Figure of the Week

James McClure Scott was the son of Dr. James McClure Scott (1760-1822) and Mildred Thompson (1755-1829) of Albemarle County, Virginia. James, Jr. was born near Ivy Depot in that county. He married Sarah Travers Lewis (1813-1891) and lived for a time at her family home, Bel-air, in Spotsylvania County, Virginia. They subsequently built Little Whim on White Oak Road (Route 218) in Stafford County and moved there in 184=53. After losing a child, they decided that the water at Little Whim wasn’t good and they moved to Pine Grove, just across the Chatham Bridge from Fredericksburg. This house site seems to have beenn destroyed for construction of Woodmont Nursing Home. The present railroad tracks may also have passed over or near the house foundation. The invasion of Union troops during the Civil War forced the Scotts back to Bel-air where they spent the remainder of their lives. In 1855, James M. Scott was overseer of the road “from the old stage road leading from Aquia to Dumfries to the road leading from Aquia to the Potomac river.” His responsibility for this section of road in 1855 indicates that he was then living in northern Stafford County, possibly in Wide Water. Not long thereafter, he was residing further south. In 1859, James was overseer of the road “from the foot of James’ Hill to the stage road through Belleplains in the place of Littleton C. Fleming.”