his steps — or, rather, his horse ' s steps, for all the long irksome journey was made on horseback. His first South- ern winter was spent in Quincy, but the remaining nineteen years of his Florida residence were passed in Tallahassee. Here it was that he set up house-keep- ing, Miss Bucher, of Carlisle, Penn., becoming his wife in 1S53. All the early journeys to and from his native town were made on horseback ; and it throws a strong and beautiful light on the character, both of the young man and of his mother, to learn that, at her wish, he never traveled on Sunday, and always went to Sunday-school if one were accessible. By and by the civil war broke out, and Mr. Scott, obeying the voice of principle rather than of preference, took the Southern side, becoming first a private and later a colonel in the Confederate army. Directly after the war the white Democrats of Florida showed their confidence in Col. Scott by electing him Governor of the State. Those were the trying times of reconstruction, however, and the Republicans counted him out. From 1870 to 1877 the quaint old city of Savannah was Col. Scott ' s home. In 1S77, at the time of the yellow fever epidemic in Savannah, he came to Decatur; so that for twenty years his presence has been a benediction in this little North Georgia town. How, in 1S89, Col. Scott, in memory of his dear mother, Mrs. Agnes Scott, built the Institute, and what has been his connection with the school since, is told elsewhere. Every Institute girl would like our first Annual to have a more detailed sketch of his life, but we know he would have it as brief as possible. Every girl would like the world to know how constant, how thoughtful and how delicate is Col. Scott ' s kindness to the Agnes Scott folk, and how rarely beau- tiful is the life and character we have had glimpses of from time to time. But because it would give him pain to say much, we must content ourselves with the single wish: Our dear Col. Scott — God bless him!

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MRS. AGNES SCOTT