The Search for the Descendants of Samuel & Permilia Scott
This information was published in the Cortland Standard on August 31, 1977 (page 11):
A Task of Gargantuan Proportions... Group Strives to Preserve County's Last One-Room Schoolhouse
by Joan Vrooman
Although it's been nearly ten years since the old school bell regularly called the children from play, the quaint one-room schoolhouse at Glen Haven, known as District No. 4 School, looks much as it must have when it was built in 1901.
The brown slat exterior siding and gray wooden pillars are badly in need of a coat of paint, but the warmth of the past is echoed in the old books lining the walls, the slant-top teacher's desk and the student's desks and attached benches, all from another era. Below the blackboard stands a tiny stage, where, in the past small girls and boys recited their pieces or acted out the Nativity Scene for proud parents.
Adjacent to one window is an outdoor bird feeder, empty now, but it's easy to visualize saucy jays pushing aside their smaller feathered counterparts while delighted youngsters giggle at their visitor's bad manners. At times, the open windows beckoned the bolder birds indoors to fly from the top of the upright piano and perch atop the globe across the room.
This building, which still houses the Glen Haven library in the room adjacent to the schoolroom, (open on a limited basis to community residents and summer visitors), is the last one-room school in Cortland County. It is the desire of a small group of Glen Haven residents, now known as the Glen Haven Historical Society, to preserve and maintain this structure as an historic site.
Historic preservation of an abandoned schoolhouse sounds a simple enough undertaking, yet this task has taken on gargantuan proportions. Strange twists and startling developments have given the story all the earmarks of a mystery, requiring the kind of detective work which demands the capabilities of a super sleuth.
Here is the fascinating tale
...
The deed to this property shows that on May 1, 1856, for the sum of $35, the land was deeded from Samuel Scott and Permelia Scott, his wife, of Scott, N. Y., to the Trustees of School District No. 4, "as long as the same shall be held and improved by the District or the inhabitants thereof for the purpose and accommodation of a school."
Because of this reservation in the original deed, when the school was voted closed, the tax rolls were changed from exempt property to reflect the property owners as being "the heirs of Samuel Scott." Unpaid taxes accumulated, since the heirs seemed to be gone from the immediate area, and nobody came forward to pay them or to claim the property.
Subsequently, a few years ago, the Sleeping Squaw Cultural and Heritage Society of Glen Haven (formed as a Bicentennial Committee), undertook to pay the taxes and, at a given future date, expected to acquire the building on a tax deed. With limited finances, and since the building was not legally theirs, only emergency maintenance was given. This Society, and a 4-H Club, were the only groups to continue using the building at that time.
Awaiting the tax deed, the Society made tentative plans for the building's future, including the filing of an application to consider the structure suitable and meritorious of a listing on the National Register of Historic Buildings in Washington. The group also sought and was granted (as of Aug. 1) a provisional three-year charter as the Glen Haven Historical Society, by the New York State Board of Regents, thereby enabling it to purchase and own real estate.
An unexpected hitch through the proverbial monkey wrench into the plans.
Last October, immediately prior to the issuance of the tax deed, a man named C.M. Hazard from South Carolina suddenly appeared at the Cortland County Courthouse and presented a deed for the Glen Haven School property which he claimed was given him by an alleged heir of Samuel Scott by the name of "Samuel Scott Jun. III." The Society was subsequently advised, and this coincidence of events generated great concern throughout the community, as the future of the building became questionable.
Legal advice determined that the only recourse was to locate all, or as many as possible, of the living heirs of Samuel Scott, bring the situation to their attention, and ask them to consider transferring their portion of the title to the Glen Haven Historical Society by a quit claim deed.
In consideration of such generous action, the Society would restore the building and would duly acknowledge Samuel and Permilia Scott and their heirs with an appropriate memorial to be permanently displayed on the premises.
This is where the "super sleuth" was needed. On March 15, Attorney Grant VanSant brought to the attention of Mary Dexter, Cortland City historian, the need to locate the living descendants of Samuel and Permilia Scott. He couldn't have handed the ball to a better player. Immediately interested, Mary joined the team and utilized her expertise and knowledge of genealogy to begin scoring almost from the start.
It hasn't been easy. Using property deeds, census records, early maps, Town of Scott records, records from school, church, and cemetery, etc. as well as census records [sic], Mary's painstaking search for information about the Scott family began and still continues. She learned that Samuel and Permilia Scott had 13 children; five of them died with no heirs; some have not been located, but three of the children have produced 211 living descendants!
A local contact led the search to part of the family, and took Mary to Allegany and Steuben Counties in New York State, Huron County in Ohio, and Isabella County in Michigan. During part of her vacation last April, she covered 2,200 miles in eight days, at which time her research produced more than 100 of those living descendants. Letters to other descendants living in California, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Illinois, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Maryland, Washington, D.C., Virginia, and New York State have gone out, containing the request from the local society, complete with a charming and informative summary of he family history and the purpose of the research project. Those who have answered indicate great interest in the project and a willingness to assist in the preservation of this portion of their heritage for the Town of Glen Haven.
Already, eight residents of nearby towns in and on the outskirts of Cortland County, all newly-discovered heirs of Samuel and Permilia Scott, have signed over their rights to the property. Others are rapidly following suit.
"It's been an interesting experience," Mary Dexter admits wryly. "It's difficult enough to trace genealogy back to a common ancestor. It's extremely more so to trace forward from one ancestor to hundreds of descendants. It's doing the thing backwards."
Another interesting development appeared. In February, an affidavit, signed by Hazard, was filed at the Courthouse, proclaiming that by reason of the deed, Hazard is the owner of the property and will not tolerate any trespassing.
This did not stop the Society which continues to meet on the premises. To date, nobody has ever been ordered off.
"By 'squatting' here you are showing your claim to this property," VanSant has advised the group. "You can stand in the doorway and order him (Hazard) off the property more effectively than he can knock on the door waving his affidavit."
Question: Will Samuel Scott Jun. III of South Carolina ever appear in Cortland?
Is he even a legal heir? Research indicates that he is probably not a part of the three identified families.
Why does he call himself Jun. (an old-fashioned way of writing Jr.) and the third as well?
Who is C.M. Hazard? Where did he gain his information about this property in the first place? A local contact?
Even if Samuel Scott Jun. III is a legal heir, at best he held no more than 1/50 of the property or less. That being the case, Mr. Hazard has a worthless deed.
He is also out some $300 which he paid in back taxes on the property. Owner or not, that money is not refundable. It seems anybody can volunteer to pay anybody's taxes, if he's willing (and crazy) enough to do it.
What will happen when C.M. Hazard learns all this? When he realizes that the Glen Haven Historical Society is methodically gaining portions of the property piece by piece?
Will he sue? This is a real possibility. Yet, knowing he doesn't have much of a case, perhaps he will turn tail and run.
I'm betting on the Society and their Super Sleuth Mary Dexter, who continues her search for more Scott family descendants. Mary already has 211 3x5 file cards, each containing the name and address of a living descendant of Samuel and Permilia Scott, and more are being added as she tracks down still another of those original sons or daughters.
Most important, however, are those 60 "heirs"... the oldest living descendants in each family line. They are the people who can sign over their portion of the deed to the Glen Haven Historical Scoeity [sic].
They're the people who can give Glen Haven back its school. After all, that school has held a significant place in the lives of these inhabitants, and regaining it for posterity has a personal meaning for each of them.
