CHARLES F. SCOTT.

CHARLES F. SCOTT, son of John W. and Maria Protsman Scott, whose lives are sketched on another page of this book, was born on his father's farm in Carlyle township September 7, 1860. The first fourteen years of his life were spent in the usual way, working upon the farm in the summer and attending the district school in the winter. In 1874 the family removed to Iola, where the subject of this sketch continued his studies, clerking in stores or doing any other work he could find to do in the summers. In the fall of 1877 he entered the University of Kansas from which he was graduated in 1881.

Upon leaving the University his father gave him ten dollars. That was the cash capital with which he began life for himself, and he has never had a dollar since that he did not earn.

Borrowing enough additional from a friend to pay his fare, he went to Silverton, Colorado, where he spent the summer of 1881 working in a hardware store and doing some newspaper work.

In the fall of 1881, in company with two friends, he drove down into New Mexico, stopping at Socorro, where he secured employment as a

copyist in the office of the county clerk, at the same time serving as cook for a gang of workmen for his board.

Early in 1882 he went to Arizona where he got a job as book keeper and clerk for a railroad contractor. He continued to do this work until his employer sold out, in the fall of 1882, when he returned to Iola, having learned that an interest in the Iola Register was for sale.

When he reached home he had $250 to show for his eighteen months work. He paid $200 of this down for a fourth interest in the Iola Register, then a small weekly paper, his partners in the enterprise being his brother, A. C. Scott, and E. E. Rohrer. At the end of two years he bought his brother's interest, and a year later the interest of Mr. Rohrer, since which time he has been the sole proprietor of the paper, to which he has given practically his entire time and attention.

In 1891 Mr. Scott was appointed a regent of the University of Kansas, and was re-appointed to the same position by Gov. Morrill and Gov. Stanley, the appointment in each instance being made without his solicitation. He resigned this office upon his election to Congress in 1900.

In 1892 he was nominated without opposition and by acclamation as the Republican candidate for State Senator, and was one of the fifteen Republican Senators who escaped the Populist landslide of that year. He served in the Senate in the sessions of 1893-5, being an active participant in the bitter debates precipitated by the "Lewelling War," and serving as a member of the Committee on Ways and Means.

In 1900 he was nominated as the Republican candidate for Congressman-at-large from the State of Kansas, and was elected by a plurality of 18890 votes over J. Botkin, the Fusion candidate.

Mr. Scott spent the summer of 1891 in Europe. He wrote weekly letters to his paper and these were afterwards published in book form under the title "Letters."

In 1893 Mr. Scott was president of the Kansas State Editorial Association and had charge of the special train by which the members went to the World's Fair at Chicago. He was president of the Republican State League in 1895, and of the Kansas Day Club in 1900, and has been officially connected with various other editorial and political associations. He has taken part as a speaker in all the campaigns of his party since 1884, and has made numerous addresses of an educational and patriotic nature in various parts of the State.

Mr. Scott was married June 15, 1893, to May Brevard Ewing, daughter of H. A. Ewing a sketch of whose family history has been given elsewhere in this book. The children of this union ars[sic] Ewing Carruth, born August 28, 1894; Ruth Merriman, born December 30, 1897, and Angelo C., born November 17, 1899.

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