Gerald remembers the Scott family chain letter--and Mary's passing

After viewing a number of the family blogs along the right hand side of this blog site - I am very impressed by the amount of creative talent that is represented in this ever growing family. If my brothers and I represent the first generation, it is the third generation that seems to have been blessed with a remarkable amount of creative ability.

Kenneth and his mother, Carrie Mae, are seated at the head of the table.

When I was a member of the third generation,communication among family members was done by what you now call snail mail. We had the Scott Family Chain Letter. A thick envelope with many letters inside arrived about every three months. It took that long to make the circuit around the family. Dad would read all the letters, remove his old letter, write an new letter and send the chain letter on to the next in line.  

This handwriting looks like Kenneth's.  "E Scott" would be his father, Elzumer.

The chain letter envelope had a very distinctive logo printed in the upper left corner. The logo was framed by an oval chain. Inside this chain oval was printed The Scott Family Chain Letter. Below this was a line drawing of a section of a post and rail fence. The bottom rail was broken. Dad explained to us that the lower rail had been broken by Uncle Zene's head when, as a young lad, unable to stop his sled, he had slid through the fence one winter.

Uncle Zene was the brother of my grandfather, Elzumer Scott, my Dad's, father.

L to R:  Myrtle (Zene's wife), Mary, Mitch, Walt, Zene (behind) and Wayne

L to R: Larry, Betty, Mitch, Kenneth, Myrtle, Zene, and Mary

Now correspondence is almost instantaneous and very convenient. You just have to learn a whole lot of new tricks to make it work for you. I am still learning.

GLS - 14 June 2010 - Flag Day - the day that Mary Eliza Whittle Scott, the very capable mother of the five Scott brothers passed away.

L to R:  Walt, Mary, Richard, Wayne and Gerald

Kenneth's parents

Father, Elzumer Scott, was born March 30, 1874 on a farm near Blythedale, in the northern front of Harrison County, Missouri, not far from the Iowa line, the eldest son of Graham and Aneliza Bandy Scott.

My mother, Carrie Mae--the third child of Thomas Edward Sallee and Adelia Putnam--was born May 14, 1877 in Mercer County, Missouri, not far from the Iowa line, near Princeton, some twenty miles east of where my father was born.

Carrie Mae Sallee as a child, circa 1880

In those days of horse and buggy travel that was a distance that people generally did not frequently travel. My mother and the other members of her family were in the Baptist Church.

Carrie Mae Sallee Scott, 1877-1950

Elzumer Scott, 1874-1961

My mother and father became acquainted at the First Baptist Church in Chillicothe, Missouri, where my father had gone to attend the Chillicothe Business College.

It was in Chillicothe where mother and father were married on September 16, 1897, in the First Baptist Church.

Carrie Mae Sallee and Elzumer Scott

I have always been grateful for the strict religious home in which I was reared and the religious example my dear parents provided.

From as early as I can remember until the end of their mortality, Father and Mother were very faithful members of the Baptist Church and studied the Bible regularly.  For many years Father was the financial clerk and was in charge of the choir.  Mother sang in the choir.

Kenneth Leroy Scott and his mother, Carrie Mae Sallee Scott

In Kenneth's own words: Early years

We are greatly blessed that Kenneth and Mary followed the counsel of Church leaders to write their personal histories. This begins a series of posts about Kenneth's life, written in his own words.
 

On February 2, 1899, I was born in the home of my parents, Elzumer and Carrie Mae Scott in Chicago, Illinois.  My dear mother was attended in this, her first child bearing, by a very nice Irish neighbor lady, an experienced "midwife," who had been closely watching this lovely young lady, who as a young bride, had moved from the rural area of northwestern Missouri to the big city.  When the attending doctor finally arrived, this kindly but outspoken neighbor said, "Everything has been promptly attended to and you might as well go back to where you came from."  Presently my father arrived in response to the call to his office downtown, and was elated to find that his wife and firstborn son were doing well.

There is little record of my first years in Chicago.  I have a much-treasured, enlarged and framed picture of myself riding on a wheelbarrow of grass clippings, being pushed by my father.  

Does anyone have the original of this photo?

We found part of it! Elzumer

It shows the dress style of that period, with my father wearing a stiff white collar and tie, which must have been the way city surburbanites were supposed to dress when doing their yard work.

Kenneth

I also have a picture of my mother and myself, taken in a local park, showing us dressed in the fashion of that early period. 

Does anyone have the original?

When I was about four years old, my parents decided that the big city was not the place where they wanted to spend more of their life.  Perhaps this was influenced somewhat by their sadness in the death of their second child, Raymond, who died on December 23, 1902, from whopping cough at the age of nine months.  He was buried in Chicago, Illinois.

Raymond E. Scott, age 5 months, March 16, 1902

So Father accepted an offer to become cashier of the First National Bank of Ridgeway, Missouri, and we moved to the town about five miles from his birthplace.  Our home there was a rather small house only a few blocks from the main street of that town of less than 1,000 population.  We had a barn where we kept a driving horse and buggy, a cow, and a nearby chicken house where we kept enough hens to supply us with eggs and an occasional chicken dinner.  Near the house was a cellar where we kept the milk, butter, and the garden vegetables during the winter months.

Photo Hunt

Does anyone have or know of a photo of Thomas Levi and Mary Amelia (Polly ) Whittle?

Margaret Smith Whittle and Carrie Mae Sallee Scott

What memories do you have of Grandma Whittle and Grandma Scott? We'd love to hear from the boys in the photo (and Mitch, too)! (Double-click on photo for full size version.)

Family Hot Dog Roast

Any memories you'd like to share about this day?