Nathan Scarritt (April 14, 1821 — May 22, 1890) was an American educator, pastor and real estate dealer.

Early life and education

Scarritt was born on April 14, 1821, in Edwardsville, Illinois, the seventh of twelve children. His parents, Nathan and Latty, traveled from New Hampshire on wagon. As a child, he worked on a farm in Alton, Illinois, and didn't receive a proper education. At age 16, Scarritt began attending McKendree College, having to work as a cleaner for the school to pay for tuition. During his third year of college, his father became ill and he left school to care for him. The school paid for his final year, and he graduated in 1842 as valedictorian.

Education career

To pay off student debts, Scarritt worked briefly as a schoolteacher in Waterloo, Illinois until 1845, when he moved to

Fayette, Missouri Fayette is a city in and the county seat of Howard County, Missouri, United States. It is part of the Columbia, Missouri Metropolitan Statistical Area. The city's population was 2,803 at the 2020 census. History Fayette was laid out in 1823. The ...

. There, he worked as a teacher and helped establish Howard Female College. For his efforts, the University of Missouri awarded him an honorary Master of Arts.

Religious career

Scarritt converted to the

Methodist Episcopal Church, South The Methodist Episcopal Church, South (MEC, S; also Methodist Episcopal Church South) was the American Methodist denomination resulting from the 19th-century split over the issue of slavery in the Methodist Episcopal Church (MEC). Disagreement ...

demomination of Christianity in 1848, and began working at the Shawnee Methodist Mission. In 1850, he married Martha Matilda Chick, daughter of William Miles Chick. That same year, he moved out of his

home A home, or domicile, is a space used as a permanent or semi-permanent residence for one or many humans, and sometimes various companion animals. It is a fully or semi sheltered space and can have both interior and exterior aspects to it. H ...

onto a farm to avoid the American Civil War. He left the Methodist Mission in 1852, and was later appointed by a bishop as an elder of the Kickapoo people. He also worked as a traveling minister for the Delaware, Shawnee and Wyandot tribes—with translations done by

Silas Armstrong Silas Armstrong (January 3, 1810 — December 14, 1865) was an American Wyandot merchant and politician. Biography Armstrong was born on January 3, 1810, near Upper Sandusky, Ohio, and was raised in a Bear Clan community. In 1832, he married ...

Death and legacy

Scarritt died on May 22, 1890. His son William Chick Scarritt was a lawyer and owner of the William Chick Scarritt House. Scarritt's granddaughter was

Dorothy McKibbin Dorothy McKibbin (December 12, 1897 – December 17, 1985) worked on the Manhattan Project during World War II. She ran the project's office at 109 East Palace in Santa Fe, through which staff moving to the Los Alamos Laboratory passed. She was ...

, a manager of the Manhattan Project. Scarritt donated US$5,000 (equivalent to about $152,000 in 2024) to the Neosho Collegiate Institute sometime between the 1870s and 1890s. They changed their name to

Scarritt College Scarritt College (founded in 1878 at Neosho, Missouri) began as the Neosho Male and Female Seminary. In 1887 it was reconstituted as the Scarritt Collegiate Institute. History Opening its doors on September 2, 1878, the school's first home was ins ...

in honor.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Scarritt, Nathan 1821 births 1890 deaths People from Edwardsville, Illinois People from Kansas City, Missouri