— The '89er Trail —
Journalist, Lawyer, Educator, Orator, and Author of Oklahoma City History
Arriving from Kansas on April 22, Angelo C. Scott, age 31 and his brother W.W. Scott started a newspaper, the Oklahoma Times, soon renamed the Journal, the first in Oklahoma City. When the first mass meeting took place on April 23, A.C. Scott found himself standing on a wagon as the moderator. He was soon chosen to serve on the Citizen's Committee of 14 to survey the townsite and the Committee of 5 to reconcile the Citizen's and Seminole surveys. His newspaper was a temperate voice of reason during the first year of chaotic debates.
Scott served on the Legislation and Education Committees of the first Board of Trade, helped start the First Presbyterian Church, the YMCA, the Men's Dinner Club, and many other early civic organizations. As a lawyer and publisher he was involved in many early business initiatives as well.
He would later serve in the territorial senate as president pro tem, and in 1899 was named President of Oklahoma A&M (now Oklahoma State University). His many writings about the early days of Oklahoma City have been an invaluable resource for subsequent historians.
This marker looks across Main Street at the location of Scott's law office.
Photo captions:
Left: This history of the city was published
in 1939. In the preface Angelo C. Scott says, "... an authentic story of Oklahoma City should be available not only to the readers of today but
also to those of the future."
Research Division of the Oklahoma Historical Society
Middle: Scott served as an English professor at Epworth University (now Oklahoma City
University) and later served as chair of the English department until his retirement
in 1931. © Heart of the Promised Land by Bob Blackburn. All rights reserved.
Right: Oklahoma A&M President Angelo C. Scott with students and faculty. © OSU Special Collections. All nights reserved
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