Robert Thomas Scott, Sr.

Robert Thomas Scott, Sr.. Scottsboro Founder, also, Successful Pioneer. Robert T. Scott, born in 1800 into a prominent North Carolina family who originally settled in Maryland, founded the Alabama town that bears his name. Between 1848 and 1858, he acquired 1,240 acres of choice land in the heart of Jackson County. Prior to 1850, he moved his family from Bellefonte to a home site that soon included a family cemetery., He established a grist mill and a shingle mill. In 1854, Scott persuaded the Memphis and Charleston Railroad Company to route tracks through his acreage and benefited the fledgling village known as Scott's Mill., As the tracks were laid, Scott sold lots on both sides of the railroad line that stimulated additional economic development. The first M&CRR passenger arrived at the station's wooden platform by March 1856. The community was renamed Scottsboro in 1858., A brick Scottsboro Depot completed in January 1861 became the business center of Scott's town plat. During the Civil War, Union troops burned Scott's grist mill and shingle mill. Scott's death, at age 62, was attributed to stress at the hands of Union troops. His Will instructed the heirs to donate lots for public purposes “as it should be deemed necessary to grow up the town.” Although Scott had been unsuccessful in relocating the county seat from Bellefonte, county offices were moved to Scottsboro five years after his death., He and his wife, Elizabeth Ann Parsons Scott; their son, Dr. Robert T. Scott. Jr; and several of the elder Scotts' grandchildren are buried in the Scott Family Cemetery.