THE SCOTTS OF POWERVILLE

As some of this blog’s readers know, Rich spent a substantial amount of time researching the Scott family that lived in Powerville, NJ (Boonton Township today).  Today he and Carol rented a car and drove to Clinton, IA where one of the brothers moved in the 1850s. I stayed behind and waited patiently for them to return to Chicago.  Since once again I didn’t get to go, I will let Rich tell the story of the day.

Clinton, Iowa is located on the Mississippi River at about the widest point in the river.  The river is 3 miles wide there. At one point in time it had more millionaires per capita than any other city in the world.  The wealth of the city came from the lumber industry that grew up on the river.  Sawmills in Clinton processed logs from Minnesota and Wisconsin and sent their product throughout the Midwest and West.  In the 1880s Clinton had the world’s largest saw mill complex.  The main street of Clinton shows that it was once a thriving town but now empty stores are signs of a declining economy.  The current principal employer is ADM who has a huge corn processing plant producing corn based sweeteners.  The roads from Chicago to Clinton, once we got outside the city limits, are lined with corn fields as far as we could see.

Carol and I found the cemetery where the Scotts were buried and after some searching we found the grave sites.  After spending more than a year researching the family it was good to be able to find the fifth son of Joseph Scott’s grave site.

Carol and I drove around Clinton and found the Clinton Marina that charges $30 per day for a transient slip irrespective of the size of the boat.  While visiting that Marina we saw this riverboat heading down stream.

Across the river this windmill was located in Fulton, IL.  The windmill had been imported from the Netherlands and reassembled.  Fulton is attempting to develop a tourist attraction around a Netherland theme.

We had dinner with Bob and Ginny Jones who live in Clinton.  Ginny is a descendent of the Scott family of Powerville.  She has done incredible research on the family and shares it with me.

On our way to Clinton, Carol and I stopped in Dixon, IL and saw the childhood home of Ronald Reagan. 

We also tried to see the current home of President Obama but the street is blocked off and there was an ominous black car sitting there, I assume the car had secret service people in it and they would not have been happy if we started to take pictures.

Still in Chicago tomorrow.