# History of Oregon (Carey)/Volume 2/Harvey W. Scott

HARVEY WHITEFIELD SCOTT.
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 development 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 character 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 Masoncounty, Washington. In the difficult work of clearing the land and preparing the soil for the cultivation of crops 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 warfare. 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 preserved 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."
Following his graduation Mr. Scott went to Idaho, where for a year he was engaged in mining and whipsawing, and in 1S64 he came to Portland. For a few months he was employed as librarian of the Portland Library, which at that time utilized two small rooms on the second floor of a brick building on the northeast corner of First and Stark streets. While thus engaged he wrote a few articles for The Oregonian and subsequently obtained a position with the paper through the efforts of Matthew P. Deady, then president of the Portland Library Association. He was at that time studying law in his leisure hours under the direction of Erasmus D. Shattuck, but the field of journalism proved a more congenial one and he directed his energies along that ​line. Showing a decided talent for newspaper work he soon became editor of The Oregonian. in which position he found a wide scope for his tastes and abilities. Without previous experience in the complex duties of what is usually first a trade and afterwards a profession, he rose to all the exacting requirements of his work, and so signal was his success and so thoroughly was his individuality associated with his paper that his name became a household word over the entire northwest. One of his first notable articles was an editorial written on the death of President Lincoln, which attracted widespread attention. He gave The Oregonian his continuous editorial service until October, 1872, when he was appointed collector of customs for the port of Portland, which position he retained for four years, and in 1877 returned to The Oregonian as editor and part owner, where he remained until his death in 1910.
With a strong love of the locality and state and a clear perception of the immense natural advantages of Oregon and Washington, Mr. Scott gave the most minute attention to the discovery of the stores of wealth in the forests, mines, soil and climate. To a certain extent he had so learned the feelings, demands and habits of the people that his utterances were the daily voice of the Oregonians. Bold and forceful in his writings, never seeking to conciliate, he met with opposition but usually prevailed. Earnest and sincere in all that he did, he had no patience with pretense and had a wholesome contempt for shams. Avoiding rhetorical art or indirection of language, he went with incisive directness to his subject and commanded attention by the clearness and vigor of his statement, the fairness of his arguments and the thorough and careful investigation of his subject. In the midst of his journalistic and business affairs he found time to pursue literary, philosophical, theological and classical study and to his constant and systematic personal investigation in these directions were due his scholarly attainments. At the time of the reorganization of the Associated Press in 1898 he took a prominent part therein and served as a member of its board of directors until his death in 1910.
In October, 1865, Mr. Scott was united in marriage to Miss Elizabeth Nicklin and they became the parents of two sons; John H. and Kenneth, but the latter died in childhood. The mother passed away January 11, 1875, and in the following year Mr. Scott wedded Miss Margaret McChesney of Latrobe, Pennsylvania, and to their union were born two sons and a daughter: Leslie M., Ambrose and Judith.
In his political views Mr. Scott was a republican, yet he never hesitated to condemn any course or measure of the party which he deemed detrimental to good government and the welfare of the nation. He was a strong supporter of the gold standard, which he championed through the columns of The Oregonian, when the republican as well as the democratic party of the state advocated the Bryan policy of free silver at a ratio of sixteen to one, and through his influence Oregon gave its vote in 1896 to the republican gold standard candidate for president, William McKinley. In 1876 he was a delegate to the republican national convention, held at Cincinnati, which nominated Rutherford B. Hayes for president of the United States. In 1886 he was temporary secretary of the state convention of the union party and at numerous times was an active participant as a delegate in conventions of the republican party in Oregon. He was offered the positions of ambassador to Mexico and minister to Belgium, which offices he declined. He was a dominant factor in Oregon politics, although never an office holder, but his clear, logical and trenchant editorials had an immeasurable influence over public thought and action. He made The Oregnnian a power and influence not only in the Pacific northwest but throughout the country. He always gave personal editorial support to every project which he deemed of vital significance to the city and was a member of the charter board which drafted the present charter of Portland. He was also a member of the Portland water board and was active in the movement which resulted in the erection of a monument in the Plaza to the dead of the Second Oregon Volunteers who fought in the Spanish-American war. For a number of years he was a member of the board of trustees of Pacific University and at the time of his death was its president. In 1903 he was elected president of the Lewis and Clark Fair Association and through the columns of The Oregonian did much to promote its success. The other Portland journals followed in his lead and made the Lewis and Clark Exposition the best advertised fair that has ever been held in America.
Mr. Scott was a member of the Arlington and Commercial clubs of Portland, Oregon. He attained high rank in Masonry, with which he became identified in 1905 as a member of Portland Lodge, No. 55, A. F. & A. M. He afterward became a member of Washington Chapter, No. 18, R. A. M.; and Oregon Commandery, No. 1, K. T. In 1906 he attained the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite Consistory in Washing​ton, D. C., and became a member of Ai Kader Temple of the Mystic Shrine on the 15th of June, 1907.
In disposition Mr. Scott was most friendly and inclined to be charitable in considering the errors and faults of men. He was kind-hearted and sympathetic, quick to vindicate the right and denounce the wrong, whether of public or individual concern. His crowning virtue, however, was the love he bore for his state and his pride in its material advancement. He labored unceasingly for high ideals and the betterment of the common lot. Success and honor were his, each worthily won, and there is in his history an element of inspiration for others and an example of high principles and notable achievement.
Death came to Mr. Scott on the 7th of August, 1910, following a surgical operation The funeral services in Baltimore, Maryland, when he was seventy-two years of age. were conducted at Portland, Oregon, under the auspices of the Scottish Rite Consistory, the ceremony being a most solemn and impressive one. His death took from Oregon her most illustrious figure. Among the many tributes paid to his memory by the press throughout the country we quote the following:
H. H. Kohlsaat, editor of the Chicago Record-Herald, wrote of Mr. Scott: "He was one of the last survivors of the newspaper era that produced a number of great editors and leaders of public opinion. He made The Oregonian; he was The Oregonian. He knew and understood the people and the territory he had cast his lot with as a lad; he interpreted their sentiments, defended their interests and successfully urged his own convictions upon them. Few men in the Pacific northwest wielded as great an influence for good."
The following comment was made by S. A. Perkins, publisher of the Tacoma Ledger and News: "Harvey W. Scott was the dean of the newspaper men of the Pacific coast. There were no greater, east or west, and those of his class can be counted upon the fingers of one hand. He ranked with such journalists as Dana, Watterson and Greeley. He was a product of the Pacific northwest and for years exerted a greater influence on its current history than any other man. When Harvey Scott spoke the public listened. His opinions commanded the respect of even those who did not follow them. For years the name of Harvey Scott was a household word in the 'old Oregon country' and his face was familiar to thousands of pioneers. He knew the life of the pioneers, for he was one of them, and his intellectual attainments and broad human sympathy enabled him to write of pioneer life with remarkable thoroughness and fidelity. An authority on the Pacific northwest, a profound student of history and the classics, a master politician in the best sense of the term, an editor whose utterances were always courageous and convincing, Harvey Scott was the most dominant intellectual force west of the Rocky Mountains."
Harrison Gray Otis, publisher of the Los Angeles Times, said of him: "When Harvey W. Scott passed away at Baltimore yesterday one of the greatest lights of journalism went out. He was a great editor in every sense of the word; great in mental force, great in executive ability, great as a writer. He made the Portland Oregonian famed throughout the country for its breadth of vision, its originality of thought and the power and effectiveness of its editorial expression. He fought many a good fight against adverse odds and when he died was engaged in a vigorous battle for principle against the fury of passing clamor. He saw a hamlet grow into a metropolis, saw cities and towns multiply in the field which he dominated.
"His masterful, rugged character will be missed for long and felt keenly in the walks where it was familiar, in the workshop which he loved, in the profession which he honored and which honored him, and, indeed, in the ranks of the strong and thoughtful up and down the land. Oregon still has need of him and although his voice is hushed, we may be sure that the brave, arrow-piercing words he has spoken and written will live for years to come and go on battling in the service of eternal truth."