John and James Scott, Edgar & Clinton County

James and John Scott were sent to Illinois the same year and we do not know if they were brothers to each other or not. James stated in his letter that he and his brother wrote to each other every month. John was in Edgar County, near the town of Scotland, and James was in Clinton County near the town of Clement. The places were about 80 miles apart, making visiting very difficult for two boys dependent on the generosity of their guardians.

John Scott was sent to Edgar County where he lived with the James M. Rice family near the town of Scotland. Mr. Rice wrote the only letter regarding John's life in Illinois. John was just nine years old when he came to Illinois and The Rice family had a son the same age. Mr. Rice said "they make a team, and need to have the reins held tight." They were both very bright in their school work and Mr. Rice said he treated John just the same as he treated his son. John had attended just four and one half months of school the previous year. No confirmed records of John could be found beyond this letter.

James Scott wrote in his letter that in his first four years in Illinois he had four different home, but in the fourth he appears to have succeeded. The name of the family was "Pass" and James was given two acres to plant in wheat in 1887. He had already been confirmed in the church where he lived and had attended school the previous year. In the late fall of 1887 he had not yet attended school because there was still work waiting on the farm. In 1889 James wrote the had been given a horse and more acres to sow in wheat. He had left school the previous year, and he was only fifteen years old. James' guardian died in 1890, but he continued working at the farm under the instruction of his guardian's son. In 1892 James was released from his indenture, but the family was sending him to St. Louis where an uncle had a hardware store and would give James a job and a place to live.

In Scotland, Illinois there is a Friends graveyard where James M. Rice is buried. The cemetery records show the burial of a John Scott, birth and death dates unrecorded. It is very sad to think that a poor orphan may lay there, unnamed and unknown in an unmarked grave.