Sacramento County
Biographies
WILLIAM
ADLUM SCOTT
WILLIAM ADLUM SCOTT was born in Columbiana County, Ohio, October 9, 1833, his parents being James and Polly (Davidson) Scott. He was reared on his father’s farm, and received the limited education of an occasional term in the district school. At the age of ten he hired out, driving horses and otherwise helping in farm work. In 1850 or 1851 he became an apprentice to a carpenter in Mansfield, and in 1852 went to Sandusky city, where he earned high wages at his trade, because of the cholera then prevailing, he having escaped the epidemic. March 26, 1853, he left Mansfield for California, by way of Cincinnati, St. Louis, Soda Springs, and Sublette’s cut-off to the head of the Humboldt; down the river to its “sink,” and thence across the desert to Ragtown, arriving in this State August 12, and in San Jose September 2, 1853. He worked at his trade two months, but was taken sick and became unable to work. He moved to El Dorado County, and did a little mining and ranching until March 10, 1854, when he again went to carpentering on a job at Shingle Springs. On its completion he moved to the Cosumnes, May 31, 1855, and was engaged in building irrigating wheels at intervals for five or six years, meanwhile remaining at a small ranch of about eighty acres, of J. C. Austin, in 1856. In June, 1857, he was married to Miss Zilpha Moore, a native of Indiana, and daughter of a school-teacher of that name, who taught for many years near Lafayette. Mr. Scott made his first purchase of land in 1869, about 160 acres, since increased by later purchases to about 500 acres. For some twelve years he made a specialty of the fruit business, raising some and also buying of others to sell to the trade, but general farming is his principal business. He raises some horses, cattle, and sheep, besides the usual grain crops. He has an orchard of about 1,000 trees, and has realized as high as $3,000 from its product in one year, but for the last five years the sales have not reached ten per cent of that amount in any one year. Mr. and Mrs. Scott are the parents of two sons, still living: George W., born in 1858, and Lewis M., in 1860. They were divorced, and Mrs. Scott left August 20, 1884. She is now living at Sebastopol with her two sons. In November, 1885, Mr. Scott married Mrs. Sarah Muse, born in Kelsey, El Dorado County, in 1860. They are parents of two children: William, born August 10, 1886; and Ellen Jane, September 7, 1888.
Transcribed by: Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
Davis, Hon. Win. J., An Illustrated History of
Sacramento County, California. Page 611. Lewis
Publishing Company. 1890.
© 2007 Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.