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Scott County History and Information |
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County History |
Court Records |
Vital Records |
CENSUS Records |
TAX Records |
Military Records |
Church & Cemetery | Maps & Atlases | Genealogy Addresses | Genealogy Related Sites | |
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Scott County was created on February 16, 1839 (Laws, 1839, p. 126) and was formed from Fayette County. Present area, or parts of it, formerly included in: Morgan County (1823–1839), Greene County (1821–1823), Madison County (1812–1821) and St. Clair County (1790–1812). The County was named for Scott County in Kentucky through the influence of emigrants from that county. The County Seat is Winchester (1839-Present). See also County History for more historical details. Counties adjacent to Scott County are Morgan County (east), Greene County (south), Pike County (west). Scott County has never adopted township form of government. The county has been divided into precincts. Scott County Precincts include Alsey, Bloomfield, Exeter-Bluffs, Glasgow, Manchester, Merritt, Naples-Bluffs, Winchester No. 1, Winchester No. 2, Winchester No. 3 Precinct Cities, Towns and Communities include Alsey, Bluffs, Exeter, Glasgow, Manchester, Naples, Winchester
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The Official County website is located at N/A . All departments below at located at the Scott County Courthouse, 101 E. Market Street, Winchester, IL 62694 , unless a different address is listed below. NOTE: The record dates below are from the earliest date to present time. Scott County Circuit Court Clerk has Probate Records from 1839 and Court Records from 1839 and is located at the address above. Phone Number: (217) 742-5217 Scott County Recorder has Land Records from 1823 and is located at the courthouse. Phone Number: (217) 742-3178 Scott County Clerk has Birth / Death Records from 1877 and Marriage Records from 1839 and is located at the courthouse. Phone Number: (217) 742-3178
Below is a list of online resources for Scott County Court Records. Email us with websites containing Scott County Court Records by clicking the link below:
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Illinois Department of Public Health, Division of Vital Records, 605 W. Jefferson St., Springfield, IL 62702-5097. It can take up to 6 weeks to get a vital record from Illinois. A number of resources are available for individuals doing genealogical research using vital records filed in the state of Illinois. Births and deaths before January 1, 1916 and marriages before January 1, 1962 are recorded only in the office of the county clerk where the event occurred. Most county clerks have indexes to the records that are prior to 1916 that are available for the purpose of genealogical research. These indexes generally provide the name, date and place of occurrence and are located in county courthouses located throughout the state. Although self-service access to the indexes is generally permitted, the law limits physical access to the individual records to the clerk's staff. When you locate a record from the index, it will be necessary for the clerk to pull the record for you once you have paid the appropriate search fee. Please check with the county clerk for fees and policies on reviewing indexes.
Below is a list of online resources for Scott County Vital Records. Email us with websites containing Scott County Vital Records by clicking the link below:
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Countywide Records: Federal Population Schedules that exist for Scott County, Illinois are 1850, 1860, 1870, 1880, 1900, 1910, 1920 and 1930. Other Federal Schedules to look at when researching your Family Tree in Scott County, Illinois are Industry and Agriculture Schedules availible for the years 1850, 1860, 1870 and 1880. The Mortality Schedules for the years 1850, 1860, 1870 and 1880.There are free downloadable and printable Census forms to help with your research. These include U.S. Census Extraction Forms and U.K. Census Extraction Forms. See Also Statewide Records that exist for Illinois Below is a list of online resources for Scott County Census Records. Email us with websites containing Scott County Census Records by clicking the link below: |
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Genealogy Atlas has images of old American atlases during the years 1795, 1814, 1822, 1823, 1836, 1838, 1845, 1856, 1866, 1879 and 1897 for Ohio and other states. You can view rotating animated maps for Illinois showing all the county boundaries for each census year overlayed with past and present maps so you can see the changes in county boundaries. You can view a list of maps for other states at Census Maps Below is a list of online resources for Scott County Maps. Email us with websites containing Scott County Maps by clicking the link below: |
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The uses and value of military records in genealogical research for ancestors who were veterans are obvious, but military records can also be important to re-searchers whose direct ancestors were not soldiers in any war. The fathers, grandfathers, brothers, and other close relatives of an ancestor may have served in a war, and their service or pension records could contain information that will assist in further identifying the family of primary interest. Due to the amount of genealogical information contained in some military pension files, they should never be overlooked during the research process. Those records not containing specific genealogical information are of historic value and should be included in any overall research design. Below is a list of online resources for Scott County Military Records. Email us with websites containing Scott County Military Records by clicking the link below:
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The first known tax authorization in Illinois fell under the jurisdiction of the Territory of the United States North West of the River Ohio. The tax was based on every hundred acres of unimproved uncleared prairie or wood land, divided into three classes based on quality of earth surface and soil. The rates were thirty, twenty, and ten cents, to be paid annually. Property with delinquent taxes was sold at public auction. There do not appear to be any surviving tax records from this territorial period. Beginning with statehood, tax records form a large part of county archival material. The 1819 laws provided the first taxation process, imposing taxes on land, bank stock owned, slaves and indentured negroes or mulattoes, plus a poor tax. The tax was collected by the county with income divided between the county and state. Taxpayers lists were eliminated in 1824, and in 1825 a county road tax and school taxes were enacted. Original and microfilmed tax records at Illinois Regional Archives Depositories include taxable land lists, assessors books, railroad tax books, road tax records, and collectors books, the earliest record dated 1817. Other county tax records are located in county seats. Below is a list of online resources for Scott County Tax Records. Email us with websites containing Scott County Tax Records by clicking the link below: |
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The Repositories in this section are Archives, Libraries, Museums, Genealogical and Historical Societies. Many County Historical and Genealogical Societies publish magazines and/or news letters on a monthly, quarterly, bi-annual or annual basis. Contacting the local societies should not be over looked. State Archives and Societies are usually much larger and better organized with much larger archived materials than their smaller county cousins but they can be more generalized and over look the smaller details that local societies tend to have. Libraries can also be a good place to look for local information. Some libraries have a genealogy section and may have some resources that are not located at archives or societies. Also, take a special look at any museums in the area. They sometimes have photos and items from years gone by as well as information of a genealogical interest. All these places are vitally important to the family genealogist and must not be passed over. Below is a list of online resources for Scott County Genealogical Addresses. Email us with websites containing Scott County Genealogical Addresses by clicking the link below:
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There are many churches and cemeteries in Scott County. Some transcriptions are online. A great site is the Scott County Tombstone Transcription Project. Despite the early Catholic missionaries in Illinois, their church had almost totally disappeared from the state by the time of the American Revolution. Later migration of English-speaking Catholics reestablished the church in the state. In 1850 the largest religious denomination in Illinois was the Methodists. Baptists, Presbyterians, Roman Catholics, Lutherans, and Congregationalists followed. Episcopalians had organized in the state in 1835, the Disciples of Christ were in Illinois prior to 1830, and the Lutherans grew in numbers with the German and Scandinavian emigration of the 1840s. The Genealogical Society of Utah and the Daughters of the American Revolution have compiled cemetery records for the state of Illinois. Soldiers' Burial Places in State of Illinois for Wars 1774-1898 is available on thirty-one reels of microfilm from the FHL. Local genealogical societies may have information and possible printed records of cemeteries in their locale. Below is a list of online resources for Scott County Cemetery & Church Records. Email us with websites containing Scott County Cemetery & Church Records by clicking the link below:
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When view family trees online or not, be sure to only take the info at face value and always follow up with your own sources or verify the ones they provide. Below is a list of online resources for Scott County Family Trees, web forums and other family type information. Email us with websites containing Scott County Family Trees, web forums and other family type information by clicking the link below:
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One of the most important archaeological relics of early life in Kansas is the ruins of an old pueblo north of Scott City in the Scott county state park. Scientists have agreed that these ruins are the long lost remnants of the pueblo El Quartelejo, which was established about 1702 by some adventurous Pueblo Indians from the town of Picuries in New Mexico. Originally it was a stone and adobe building of 32 by 50 feet, and was divided into seven rooms. Probably this was the first walled house constructed within the present borders of Kansas. The ruins were visited in 1898 by Profs. S.J. Willston and H.T. Martin of the Kansas University, who derived many interesting facts and recovered numerous relics. In it were found stone, flint and bone implements, mealing stones, pots-herds, a quantity of charred corn and other things used and found in an Indian pueblo of the Rio grande, New Mexican type. There is no record or evidence that Spaniards or other white had anything to do with its construction or ever lived there, and it seems that the Pueblo Indian owners of El Quartelejo were soon persuaded by the Governor of New Mexico to return to their former home. A few nomadic stockmen held their herds along the Beaver and White Woman creeks at an earlier date, but civilization began when the first permanent settlement was made in Scott county in October, 1884 by Mrs. M.E. De Geer and her daughter, Mrs. I.L. Eastman (later Mrs. Frank H. Miller). These brave women from Chicago, Illinois, selected and filed on claims where Scott City now stands, and built a cabin which was shared with many newcomers the following severe winter. Frank H. Miller also came from Chicago in October, 1884, for the improvement of his broken health. He hauled lumber from Garden City to construct Mrs. De Geer's cabin, and remained through the winter of 1884-85. Charley Waite came in February , 1885, and a month later was followed by John Keeve. These Chicago boys came for a broader field of enterprise and to enjoy the fine climate of the plains. They were brave, self-helpful young men, well reared, but equally well suited to the rough work of pioneering. Hon. S.W. Case came in October, 1884, and located his clain on a part of the present town-site of Scott City, and in the early spring of 1885 opened the pioneer store of the county. In March, 1885, Mrs. De Geer began the publication of the "Western Times" and from this time the county filled up rapidly. Scott county was created by an act of legislature in 1873, and named in honor of General Winfield Scott. For several years it had no population, and so needed no local form of government, but it was attached to Ford county for judicial purposes. Very soon after people began to settle there, a petition signed by the required number of citizens was presented to the board of county commissioners of Finney county requesting that Scott county be organized as a municipal township and attached to Finney county for judicial purposes. Scott county was organized as a township of Finney county, and Scott Center (the present Scott City) was designated as the place of transacting public business. A township election was held in Scott Center July 7,1885, and the following officers were electected: Trustee, Charley L. Waite; Treasurer, C.R. Swan; Clerk, M.H. Bailey; Road Overseer, W.E. McLain; Justice of Peace, S.W. Case and Joseph Hollister; Constable Ira J. WoIf. In June, 1886, Charles Reed was appointed enumerator of Scott county by the governor, and after taking the census, it was found that it had the required number of inhabitants (1,500) to proceed with a county organization. Eugene McDaniel, A.H. Kilpatric, and M. Cunningham were appointed commissioners, and Charles Reed county clerk. The county was declared organized July 5, 1886, and that day the appointed commissioners and county clerk met in special session with Eugene Mcdaniel, chairman. An election was called to be held August 10, 1886, and at that time the following officers were elected: Charles Reed, County Clerk, W.R. Hadley, Treasurer; B.F. Griffith, Register of Deeds; S.T. Burgess, Clerk of the District Court; J.F. Daniels, Sherriff; Lulu Boling, County Superintendent; Dr. J.F. Bond, Coroner; Eugene McDaniel, Commision of 1st District; H.M. Connor, Commissioner of 2nd District; C. Garrett, Commissioner of 3rd District. The county seat was located at Scott Center by unanimous vote. The county has an area of 720 square miles and 460,800 acres, with an elevation of 3,000 feet. Four-fifths of the county is smooth, and reaches away before the vision like the placid surface of a waveless sea. Here and there are fine reaches of billowy prairie, with long graceful slopes dipping gently into valleys; long reaches of low-laying bottom lands skirt the clear-winding streams, which are generally flanked by low hills and occasional picturesque bluffs. In the center of the county a few miles to the south of Scott City, is the famous White Woman basin, a tract of low, bottom land, 25,000 acres in extent. It is a black alluvial deposit of great depth. In this basin the White Woman suddenly sinks into the earth and takes its subterranean course along and beneath the basin where it is forever lost to sight. The annual overflow of the river, which has its source in the foothills of Colorado, floods the basin with its surplus waters which quickly sink again into the bed of the lost stream. It is claimed that so strong is the current of this subterranean river, at flood time, that the sound of its swift waters can be heard distinctly some distance from the mouth of several of these sink holes, and the listener is left to wonder when and where these wild waters shall again see the light of day. Several stories have been told as to why this basin was called the White Woman, and perhaps all are wrong, but the following story is a favorite. The towns of Friend and Shallow Water lie close together in the basin of White Woman river and people living there say this is how the basin got its name. "The family settling at Shallow Water and the lone man who settled at Friend were neighbors for that day. And the daughter of Shallow Water meant to marry the bachelor of Friend. The level Navajo, twelve miles north to south and less than 100 miles east to west, was ordinarily a dry-bed stream, and the lovers were wont to meet midway between their homes. But when the snow melted and came down from the mountain ranges far to the west the stream became a raging torrent. On a lonely night the waters came down with a rush and the man was swept away in the swirling torrent. The girl's mind was weakened by her loss, and every night she walked along the basin, looking for her lover. The wraith is seen there now, it is said, and those who in an older day met the white-robed `something' presumed to be the spirit of the lady in search of her lover, christened it, `the Valley of the White Woman'." The Beaver and the White Woman, both clear streams, with numerous spring brook tributaries reaching out in different directions, have always supplied pure water for the stockman. The county also embraces many fine flowing springs, and wells of both hard and soft water are easily obtained at fifteen to fifty feet depth for irrigation purposes. Quarries of building stones are found in certain sections of the county, including the white-, gray- and cream-colored magnesian Iimestones. Native timber was limited to small belts and groves along the streams. Scott City is the county seat and chief town in the county. It was founded in September, 1885, by the Scott City Town Company, composed of Dr. Hall, F.A. Parsons, S.W. Case, Mrs. M.E. De Geer, Mrs. F.A. Parsons, Mrs. I.L. Eastman, W.E. McLain, Mrs. D.F. Hall and Messrs, Sangster and Swan, who filed their charter in that month and soon after laid out the town. They changed the name from Scott Center to Scott City at this time. There was never any county seat fight in Scott county, as Scott City was located in the geographical center of the county and from the very first held the key to the situation. The spirit of clique and discord and division that ruined many Western Kansas towns, never entered Scott county. In 1886 the town had three weekly newspapers, four banks, a board of trade, two hotels and fifty other business concerns. The Masonic, Odd Fellows and Good Templers' lodges, and a post of the Grand Army of the Republic, the A.K.W.R. society and the Women's Christian Temperance Union had flourishing organizations. The ladies of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union erected a two-story building in 1886. The lower story was leased to the county for official and clerical uses, and the hall above was used for literary and social gatherings. They also provided a free library and reading room for the public. The officers of the W.C.T.U. were : Mrs. M.L. Parsons, president; Mrs. Mary E. Clark, secretary, and Mrs. I.L. Eastman, treasurer. The Methodist church was the first edifice of worship erected. Scott City had many land and loan men in 1886. Dr. D.F. Hall laid out a 104-acre addition to the northeast division of the original townsite and sold many business and residence sites. Frank H. Miller became largely interested in both city and country property, and in 1886 established the Traders' Bank. Mr. Miller made a handsome fortune in handling Scott City property. The Scott City Real Estate Company with Frank A. Capps, president, and Charles Clark, secretary, opened a land and loan office. Thompson , McNabb & Landis, real estate and loan agents, did a large business. The Western Kansas Land and Loan Company was organized by James H. Camfill, but in 1887, sold his interests to Tom Kennedy of Harper, Kansas. The land department of the company was conducted by Messrs. S.L. Hughes and P.H. O'Gara. Smith, McLain & Company, land and loan agents and land attorneys, with W.O. Bourne as junior member of the firm. Mr. Bourne had a fine suburban claim. Morse & Perry, real estate and loan firm, began business in 1887. Kelley & Fitts also did a capital business in real estate and farm loans. Johnson Brothers & Service, whose bank was founded in February, 1886, by Johnson Bros., was the pioneer banking house of the county and was a strong, well-organized concern. The Scott County Bank was incorporated in 1886 by Samuel M. Jarvis, R.R. Conklin, C.G. Larned, H.J. Hunt, F.A. Parsons and J.D. Jarvis, and opened its doors with a capital of $50,000. The Traders Bank was organized in 1886 by Frank N. Miller and friends, was shortly re-organized, the new incorporators being ex-Governor George W. Glick and S. B. Glazier, of Atchison, W.L.C. Beard, M.J. Keys and Frank H. Miller. The fourth bank was opened in 1887 under the firm name of McKnight & Nicholson. Prominent among the professional men were Traverse Morse, attorney; Messrs. Hadley and Hubbell, the former attorney for the county, the latter county superintendent of schools. The medical profession was finely represented by Dr. J.F. Bond, who was the first doctor to settle in Scott county Dr. Ira W. Bouldin, and Dr. Arbuthnot, physician and druggist, whose partner in the drug business was Mr. Eggleston, a breeder of thoroughbred horses, and farmer. |
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