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Robert Clare Scott

The Scott line is actually one of the shorter ones in Scotty’s family tree. Beginning with Robert (Bob) Scott the Scott line is only verified back three more generations. I say verified because I’m still working on past generations. The women have actually been easier to work on in some ways then the men – that’s not normal in genealogy!

Robert Clare Scott was born on 5 May 1891 in Plumcreek Township, Armstrong County, Pennsylvania.¹ [Yes, I’m aware his death record and tombstone say 1890, but his marriage record and early census record place his birth in 1891, well after his parents 1890 marriage.] Bob is the oldest son of John Pettigrew Scott and Anna Mary Beatty (aka Anna M. Shaffer – more on that later). I have seen some records that state he was born in Elderton, but I’m comfortable with Plumcreek Township as the appropriate location since this is what he declares on his marriage application.

Bob was apparently a bright young man and a hard worker. According to a 29 July 1908 news article, he was hired as a teacher at the Concord School in Concord.² Concord was a small community above Gastown and is no longer in existence. Keystone Lake was created in the 1960s and it covered the small community.

On 9 May 1910 he is enumerated with his parents and siblings on his father’s farm and lists his occupation as a farm laborer.³ He was still teaching school, but as with many teachers of the day, he worked at other jobs to make ends meet.

Bob married Viola Cynthia Lawton on 22 September 1915 in Shelocta, Armstrong County, Pennsylvania.⁴ Viola was the oldest daughter of Elmon Grant Lawton and Mary Etta Pickle. I will address Viola and her family when I post on the Lawton line in the future. One of the more interesting side facts about Bob and Viola’s story is that Viola had been one of Bob’s students when he taught at Concord School. The 1911/12 school year souvenir shows both of them along with several of Viola’s Lawton siblings.

Their only child Royden Blair Scott was born on 9 April 1917 in Elderton, Armstrong County, Pennsylvania.⁵

Blair told me that his father had a known heart condition and while he helped out during threshing season, he had been told that heavy labor was dangerous to him. This was part of the reason to become a teacher and also to take on some of the other jobs he had later in life.

1. Pennsylvania. Armstrong County. Marriage Licenses & Applications. Armstrong County Courthouse, Kittaning.
2. “Teachers Chosen,” The Indiana Weekly Messenger, 29 Jul 1908; digital images.
3. 1910 U.S. census, Armstrong County, Pennsylvania population schedule, Plumcreek Twp., enumeration district (ED) 37, p. 9B, dwelling 185; digital images, Ancestry (http://www.Ancestry.com); citing National Archives and Records Administration microfilm T624, roll 1310
4. Armstrong, Pennsylvania, Marriage Books, Book 25: page 521, Robert Clare Scott-Viola C. Lawton, 22 Sep 1915; Armstrong County Courthouse, Kittaning.
5. Pennsylvania Department of Health, birth certificate 67695 (9 Apr 1917), Royden Blair Scott; Department of Health, New Castle, Pennsylvania.

Burgraff/Kortlever/Stek/Bel, General Genealogical Posts

Basic Info on Tuberculosis

People have forgotten just what a scourge the disease of tuberculosis was. Entire families were afflicted by this disease and it was a common cause of death among the young as well as the old. TB has been around a long time – researchers have found evidence of the disease in prehistoric human remains and Egyptian mummies. I’m going to stay very non-technical in this post – if you want to know more just Google the history of tuberculosis and prepare to be overwhelmed!

The two types of tuberculosis in our family were known as pulmonary tuberculosis and “bone” or extrapulmonary tuberculosis. The primary cause of TB is a bacillus – in really lay terms “a bacterium” that can divide roughly every 16 to 20 hours. It’s not considered a fast grower, but it is a hearty little devil and can withstand weak disinfectants and survive in a dry state for several weeks.

Pulmonary tuberculosis is spread by the cough, sneeze, or spit of an infected person becoming airborne and someone else inhaling it. Think about the close living arrangements of families on farms and it’s easy to see how entire families were infected. Infection with TB did not always equate to the disease becoming active – I have seen numbers in my reading that stated anywhere from 15-40% of those infected became active.

Generally, the bone type of TB was acquired through the consumption of unpasteurized milk or consumption of meat from an in infected cow. On the Washington State Department of Agriculture website there is a compiled history concerning the State Veterinarian. There is an entry discussing tuberculosis testing of cattle that states, “Herds of up to 150 head were often found to be 100 percent reactive.”¹ This was during a time when every farmer had from 4-10 dairy cows for production of, at least, the family milk, and they usually sold the extra to the local dairy. The farmers also had a few young steers that they raised to butcher and almost all of these cattle carried the disease. “It would take until 1988 before Washington is declared Tuberculosis free by the Washington State Agricultural Department.”²

The real break-through in stopping the spread of TB came in 1944 when a new antibiotic called Streptomycin was administered for the first time. It immediately stopped the progression of the disease and the bacteria disappeared from the sputum, making the chance of recovery was excellent. All diseases mutate to survive and TB immediately did so, but new combinations of drugs solved most of those problems. In developed countries TB has been significantly reduced. It remains a huge problem in undeveloped countries and new drug resistant strains are still being found. This development came after many in my Burgraff and Kortlever line died from the disease.

1. Washington State Dept. of Agriculture, Washington State Dept. of Agriculture – Animal Health (http://www.secstate.wa.gov/library/docs/AGR/SL_AGR2004_000007.html : accessed 19 Jun 2009), 1929 entry.
2. Ibid.

Burgraff/Kortlever/Stek/Bel

Kortlever Family Portrait

The Kortlever Family:
Seated: Jan Kortlever, Jennie Kortlever Noteboom, Maaike Bel Kortlever
Back: Hugo Kortlever, Nellie Kortlever Van Diest, Maaike Kortlever Pen, Mary Kortlever Burgraff, John Cornelis Kortlever
[Updated Jun 2017]

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