Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from History of Oregon, Vol. 2
For forty years Harvey Whitefield Scott was editor of The Oregonian and in his death the journalistic profession of America lost one of its most brilliant minds, one of its most accomplished scholars, and one of its most vigorous and courageous writers. He was a pioneer and a builder. For nearly a half century he labored for the develop ment of the Pacific coast, and Portland and the surrounding country owe their splendid progress in large measure to the work of this terse conductor of a great newspaper. He possessed those qualities which in the aggregate make what men call character, and this character, shining out through the columns of The Oregonian, has exalted the char acter of the state and the minds of her sons.
His birth occurred in Tazewell county, Illinois, February 1, 1838. He came of Scotch ancestry, his paternal forefathers landing at Charleston, South Carolina, in 1755. _his grandparents became residents of Pennsylvania and North Carolina, and his parents, John Tucker and Ann (roelofson) Scott, established their home in Tazewell county, Illinois, where Harvey W. Scott continued to reside until his fourteenth year, becoming inured to a life of severe toil, assisting with the work of the fields during the summer months, while in the winter seasons he attended the district school. In 1852 the family started across the plains to Oregon with ox teams - a journey that was fraught with many dangers and privations. On reaching Oregon they first located in Yamhill county, two of the party, the mother and a brother, having succumbed to the hardships of the journey. The rest of the family resided in that locality for about a year and removed to the Puget Sound country, settling in the vicinity of Olympia, in what is now Mason county, Washington. In the difficult work of clearing the land and preparing the soil for the cultivation of cr0ps Mr. Scott bore his full share and was thus occupied until 1855, when he enlisted as a private in the Washington Territory Volunteers, under Captain Calvin W. Swindall, and for about nine months was engaged in Indian war fare. Subsequently he worked in logging camps, also following surveying and farming until 1857, when he resolved to secure a better education and set out for Oregon City, walking the entire distance from Olympia. For a short time he resided with relatives in Clackamas county, Oregon, attending school in Oregon City, while later he continued his studies at Pacific University at Forest Grove, providing the necessary funds for his education by working as a farm hand in the neighborhood. In 1859 his father returned to Oregon, settling upon a farm three miles west of Forest Grove, and the son then entered Pacific University, where in 1863 he was the first to complete the four years' classical course, thus becoming the first alumnus of the institution. Near his father's place was a sawmill, in which Mr. Scott worked when not employed elsewhere. He was an expert axman, and did a good deal of work in clearing the forest about Forest Grove. He was' fond of the classics and read in the original all the Latin and Greek authors he could find. He possessed a retentive memory and throughout his life pre served a general familiarity with classical literature, being able to quote therefrom with remarkable readiness. Undoubtedly his great literary ability was due in large measure to his study of the classics, and when asked what books in English he regarded as most helpful in creating his literary style, he replied: The speeches of Edmund Burke and the prophecies of Jeremiah and Isaiah in the Old Testament.
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