Settlement in Kentucky and Early Political Career
In October 1783, the Virginia Legislature authorized Scott to commission superintendents and surveyors to survey the lands given to soldiers for their service in the Revolutionary War. Enticed by glowing reports of Kentucky by his friend, James Wilkinson, he arranged for a cabin to be built for him near the Kentucky River, although the builder apparently laid only the cornerstone. Scott first visited Kentucky in mid-1785. Traveling with Peyton Short, one of Wilkinson's business partners, he came to Limestone (present-day Maysville, Kentucky) via the Monongahela and Ohio Rivers. Scott and Short then traveled overland to the Kentucky River to examine the land they would later claim. Scott's stay in Kentucky was a short one; he had returned to his farm in Virginia by September 1785.
On his return to Virginia, Scott employed Edward Carrington, former quartermaster general of the Southern Army, to set his financial affairs in order in preparation for a move to Kentucky. Carrington purchased Scott's Virginia farm in 1785, but allowed the family to live there until they moved to the frontier. In 1787, Scott settled near the city of Versailles, Kentucky. Between his military claims and those of his children, the Scott family was entitled to 21,035 acres (8,513 ha) in Fayette and Bourbon counties. Scott constructed a two-story log cabin, a stockade, and a tobacco inspection warehouse. In June 1787, Shawnee warriors killed and scalped his son, Samuel, while he was crossing the Ohio River in a canoe; the elder Scott watched helplessly from the riverbank. Although a small party of settlers pursued the Shawnees back across the river, they were not able to overtake them. In volume three of Theodore Roosevelt's The Winning of the West, he stated that Scott "delighted in war" against the Indians after the death of his son.
Scott focused on the development of his homestead as a way to deal with the grief of losing his son. The settlement became known as Scott's Landing, and Scott briefly served as a tobacco inspector for the area. Determined to make Scott's Landing the centerpiece of a larger settlement called Petersburg, he began selling lots near the settlement in November 1788. Among those who purchased lots were James Wilkinson, Abraham Buford, Judge George Muter, and future Congressman and Kentucky Governor Christopher Greenup.
Scott was one of 37 men who founded the Kentucky Society for the Promotion of Useful Knowledge in 1787. Although he did not participate in any of the ten statehood conventions that sought to separate Kentucky from Virginia, he supported the idea in principle. When Woodford County was formed from the part of Fayette County that included Scott's fledgling settlement, Scott declined appointment as the new county's lieutenant. He did, however, consent to be a candidate to represent the county in the Virginia House of Delegates. During his single term, he served on the committee on privileges and election and on several special committees, including one that recommended that President George Washington supply a military guard at Big Bone Lick to facilitate the establishment of a saltworks there.
Read more about this topic: Charles Scott (governor)
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