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Scotland County is a
county A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...
in northeastern
Missouri Missouri (''see #Etymology and pronunciation, pronunciation'') is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it border ...
. As of the 2020 census, its population was 4,716, making it Missouri's seventh-least populous county. Its
county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equiva ...
is Memphis. The county was organized on January 29, 1841, and named for the country of
Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...
.


History

The
Missouri General Assembly The Missouri General Assembly is the State legislature (United States), state legislature of the U.S. state of Missouri. The bicameral General Assembly is composed of a 34-member Missouri Senate, Senate and a 163-member Missouri House of Represen ...
organized Scotland County on January 29, 1841. At first its boundaries contained all the land now known as Knox County as well, but in 1843 the General Assembly divided it off. Stephen W. B. Carnegy suggested that the county be named after his native
Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...
. He also gave several settlements in the area Scottish names. The first white settlement in Scotland County was in 1833 by brothers Levi and George Rhodes and their families near a location known as Sand Hill. Sand Hill was in the southern part of the county, about 12 miles from present-day Memphis. A general store was opened there around 1835 by James l. Jones, who also served as Scotland County's first sheriff. Slavery, while never as prevalent in Scotland County as in other counties further south in the state's Little Dixie region, existed from the county's earliest days. Robert T. Smith brought the first slaves, a group of three, to the county in 1834. In 1850 Scotland County had 157 slaves or other "non-free people of color", but by the 1860 census that number had dropped to 131. Farming was Scotland County's primary economic lifeblood from its earliest times. Once the stands of timber were cleared and the tough prairie grass plowed aside, settlers found rich soil. Between 1850 and 1880 the number of farms in the county grew from 334 to 1,994. The value of the farmland, in 1880 dollars, was over $3.72 million. Corn was the major cash crop, followed by oats, wheat, and potatoes.


The Civil War

Scotland County was the scene of three notable engagements during the
American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...
. The first happened at Etna on July 21, 1861. The 1st Northeast Missouri Home Guards under Colonel David Moore with assistance from additional units from
Iowa Iowa ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the upper Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west; Wisconsin to the northeast, Ill ...
and
Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...
attacked pro-Confederate Missouri State Guard (MSG) forces using Etna as a training and resupply point. The action was part of General
Nathaniel Lyon Nathaniel Lyon (July 14, 1818 – August 10, 1861) was a United States Army officer who was the first Union Army, Union General officer, general to be killed in the American Civil War. He is noted for his actions in Missouri in 1861, at the beginn ...
's efforts to clear "rebels" from rural Missouri. After a brief battle the MSG forces, mostly lightly armed cavalry, were driven from the town and surrounding areas of Scotland County and Moore's unit returned to its main base at Athens, Missouri. On July 13, 1862, Confederate Colonel Joseph C. Porter approached Memphis in four converging columns totaling 125–169 men and captured it with little or no resistance. They first raided the federal armory, seizing about 100 muskets with cartridge boxes and ammunition, and several uniforms. The Confederates rounded up all adult men, who were taken to the courthouse to swear not to divulge any information about the raiders for 48 hours. Porter freed all militiamen and suspected militiamen to await parole, a fact noted by champions of his character. Citizens expressed their sympathies variously; Porter gave safe passage to a physician, an admitted Union supporter, who was anxious to return to his seriously ill wife. One of Porter's troops threatened a verbally abusive woman with a pistol, perhaps as a bluff. Porter's troops entered the courthouse and destroyed all indictments for horse theft, an act variously understood as simple lawlessness, intervention on behalf of criminal associates, or interference with politically motivated, fraudulent charges. At Memphis, a key incident occurred that darkened Porter's reputation, and which his detractors see as part of a behavioral pattern that put him and his men beyond the norms of warfare. According to the ''History of Shelby County'', which is generally sympathetic to Porter, "Most conceded that Col. Porter’s purpose for capturing Memphis, MO. was to seize Dr. Wm. Aylward, a prominent Union man of the community." Aylward was captured during the day by Captain Tom Stacy's men and confined to a house. Stacy was generally regarded as a genuine bushwhacker; other members of Porter's command called his company "the chain gang" due to its behavior. After rousing Aylward overnight and removing him from his home, ostensibly to see Porter, guards claimed that he escaped. But witnesses reported hearing the sounds of a strangling, and his body was found the next day with marks consistent with hanging or strangulation. Supporters of Porter attribute Aylward's murder to Stacy. But a Union gentleman who came to inquire about Aylward and a captured officer before the discovery of the body said that when he asked Porter about Aylward, the response was, "He is where he will never disturb anybody else." The next engagement in the county took place on July 18, 1862. Union Colonel (later General)
John McNeil John McNeil (February 14, 1813 – June 8, 1891) was a general in the Union Army during the American Civil War. He was most noted for his role in the Palmyra massacre and other acts of alleged brutality, as well as his participation in the Bat ...
had been pursuing Porter and his forces across northeast Missouri for some time. Hearing of the capture of Memphis, McNeil sent a detachment of three companies (C, H, and I), about 300 men, of Merrill's Horse under Major John Y. Clopper from Newark, Missouri, to rescue the town.Moore, Frank, ''The Rebellion Record, Fifth Volume'', G.P. Putnam, 1868, page 558, from "The Fight near Memphis, Mo." in the ''Missouri Democrat'' Porter and his Confederate forces, their strength estimated at anywhere between 125 men to 600, planned to ambush the Federals. This became known as the Battle of Vassar Hill in the ''History of Scotland County.'' Porter called it Oak Ridge, and Federal forces called it Pierce's Mill. By whatever name, it happened about ten miles southwest of Memphis on the south fork of the Middle Fabius River. Porter's men were concealed in brush and stayed low when the Federals stopped to fire before each charge. Porter's men held their fire until the range was very short, increasing the volley's lethality. Clopper was in the Federal front, and of 21 men of his advance guard, all but one were killed or wounded.''The History of Shelby Country'', page 744 The Federals made at least seven mounted charges, doing little but adding to the body count. A battalion of roughly 100 men of the 11th Missouri State Militia Cavalry under Major Rogers arrived and dismounted. Clopper claimed to have driven the enemy from the field after this, but eyewitness Joseph Mudd said the Union troops fell back and ended the engagement, leaving Porter in possession of the field until he withdrew. Clopper's reputation suffered as a result of his poor tactics. Before the final charge, one company officer angrily asked, "Why don't you dismount those men and stop murdering them?" Union casualties were about 24 dead and mortally wounded (10 from Merrill's Horse and 14 from the 11th MSM Cavalry), and perhaps 59 wounded (24 from Merrill's Horse, and 35 from the 11th MSM Cavalry.) Porter's loss was as little as three killed and five wounded according to Mudd, or six killed, three mortally wounded, and 10 wounded left on the field according to the Shelby County History.


Postwar to present

In the 1880s, a group called The Tax-payers' Association of Scotland County formed to resist paying local taxes and intimidate any potential bidders on horses and mules that had been seized to cover those taxes. The handling of county debt collection went to the Supreme Court in '' Findlay v. McAllister''.


Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has an area of , of which is land and (0.6%) is water. Scotland County borders
Iowa Iowa ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the upper Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west; Wisconsin to the northeast, Ill ...
to the north.


Adjacent counties

* Davis County, Iowa (northwest) * Van Buren County, Iowa (northeast) * Clark County (east) * Knox County (south) * Adair County (southwest) * Schuyler County (west)


Major highways

* U.S. Route 136 * Route 15


Demographics

As of the
census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...
of 2010, there were 4,843 people, 1,902 households, and 1,302 families residing in the county. The
population density Population density (in agriculture: Standing stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geog ...
was . There were 2,292 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the county was 98.82%
White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...
, 0.20%
Black Black is a color that results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without chroma, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness.Eva Heller, ''P ...
or
African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...
, 0.14% Native American, 0.08% Asian, 0.02%
Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, Pacificans, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the list of islands in the Pacific Ocean, Pacific Islands. As an ethnic group, ethnic/race (human categorization), racial term, it is used to describe th ...
, 0.16% from other races, and 0.58% from two or more races. Approximately 0.84% of the population were
Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...
or Latino of any race. In the county, 5.72% report speaking Pennsylvania German, Dutch, or German at home, while 1.58% speak Spanish. There were 1,902 households, of which 32.40% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 58.20% were
married couples Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children (if any), and b ...
living together, 7.00% had a female householder with no husband present, and 31.50% were non-families. 28.20% of all households were made up of individuals, and 15.30% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.55 and the average family size was 3.16. In the county, the population was spread out, with 28.60% under the age of 18, 7.60% from 18 to 24, 24.10% from 25 to 44, 20.80% from 45 to 64, and 19.00% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 37 years. For every 100 females there were 94.30 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 87.80 males. The median income for a household in the county was $27,409, and the median income for a family was $33,529. Males had a median income of $23,836 versus $16,866 for females. The
per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...
for the county was $14,474. About 13.40% of families and 16.80% of the population were below the
poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line, or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...
, including 21.70% of those under age 18 and 13.50% of those age 65 or over.


2020 Census


Education

School districts in the county, including those with any territory, no matter how slight:
Scotland County R-I School District Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...
, Knox County R-I School District, and Schuyler County R-I School District. Previously an elementary school district, Gorin R-III School District, had territory in the county. The Gorin district closed on July 1, 2015 and consolidated into the Scotland County R-1 district.


Public schools

One of the school districts operates schools in the county limits:
Scotland County R-I School District
Memphis **Scotland County Elementary School (PK-06) **Scotland County High School (07-12)


Public libraries

* Scotland County Memorial Library


Communities


Cities

* Memphis (county seat) * South Gorin


Villages

* Arbela * Granger * Rutledge


Unincorporated communities

* Azen * Bible Grove * Brock * Crawford * Edinburg *
Energy Energy () is the physical quantity, quantitative physical property, property that is transferred to a physical body, body or to a physical system, recognizable in the performance of Work (thermodynamics), work and in the form of heat and l ...
* Etna * Hitt *
Kilwinning Kilwinning (, ; ) is a town in North Ayrshire, Scotland. It is located on the banks of the River Garnock in Ayrshire, west/central Scotland, about southwest of Glasgow. Kilwinning's neighbours are the coastal towns of Stevenston to the west an ...
* Middle Fabius * Pleasant Retreat * Prospect Grove * Sand Hill * Unity


Notable people

* Ella Ewing, world's tallest woman (in her era), lived much of her life (and died) near Gorin. Buried in the Harmony Grove church cemetery in Rutledge, MO. * Alexandre Hogue, realist painter, known mostly for landscapes. *
Tom Horn Thomas Horn Jr., (November 21, 1860 – November 20, 1903) was an American scout, cowboy, soldier, range detective, rodeo performer, and Pinkerton agent in the 19th-century and early 20th-century American Old West. Believed to have committ ...
, Old West lawman, scout, outlaw and assassin, born near Granger in 1860. * George Saling, gold medal winner at the
1932 Summer Olympics The 1932 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the X Olympiad and also known as Los Angeles 1932) were an international multi-sport event held from July 30 to August 14, 1932, in Los Angeles, California, United States. The Games were held du ...
, 110m hurdles. * Adrienne Wilkinson, TV, film and voiceover actress. Notable roles on '' Xena: Warrior Princess'' and '' As If''. * Sedona Schnebly, an Arizona pioneer and namesake of
Sedona, Arizona Sedona ( ) is a city that straddles the county line between Coconino County, Arizona, Coconino and Yavapai County, Arizona, Yavapai counties in the northern Verde Valley region of the U.S. state of Arizona. As of the 2010 United States Census, ...
, born in Gorin.


Politics


Local

The Democratic Party controls politics at the local level in Scotland County. Democrats hold all but five of the elected positions in the county.


State

Scotland County is in Missouri's 4th District in the
Missouri House of Representatives The Missouri House of Representatives is the lower chamber of the Missouri General Assembly. It has 163 members, representing districts with an average size of 37,000 residents. House members are elected for two-year terms during general elections ...
and is represented by
Craig Redmon
(R- Canton). Scotland County is a part of Missouri's 18th District in the
Missouri Senate The Missouri Senate is the upper chamber of the Missouri General Assembly. It has 34 members, representing districts with an average population of 181,000. Its members serve four-year terms, with half the seats being up for election every two yea ...
and is represented b
Brian Munzlinger
(R- Williamstown).


Federal

Scotland County is in Missouri's 6th Congressional District and is represented by
Sam Graves Samuel Bruce Graves Jr. (born November 7, 1963) is an American politician best known for serving in the United States House of Representatives, U.S. House of Representatives for , with him being the dean of Missouri's congressional districts, Mi ...
(R- Tarkio) in the U.S. House of Representatives.


See also

* National Register of Historic Places listings in Scotland County, Missouri


References


External links


Rootsweb for Scotland County, MissouriMemphis Area Chamber of Commerce


from
University of Missouri The University of Missouri (Mizzou or MU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri, United States. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus Univers ...
Division of Special Collections, Archives, and Rare Books {{coord, 40.45, -92.15, display=title, type:adm2nd_region:US-MO_source:UScensus1990 1841 establishments in Missouri Populated places established in 1841