The Cecil Whig., 1879-05-17
DEATHS DOING.S.
DacEASE OF DAVID SCOTT, ESQ.

! Elkton has sustained another loss, both in
4 business and social sense, by the death of
David Scott, ESq., which occurred on Tues
! day, at one o'clock p. NJ, at his residence, in
the east end of the town. Mr.. Scott had been
/ in failing health for several years, which
/ however had not excited the anxious ap-
prehensions OF his immediate family until
comparatively recently. Bit an insidiouS
fatal malady-Briyht' disease of the kid
neys-was doing its relentless work. The
quick, active step of the attentive business
! man became slower and fteber upon our
streets, until ut last it was heard no more.
, His atfable and courteous manner, his pleas
ant agreeable SMILE We're gradually trans
/ formed by the palsying touch of weakness
and debility, into Il weariel expression of
suffering. II was Il painful reality in his,
as in any case, to trace in his appearance
from week to week, from month to month,
the multiplying evidences of physical decay.
They proclaimed the illy-read lesson of
mans mortality. He who but few years
ago in the very prime of manhood, seemed,
after 4 severe attack of sickness, to have
taken fresh lease OF life. The last man of
all your acquaintance whom You would
have singled out as the victim of Il hasten
ing death, was, however, rapidly passing
away. \ man of high intellectual endow
mentS, and unusual self-control, temperate
and prudent in his personal habits In
character high-toncd, self-respecting and
universally respected, he filled i'll every
sense the measure of Il good citizen.
David Scott was born in the Fourth dis
trict of this county, on the 9TH day of .Ianu-
AIRY, 1894. He was of Irish extraction, and
was the second son of James, who was the
second son of David, the founder of the
family who migrated from Ireland to Amer
lea in the latter part of the last century and
settled in the eastern part of the Fourth
district, where he resided till the time of
his death and where all of his children were
born, except one or two of the eldest, who
We're born in the Old Country James Scott,
the father of the deceased. and his wife,
Margaret Hutton, We're the parents of nine
children: the subject of this sketch, as be-
fore remarked, being their second son.
James Scott died in 1S40 in the prime of
life, in the 50th year OF his age, leaving Il
family in by no means attiuent circum-
stances.
David, the subject of this sketch, early
showed a disposition to engage in literary
pursuits, and the next Winter after his
fathers death opened Il school for the tut
ton of the youth of the neighhorhood in
room i'll his mother $ Sdwelling house There
were no free schools in those days, and any
one was at liberty, as they are yet, to en-
gage in school teaching, with this difference,
that in the time write OF, subscription
schools were the only ones in the county, at
which the rudiments of an English educa-
tion could be obtained. In a short time af-
forwards the old jackson school house, just
east of Cowantown, and on the road lead
ing from that place to Newark. Delaware,
was built, and the young teacher, who had
become quite popular not only rs teacher
but also as poet, was installed i'll the new
school house, where he continued to teach
until the Fall of 1876, when he removed to
about two miles north of the Jackson, and
is now in the adjoining school district. Mr.
Scott continued to teach the Union school
till the Fall of 1851, when (after being
candidate for nomination as Register of
Wills, and being defeated before the Demo-
cratic county convention) he was elected
Clerk to the County Commissioners, the
Democrats having Il majority in the Board
for the first time in several years
Shortly after this, in the Spring of 1852,
the family removed to Elkton, and in the
June of that year the subject of this sketch
the daughter of the late Samuel Wilson, of
Newark, Delaware, by whom he had three
children, two of whom survive him. and
the youngest of whom died in infancy short
ly after the death of its mother, in lS5S.
Mr. Scott was Il gentleman Of fine taste
and much poetical talent, that might, and
under different circumstances probably
would, have caused him to take high rank
amongst the distinguished litcrati of the
age in which he lived. He was, with the
exception of a few months tuition at the
Newark Academy and few quarters at
tendance upon subscription schools, entirely
a sef-educated man, but the poetic fire that
burned in his youthful breast could only be
suppressed by the stern duties and laborS
incident to active manhood and it was not
till some time after his marriage, when the
claims of Il young family asserted them
81, l,n, 20,
settled down to the everyday duties of life.
During the time Mr.. Scott was engaged
in teaching lie formed the acquaintance of a
number of literary gentlemen who resided
in and near Newark, Delaware, from which
coax Dell, the poetic name he gave his
home was distant only about two miles.
Prominent among this little coterie was
Samuel McNutt, one of three brothers
who came to this country from Ireland
in 1912, and Thomas HempStcad-now a
Presbyterian minister,-both students of
Delaware College at that time, and both
poets of no mean ability, the latter being
the author of small volume of poems on
various subjects, which was published about
twenty years ago, and which evinced much
poetic ability. Mr.. SCOTS poetic period was
also cotemporaneous with that of Mr.. +. f.
Ewing, late proprietor of The cecil Wing, and
his brother VIM. Pinkney. All of the before
named gentlemen were contributors to the
Philadelphia Dollar Newspaper, which wa.
: one of the most popular and extensively cir
culated papers then published. They also
enjoyed the friendship of the late Palmer c.
Ricketts,, the founder of The recU Whiy:
and, though most of them differed from him
in politics, they We're all upon intimate
terms with him, and the subject of this
sketch received his support when candi-
date for Clerk to County Commissioners in
1851, Mr.. X. having held the office for some
, wears previous himself and being Il leading
Whig politician at the time. \ sketch of
the life OF the deceased would be incom-
plete without specimen of his poetry; we
/ therefore publish one OF his poems, which
was published in The Dollar Newspaper
about thirty years ago, and which is proba-
bly one of the best he ever wrote. Just
now, in the smiling May, it seel.ls to he
! douby appropriate, and we cannot refrain
{ from expressing Il hope that the author has
entered into the full fruiton of that uppcr
and better country, where an eternal Spring
time blesses the hearts and gladdcns the
souls of its happy denizens.
ODE TO SPRING.
BY ANsELMu.
/ Haste, o hasten gentle Spring.
Tarry not thy ftOw'ry wing:
All thy many MINISTRIES bring:
! Till pusing as II living thing.