170
Howard Street
PO Box
248
Ocracoke
Island,
NC
252-928-5541
info@villagecraftsmen.com
Agnes Scott of
OcRacoke
Agnes
Irvine
Scott (1799-1877), Namesake of Agnes
Scott
College,
Decatur,
Georgia,
and her Ocracoke
Island
Descendants
June 21, 2014
Agnes Scott Garrish was just 21 years old when she was laid to rest
in one of the many graveyards along Howard Street.
She died in Galveston,
Texas
in 1919, likely as a result of the Spanish Influenza, the deadliest
pandemic in
human history, which killed 50 million people worldwide.
Gravemarker for Agnes
Scott Garrish:

Agnes
Scott’s tombstone
indicates that she was born at Kirkwood,
Georgia
(according to a nineteenth century tour book, “an area of
beautiful suburban
villas” on the east side of Atlanta)
in 1898. Her marker reads:
Agnes Scott
Wife of Capt. M. A. Garrish
Born May 8, 1898
At Kirkwood, Ga.
Died Aug. 30, 1919
At Galveston, Tex.
Closed are thy
sweet eyes
From this world of
pain.
But we trust in God
To meet thee again.
Visitors
to Ocracoke have occasionally
asked if she is related to the
person for whom Agnes
Scott
College
in Decatur,
Georgia
is named. Oral
history
suggested that there was a connection, but details were sketchy.
In
2004 I contacted Agnes
Scott
College
seeking
information that might solve the puzzle. I received a prompt reply
suggesting
no connection with the college’s namesake. The clear message
was
that I had
been misled. “Unfortunately, your Agnes Scott may not be
related
to our college' namesake. It seems there are hundreds of Agnes Scotts
throughout the
country,” I was told.
I
soon discovered that, to the
contrary, Agnes Scott of
Ocracoke was, indeed, the great-granddaughter of the woman for whom the
college
was named.
The
college was founded in honor of
Agnes Irvine Scott, a
Scots-Irish immigrant wholly dedicated to her Presbyterian church and
committed
to its values “who upheld a strong sense of integrity and
intellectual
curiosity. Her son Col. George Washington Scott was the
college’s
primary
benefactor….”
On
February 22, 1951 the city of Decatur,
Georgia
dedicated Col.
G.W.
Scott’s
homeplace as a memorial park. In his address on that occasion, Wallace
M.
Alston, Vice President of Agnes Scott College, outlined the
institution’s
history.
Agnes
Irvine was born June 5, 1799 in
Ballykeel, County Down,
Ireland
to devout Presbyterians.
When she was seventeen years old Agnes and her sister Susanna sailed to
America
with
their mother, Mary Stitt. 1816 has been described as the
“Year
Without a
Summer.” Much cooler temperatures, combined with heavy rains,
caused massive
crop failures in Ireland
and elsewhere in the northern hemisphere. Famine and poverty followed.
During
their sea passage Susanna fell
ill and died.
Once
on American soil, Agnes Irvine
and her mother continued
over land to Alexandria,
Pennsylvania
where relatives had previously
settled. There, Agnes met and fell in love with John Scott, a widower
with five
children. They were married in 1821. Agnes and John Scott had seven
children – Susan
(b. 1822), John (b. 1824), James Irvine (b. 1826), George Washington
(b. 1829),
William (b. 1831), Mary Irvine (b. 1836), and Alfred McIlvaine (b.
1839).
John
Scott, Sr. (1784-1850) was a
tanner and shoemaker who
served as a major in the War of 1812. He was a member of the
Pennsylvania House
of Representatives from 1819-1820, and served as a member of the 21st
US Congress from 1829-1831.
John
Scott, Jr. (1824-1896), a lawyer,
followed in his
father’s footsteps and served in the Pennsylvania House of
Representatives in
1862. He was later elected US
Senator from Pennsylvania,
and served from 1869-1875.
George
Washington Scott (1829-1903)
left Pennsylvania
in 1850. He traveled through Georgia
and Alabama
on his way to Florida,
seeking a cure for ill health. In 1852 he established a mercantile
business in Tallahassee,
and soon
after purchased a plantation there.
After
returning to Alexandria,
Pennsylvania
in 1854 to visit
family and friends, G.W. Scott met and married Rebekah Bucher.
Together, they
returned to Tallahassee.
During the War Between the States, G.W. Scott “shouldered his
musket with a
saddened heart, but with a resolute front, and went with the
Tallahassee Guards
to the battle line.” He
served with distinction, and advanced to
Colonel.
In
1870 George Washington Scott moved
to Savannah,
Georgia
with his brother Alfred, where he made and lost a fortune in cotton.
Six years
later Alfred, also a veteran of the Confederate Army, contracted yellow
fever
and died, leaving behind his wife, Clare Maria, and two children, Ralph
Bucher
(b. 1868) and Carrie Irvine (b. 1870). In 1877 G.W. Scott left Savannah
and settled in Decatur,
Georgia.
There he founded the
George W. Scott Fertilizer Company.
In
1889, concerned for the education
of young women, G.W.
Scott offered a resolution among members of his church to
“establish at once a
school of high character.” Thus the Decatur Female Seminary
was
opened in
September of that year.
The
following year Col. Scott donated
$40,000 “to provide a
home for our school.” The school’s charter was
amended and
the name of the
school was changed from Decatur Female Seminary to Agnes Scott
Institute, in
honor of the donor’s mother, a woman “who upheld a
strong
sense of integrity
and intellectual curiosity.” During the first fourteen years
of
the Institute’s
existence Col.
Scott donated more that $175,000 to support the school.
In
1906 the college was chartered as Agnes
Scott
College
and became the first institution of higher education in Georgia
to receive regional
accreditation.
According
to their official web site,
“Agnes
Scott
College
was established
in 1889 with a distinctive mission: to educate women for the betterment
of
their families and the elevation of their region. Today, that mission
has
evolved….”
The
following mission statement was
adopted by the Board of
Trustees, August 2002, and reaffirmed by the Board of trustees, May
2012:
“AGNES
SCOTT
COLLEGE
educates women to think deeply, live honorably and engage the
intellectual and
social challenges of their times.
·
Agnes
Scott
College
provides a dynamic liberal arts and sciences curriculum of the highest
standards so that students and faculty can realize their full creative
and
intellectual potential.
·
Agnes
Scott
College
fosters an environment in which women can develop high expectations for
themselves as individuals, scholars, professionals and citizens of the
world.
·
Agnes
Scott
College
strives to be a just and inclusive community that expects honorable
behavior,
encourages spiritual inquiry and promotes respectful dialogue across
differences.”
Sometime,
probably before the turn
of the twentieth century, Clare Maria Scott (b. 1846 in Cumberland,
Pennsylvania)
– d. 1926), widow of Col.
Scott’s brother,
Alfred McIIvaine
Scott
(1839-1876) relocated to Wake
County, North Carolina.
Her son, Irwin,
appears to have died young. She brought with her one surviving son,
Ralph
Bucher Scott (1868-1929), and one daughter, Carrie Irvine Scott (b.
1870).
Ralph and
Carrie discovered Ocracoke
Island
in the early twentieth century.
In 1913 Carrie Scott purchased thirteen acres of sound front land.
Ralph Bucher
Scott (Mr. Scott to
islanders) and his wife, Jennie Law Mallard, had seven children,
Jennie,
Billie, Clare, Agnes, Elizabeth, Carol Louise
(‘Weeza”) and
Allie (“Teenie”).
Agnes
married Ocracoke sea
captain, Myron A. Garrish (1888-1929). Unfortunately, Agnes Irvine
Scott
Garrish died in Galveston,
Texas
when she
was just twenty-one years
old. She was survived by her husband and one son, Irvin Scott Garrish.
Today, at
least nine direct
descendants of the Irish-born Agnes Irvine Scott, namesake of Agnes
Scott
College
in Decatur,
Georgia,
call
Ocracoke home. Several others visit the island frequently and/or own
property
on the island.
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