This is from The New York Times, November 3, 1887:
"DAVID SCOTT IN HIDING
AND A PAPER FIRM'S FUNDS MISSING
VERNON BROTHERS AND CO. FIND THAT A
PARTNER HAS HELPED HIMSELF TO
$100,000.00 AND DISAPPEARED
Under stress of great financial difficulties, David Scott, a business man prominent in his line, and a well known club man, has absconded, leaving his firm in the lurch for $100,000.00. The firm of Vernon Brothers and Co....[own] several large paper mills in the East...[and are] stockholders in several other paper milling establishments for which it is also the selling agent. Among these is the Ivanhoe Manufacturing Company, of Paterson, N.J....
...Mr. Thomas Vernon made the following statement yesterday: 'David Scott, a prominent member of this firm, came to us as a boy about thirty years ago. He was bright and intelligent, and rapidly rose in the estimation of my brother, Samuel Vernon...and of myself, and about five years later he was admitted to a small partnership interest, which was increased about 17 years ago, when my brother died. Mr. Scott was a cultivated man and respectably connected in Ontario, Canada, whence he came. His father was Surveyor of Customs at that port, and, as a zealous member of the Church of the Disciples, occasionally preached from its pulpits. He has a brother and other relatives there also, all of them highly respectable people. I had known Mr. Scott to be a good liver for years, but had no knowledge of any bad habits of his until recently. Then I learned that he had got into expensive habits, and was neglecting business for the race track and other forms of dissipation. It shortly after came to my knowledge that he had considerably overdrawn what he was entitled to as a member of the firm. I am an old man, and, having every confidence in Mr. Scott, I gave his management of the finances of the firm but superficial attention.
When I discovered what I have told you I asked him what he had done with the money he had drawn out, and he said he had made some investments in Manitoba, but of what character he did not say. When I asked him if he could not realize upon his investments and return the money he merely shrugged his shoulders and waved his hands as indicating that he could not convert them into money. Last Saturday week...I had just returned from the bank, where I had learned of the existence of certain negotiable obligations of ours which I had no previous intimation. I had a talk with him about it and about certain parties with whom he was associating to his injury and ours. He seemed sober at the time, but hadn't his accustomed cheerfulness and seemed oppressed with the weight upon his mind of some impending evil. He gave me no satisfaction regarding our affairs, nor did he intimate any intention of going away. But I saw him then for the last time...
...Mr. Scott was a member of the Lotos and two or three other fashionable clubs. He lived quietly...but liked fast horses and expensive associations, and has lately given the time to those which we supposed he was devoting to business in Paterson and among our customers...An old friend of Mr. Scott said he was generous to a fault, and was a source of charitable aid to all his embarassed compatriots at all times. For years he had lived at the rate of $15,000 to $20,000 a year, and he was hail fellow well met in all society..."
The New York Times followed this article up on November 4, 1887:
"The disappearance of Mr. Scott...under circumstances indicative of suicide...has painfully shocked a large circle of men of prominence in this city who have been his friends. That he could have been guilty of premeditated dishonesty none of them will believe. He is said to have been the wheelhorse of the firm to which he is connected. He was its widest-known member in the trade, and upon him devolved entirely the entertainment of its customers. One of his intimate associates said that if he had drawn $40,000 beyond his account from Vernons the firm had got the better of it, for Mr. Scott's personal expenses had not, to his knowledge, exceeded $3,000 a year for the last three years...
...S. Webber Parker, Treasurer of the Ivanhoe [paper] Manufacturing Company, said he had no doubt Mr. Scott had committed suicide, and that his body would be found somewhere about Niagara Falls in the course of a few days. A telegram from a brother-in-law in Toronto yesterday [this must have been Robert Watt Elliot] said that Scott had not been seen there. His personal effects, clothing, and some furniture... remained as he had left them when he left away. Some friends yesterday paid the small balance due his landlady, and removed the effects to a storage room..."
On November 7, 1887, the New York Times published a third article, this time detailing John Galloway Scott's visit to New York to investigate his brother's disappearance:
"DAVID SCOTT PROBABLY DEAD/THE INVESTIGATIONS OF HIS BROTHER INTO THE CAUSE OF HIS FLIGHT
The strange disappearance last month of David Scott...is still exciting much interest. John G. Scott, of Toronto, who is a brother of the missing man, arrived here Friday for the purpose of straightening out his brother's affairs. Saturday morning Mr. Scott called on Thomas Vernon, the senior member of the firm, and urged him to sign a statement exonerating David Scott from all criminal action. Mr. Vernon later wrote a letter to the brother, in which he said, as to the statement that he had charged Mr. Scott with forgery: 'This is false. I never charged him with this or any other criminal offense. With all his faults, and they were many, he had a warm and generous heart, which gave him a large circle of friends.'
Mr. Scott said his investigation confirmed him in his belief that his brother had committed suicide by jumping off the suspension bridge at Niagara. In a letter written from the falls to Albert Hall, of the Lawrenceville Cement Company, David said: 'I long for final rest.'...'My brother was connected with the firm of Vernon Brothers and Co. for thirty years' he said. 'The first five years he was employed as a clerk, and was then taken into partnership with 40 per cent. of the profits as his portion. He...was soon given the management of the entire business. I accordingly expected to find him worth at least $500,000, but I am told his account is overdrawn to the amount of $60,000. That is a matter I can't understand. With the exception of about $2,000 this overdrawn account consists of notes advanced for the support of one of the paper mills which the firm was carrying....the whole transaction is regularly entered in the books of the firm and can hardly have escaped the notice of Mr. Vernon or the other partners....Experts are now examining the books of the firm, and I hope to return home by Tuesday with every stain removed from my brother's memory."
The Paterson Weekly Press of Paterson, New Jersey, ran an extensive article on November 10, 1887:
"DAVID SCOTT DISAPPEARS // THE PRESIDENT OF THE IVANHOE PAPER COMPANY GOES TO PARTS UNKNOWN.
The New York newspapers this morning announce the disappearance of Mr. David Scott, the president of the Ivanhoe Paper Company, of this city. When the control of the paper mill passed out of the hands of Mr. Henry V. Butler a majority of the stock was bought by Mr. Scott and Mr. S. Webber Parker and they have since managed the concern. Mr. Scott was very well known in Paterson and nearly everybody had a kind word for him. After the recent explosion Mr. Scott showed himself as a kind-hearted and liberal man, willing to do all he could to alleviate the sufferings of those who had been injured. He visited the hospital where the wounded were lying and personally saw to it that they were provided with everything they could wish for, having given directions that the expense be charged to himself...
...R.F. Ware, vice-president of...[ I.X.L. Fireworks company] said: 'Neither myself nor others of Scott's friends doubt that he will turn up before long. He repeatedly threatened suicide of late, but in the opinion of those who knew him it is not probable that he would go to Niagara Falls to do so. All that I have seen think that he is suffering temporary aberration of the mind.'
...An intimate friend of Mr. Scott said yesterday: ' Mr. Scott's private charities will never be known. He was generous,charitable, and open handed. There are three tombstones in Greenwood that he has had erected over young men who had died friendless. One of these was the son of William Lyon MacKenzie, the Canadian patriot of 1837. Many men have told me with tears in their eyes of what Scott has done for them. He has been a changed man for a year past, has drank some and been to races, but I can't understand what he has done with his money.'
Mr. Scott has a brother in Toronto, John G. Scott, Assistant Prosecuting Attorney for the Province of Ontario. A letter was received from that gentleman yesterday by a friend of David Scott, announcing that the missing man was not in Toronto. John G. Scott went to Niagara Falls to look for his brother. The latter's name was found registered at the Cataract House, but nothing was known of him at the hotel.
...S. Webber Parker...said: 'Scott borrowed $20 from me the day before he left, which proved that he hadn't any money with him. His physician had warned him that he was working too hard, and would die of apoplexy if he persisted. He told me that he would kill himself before any such thing would happen. I believe that he found that his money was all gone, and that he was gradually losing his place in the firm he was with, and ended his life in a fit of despair. I know that the stories that Scott lived a fast life are false. He spent a great deal of money entertaining customers who came to town, and paid the expenses for this hospitality out of his own pocket instead of charging them to the firm. This accounts for his having overdrawn his account with Vernon Brothers. There is more underneath all this than now appears on the surface, and it will come out one of these days, I hope.'
The same paper transcribed a copy of a suicide note that David Scott had written to a "warm friend", Mr. Albert Hall. The letter was dated N.Y. Suspension Bridge, October 23, 1887 and was postmarked October 25th:
"Dear Albert,
By the time this reaches you I shall have gone to another world, but before I take the final step I want to say some things and ask you to do some. For months--I may say two years--I have had no real sleep. Slept I have, but it was a disturbed and (?)ful sleep. I went to bed tired and rose more so. Now, with the idea of another life, there is a feeling of exultation that is difficult to put into words. Therefore I won't attempt it. I feel that I am to take a rest, which I have not had for twenty years. *** Now, old fellow, I have said about all I want to on business matters, and I only ask you to remember me as we were. The fates have seemed against me. I have labored hard. Now it is over. I don't know that I have much to regret. I have tried to be generous and just, despite what some and appearances may say. Yours faithfully, D. Scott."
David Scott would have been around 49 years old when he took his life. It must have been a deep blow to the whole family. It sounds like he spoke of his suicidal thoughts to several people, but they were unable to help him. Thankfully his mother and father had already passed away by 1887. It's hard to know from these reports whether Scott made some bad investments, gambled money away on horse races, or just spent too much of his own money propping up a failing business. Did he keep "fast" company? Despite his life's tragic ending, he sounds like a person of great warmth, charisma, and generosity.
...Mr. Thomas Vernon made the following statement yesterday: 'David Scott, a prominent member of this firm, came to us as a boy about thirty years ago. He was bright and intelligent, and rapidly rose in the estimation of my brother, Samuel Vernon...and of myself, and about five years later he was admitted to a small partnership interest, which was increased about 17 years ago, when my brother died. Mr. Scott was a cultivated man and respectably connected in Ontario, Canada, whence he came. His father was Surveyor of Customs at that port, and, as a zealous member of the Church of the Disciples, occasionally preached from its pulpits. He has a brother and other relatives there also, all of them highly respectable people. I had known Mr. Scott to be a good liver for years, but had no knowledge of any bad habits of his until recently. Then I learned that he had got into expensive habits, and was neglecting business for the race track and other forms of dissipation. It shortly after came to my knowledge that he had considerably overdrawn what he was entitled to as a member of the firm. I am an old man, and, having every confidence in Mr. Scott, I gave his management of the finances of the firm but superficial attention.
When I discovered what I have told you I asked him what he had done with the money he had drawn out, and he said he had made some investments in Manitoba, but of what character he did not say. When I asked him if he could not realize upon his investments and return the money he merely shrugged his shoulders and waved his hands as indicating that he could not convert them into money. Last Saturday week...I had just returned from the bank, where I had learned of the existence of certain negotiable obligations of ours which I had no previous intimation. I had a talk with him about it and about certain parties with whom he was associating to his injury and ours. He seemed sober at the time, but hadn't his accustomed cheerfulness and seemed oppressed with the weight upon his mind of some impending evil. He gave me no satisfaction regarding our affairs, nor did he intimate any intention of going away. But I saw him then for the last time...
...Mr. Scott was a member of the Lotos and two or three other fashionable clubs. He lived quietly...but liked fast horses and expensive associations, and has lately given the time to those which we supposed he was devoting to business in Paterson and among our customers...An old friend of Mr. Scott said he was generous to a fault, and was a source of charitable aid to all his embarassed compatriots at all times. For years he had lived at the rate of $15,000 to $20,000 a year, and he was hail fellow well met in all society..."
The New York Times followed this article up on November 4, 1887:
"The disappearance of Mr. Scott...under circumstances indicative of suicide...has painfully shocked a large circle of men of prominence in this city who have been his friends. That he could have been guilty of premeditated dishonesty none of them will believe. He is said to have been the wheelhorse of the firm to which he is connected. He was its widest-known member in the trade, and upon him devolved entirely the entertainment of its customers. One of his intimate associates said that if he had drawn $40,000 beyond his account from Vernons the firm had got the better of it, for Mr. Scott's personal expenses had not, to his knowledge, exceeded $3,000 a year for the last three years...
...S. Webber Parker, Treasurer of the Ivanhoe [paper] Manufacturing Company, said he had no doubt Mr. Scott had committed suicide, and that his body would be found somewhere about Niagara Falls in the course of a few days. A telegram from a brother-in-law in Toronto yesterday [this must have been Robert Watt Elliot] said that Scott had not been seen there. His personal effects, clothing, and some furniture... remained as he had left them when he left away. Some friends yesterday paid the small balance due his landlady, and removed the effects to a storage room..."
On November 7, 1887, the New York Times published a third article, this time detailing John Galloway Scott's visit to New York to investigate his brother's disappearance:
"DAVID SCOTT PROBABLY DEAD/THE INVESTIGATIONS OF HIS BROTHER INTO THE CAUSE OF HIS FLIGHT
The strange disappearance last month of David Scott...is still exciting much interest. John G. Scott, of Toronto, who is a brother of the missing man, arrived here Friday for the purpose of straightening out his brother's affairs. Saturday morning Mr. Scott called on Thomas Vernon, the senior member of the firm, and urged him to sign a statement exonerating David Scott from all criminal action. Mr. Vernon later wrote a letter to the brother, in which he said, as to the statement that he had charged Mr. Scott with forgery: 'This is false. I never charged him with this or any other criminal offense. With all his faults, and they were many, he had a warm and generous heart, which gave him a large circle of friends.'
Mr. Scott said his investigation confirmed him in his belief that his brother had committed suicide by jumping off the suspension bridge at Niagara. In a letter written from the falls to Albert Hall, of the Lawrenceville Cement Company, David said: 'I long for final rest.'...'My brother was connected with the firm of Vernon Brothers and Co. for thirty years' he said. 'The first five years he was employed as a clerk, and was then taken into partnership with 40 per cent. of the profits as his portion. He...was soon given the management of the entire business. I accordingly expected to find him worth at least $500,000, but I am told his account is overdrawn to the amount of $60,000. That is a matter I can't understand. With the exception of about $2,000 this overdrawn account consists of notes advanced for the support of one of the paper mills which the firm was carrying....the whole transaction is regularly entered in the books of the firm and can hardly have escaped the notice of Mr. Vernon or the other partners....Experts are now examining the books of the firm, and I hope to return home by Tuesday with every stain removed from my brother's memory."
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| Currier and Ives print of the Niagara Falls Suspension Bridge |
The Paterson Weekly Press of Paterson, New Jersey, ran an extensive article on November 10, 1887:
"DAVID SCOTT DISAPPEARS // THE PRESIDENT OF THE IVANHOE PAPER COMPANY GOES TO PARTS UNKNOWN.
The New York newspapers this morning announce the disappearance of Mr. David Scott, the president of the Ivanhoe Paper Company, of this city. When the control of the paper mill passed out of the hands of Mr. Henry V. Butler a majority of the stock was bought by Mr. Scott and Mr. S. Webber Parker and they have since managed the concern. Mr. Scott was very well known in Paterson and nearly everybody had a kind word for him. After the recent explosion Mr. Scott showed himself as a kind-hearted and liberal man, willing to do all he could to alleviate the sufferings of those who had been injured. He visited the hospital where the wounded were lying and personally saw to it that they were provided with everything they could wish for, having given directions that the expense be charged to himself...
...R.F. Ware, vice-president of...[ I.X.L. Fireworks company] said: 'Neither myself nor others of Scott's friends doubt that he will turn up before long. He repeatedly threatened suicide of late, but in the opinion of those who knew him it is not probable that he would go to Niagara Falls to do so. All that I have seen think that he is suffering temporary aberration of the mind.'
...An intimate friend of Mr. Scott said yesterday: ' Mr. Scott's private charities will never be known. He was generous,charitable, and open handed. There are three tombstones in Greenwood that he has had erected over young men who had died friendless. One of these was the son of William Lyon MacKenzie, the Canadian patriot of 1837. Many men have told me with tears in their eyes of what Scott has done for them. He has been a changed man for a year past, has drank some and been to races, but I can't understand what he has done with his money.'
Mr. Scott has a brother in Toronto, John G. Scott, Assistant Prosecuting Attorney for the Province of Ontario. A letter was received from that gentleman yesterday by a friend of David Scott, announcing that the missing man was not in Toronto. John G. Scott went to Niagara Falls to look for his brother. The latter's name was found registered at the Cataract House, but nothing was known of him at the hotel.
...S. Webber Parker...said: 'Scott borrowed $20 from me the day before he left, which proved that he hadn't any money with him. His physician had warned him that he was working too hard, and would die of apoplexy if he persisted. He told me that he would kill himself before any such thing would happen. I believe that he found that his money was all gone, and that he was gradually losing his place in the firm he was with, and ended his life in a fit of despair. I know that the stories that Scott lived a fast life are false. He spent a great deal of money entertaining customers who came to town, and paid the expenses for this hospitality out of his own pocket instead of charging them to the firm. This accounts for his having overdrawn his account with Vernon Brothers. There is more underneath all this than now appears on the surface, and it will come out one of these days, I hope.'
The same paper transcribed a copy of a suicide note that David Scott had written to a "warm friend", Mr. Albert Hall. The letter was dated N.Y. Suspension Bridge, October 23, 1887 and was postmarked October 25th:
"Dear Albert,
By the time this reaches you I shall have gone to another world, but before I take the final step I want to say some things and ask you to do some. For months--I may say two years--I have had no real sleep. Slept I have, but it was a disturbed and (?)ful sleep. I went to bed tired and rose more so. Now, with the idea of another life, there is a feeling of exultation that is difficult to put into words. Therefore I won't attempt it. I feel that I am to take a rest, which I have not had for twenty years. *** Now, old fellow, I have said about all I want to on business matters, and I only ask you to remember me as we were. The fates have seemed against me. I have labored hard. Now it is over. I don't know that I have much to regret. I have tried to be generous and just, despite what some and appearances may say. Yours faithfully, D. Scott."
David Scott would have been around 49 years old when he took his life. It must have been a deep blow to the whole family. It sounds like he spoke of his suicidal thoughts to several people, but they were unable to help him. Thankfully his mother and father had already passed away by 1887. It's hard to know from these reports whether Scott made some bad investments, gambled money away on horse races, or just spent too much of his own money propping up a failing business. Did he keep "fast" company? Despite his life's tragic ending, he sounds like a person of great warmth, charisma, and generosity.
