Wednesday, October 28, 2020 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon Of a certain AGE Sue Stafford Columnist Don’t erase history As the Oregon Live ban- ner headline ran across my phone9s screen, I instantly felt like I9d been kicked in the gut. As I clicked on it and went to the story and photos online, tears began to collect in the corners of my eyes. What could elicit such an immediate emotional response? Who had died? To anyone else, it was just another story of an historic statue being toppled. But to me it was the statue of my great-grandfather, Portland pioneer, historian, and edi- tor of The Oregonian news- paper for 40 years, Harvey Whitefield Scott. His statue had stood atop Mount Tabor in southeast Portland since 1933, larger than life, which matched his purported personality. Harvey died in 1910 at Johns Hopkins Medical Center where he had gone for sur- gery. His widow, Margaret McChesney Scott, had the bronze statue erected in 1933 to honor her husband, a man held in high regard regionally and nationally for his editor- ship of the largest paper in Oregon and his many other civic contributions. The statue was created by Gutzon Borglum who, at the same time, was working on Mount Rushmore. That statue has been a point of pride for the large clan of Harvey9s descen- dants. Harvey9s many grand- children and great-grand- children have been taken to see the statue and hear about Harvey9s many con- tributions to Portland and Oregon. We were all steeped in the Scott family history, from the 1852 wagon train that brought Harvey, his sib- lings, and parents (his mother died of cholera on the trail) to the Willamette Valley, to Harvey9s role in Portland his- tory and his sister9s (Abigail Scott Duniway) legacy regarding the women9s suf- frage movement. I am well-versed in the other side of that history coin. Colonialism, degrada- tion of the indigenous peo- ples, <manifest destiny,= and more. Jim Cornelius and I had just had a conversation the day before the statue was torn down about the impor- tance of learning from his- tory and not trying to erase it. Then Jim asked the ques- tion, <What about the statues of Lenin, Saddam Hussein?= Who decides which statues deserve to come down or be removed? I know that as a young man Harvey fought in the bit- ter Yakima Indian War at age 18. At first, he vehemently opposed his sister editori- ally regarding the women9s movement for voting rights, although he did later soften that position. I am quite cer- tain Harvey was the epitome of the white privileged con- servative males of his day. He was living according to the accepted norms of the day. The fact that some of those norms are no longer acceptable doesn9t diminish him as a valuable contributor to the early days of Oregon. The vandalism and tear- ing down of history9s statues is a repudiation of all that has come before 4 honor- able, dishonorable, ugly and laudatory. I don9t know who vandalized Harvey9s statue in the past with red paint, and a variety of graffiti, or who is responsible for the toppling and damage to it now. What I do know is that it feels like a personal assault on the pride I have always felt about my roots. My Scott ancestors were a tenacious lot, from the time they left the shores of Scotland to make their way to North Carolina, on into the mountains of west- ern Kentucky, then follow- ing the western expansion into Illinois, and finally to Oregon in 1852 when Harvey was 14. He helped clear and cul- tivate three farm sites in Oregon and Washington. He worked as a logger and surveyor and in his father9s sawmill. With his photo- graphic memory, he taught himself Latin and Greek and at 25 earned the region9s first classical A.B. degree as the first graduate of Pacific University in Forest Grove. After a time in the Idaho mines in 1863, Harvey moved to Portland, where he studied law, became the Portland library9s first librar- ian, and freelanced editorials for The Oregonian. In 1865, he became edi- tor of the paper, and later part owner. Harvey9s classical education added a creative dimension to his career. His writings shared the fruits of his education and his serious life- long studies of the great literature of the Western world, local and world history, and higher criticism and com- parative religion, making his editori- als an extension of his persona. The Oregon Pioneer Association summed up his career at his death: <Mainly he was an instructor& tens of thousands were his daily students.= The Scotts9 road was long and challenging, but their persever- PHOTO BY SUE STAFFORD ance made it pos- sible for me to be The Harvey Whitefield Scott statue on Mount a fifth generation Tabor was toppled. That was a personal blow for Oregonian and columnist Sue Stafford. proud of it. I am sorry for the treatment of the damage it. I am not sorry that the natives in the white man9s quest for land. I am sorry Scott9s had the drive and Harvey didn9t initially sup- fortitude to cross lands origi- port Abigail and the suffrage nally inhabited solely by movement. I am sorry that the first Americans, to make people who probably don9t homes and raise families know about all the good done using only their own hard by Harvey saw fit to drag work, determination, and his statue to the ground and intelligence. Open Enrollment Starts November 1! 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