My Genealogy Hound

Scott Atkins, presiding judge of the Webster County Court, and a resident of Washington Township, was born in Lee County, Va., near a place called Rose Hill, August 12, 1833, being the son of Morris and Lucinda (Peek) Atkins, natives of Summers County, Va., near New and Kanawha Rivers. The father was born January 1, 1801; the mother was born October 3, 1803. After his marriage Mr. Atkins moved, in 1829, to Grainger County, Tenn., where they resided until the spring of 1846, and then immigrated to Gasconade County, Mo.; here he died July 28, of the same year. He was a member of the Baptist Church; was a gunsmith by trade, and a manufacturer of edged tools. He was a Democrat in politics. The mother was a member of the Primitive Baptist Church. After the death of her husband she moved back to Claiborne County, Tenn., near where they had formerly lived, and here died in July, 1857. Their son, Scott Atkins, at the age of twenty-two years, married, in 1885, and after marriage engaged in agricultural pursuits, which he has continued ever since. He also learned the carpenter’s trade, at which he has continued to work until within the last two years. In 1856 he moved to what is now Leavenworth County, Kas., with the intention of making the place a permanent home. The border troubles being at their worst, it was no fitting place to live, and after staying about one year he moved to Polk County, Mo., where he resided until 1860, when he moved to Webster County, Mo. This has since been his home. He is the owner of a well-located and well-improved farm. He served in the State Militia at various times and places until 1864, when he enlisted in Company B, Forty-eighth Missouri Infantry, Federal service, and was mustered out in 1865, at Chicago, Ill., at Camp Douglas. He was at the battle of Nashville, Tenn., on December 15 and 16, and was in many places guarding the railroads, and was in a railroad wreck near Spring Hill, south of Nashville, in February, 1865, where an entire train was precipitated down an embankment, except locomotive and tender. After the war he returned to Webster County, Mo. In November, 1882, he was elected presiding judge of Webster County, and re-elected in 1886, which position he now holds. The Judge is a member of the G. A. R., is a Republican in his political views, and is one of the prominent men of the county. Mrs. Atkins is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The subject of this sketch has three sisters and one brother, living in what is now Union County, Tenn., formerly a part of Grainger and Claiborne Counties. The brother, Samuel Atkins, is a prominent physician and merchant, who is now located on the bank of Clinch River. The sisters are Mesdames Walker, Capps and Haynes. The eldest brother was killed by being thrown from a horse while quite young.