Job Scott

Job Scott, alias “John Wright,” was born in 1842 in England.

Job, who was unable to read or write, left England and immigrated to America, eventually settling western Michigan by 1860 when he was a farm laborer working for a wealthy farmer by the name of Philander Howe in Portland, Ionia County.

He had gray eyes, red hair and a light complexion, and was 19 years old and still residing in Ionia County when he enlisted with the consent of the Justice of the Peace in Company E on May 13, 1861. Job was shot by a minie ball in the left forearm on May 31, 1862, at Fair Oaks, Virginia, and subsequently reported sick in the hospital (probably in Philadelphia and in Washington) from July of 1862 through January of 1863. He soon returned to the Regiment and was wounded on August 29, 1862, at Second Bull Run.

He soon ecovered and was transferred on December 8, 1862, to Company M, First United States cavalry, at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and joined that Regiment on December 23 at Washington, DC. Job probably joined the regiment somewhere along the Rappahannock River in late December. The First U.S. cavalry participated in Stoneman’s raid April 29-May 8, 1863, but by July Job was listed as absent without leave and then reported as a deserter while the regiment was engaged in the third day of battle of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, July 3, 1863.

According to the War Department, Job apparently enlisted in Company A, Third Maryland cavalry on July 16, 1863, under the name of John Wright.

Following the war Job returned to Michigan. He was married to Michigan native Nancy (b. 1853) and they had at least four children: Nellie (b. 1872), Carlos (b. 1873), George W. (b. 1874) and Carrie Bell (b. 1877).

Job was living near Little Traverse, Emmett County in 1876. During the Old Third Michigan Infantry Association reunion in December of 1876 Association Secretary Silas K. Pierce “read a letter from Job Scott, formerly of Company E, stating that he had settled on a homestead near Little Traverse, Emmet County, that he could not obtain employment, and that his wife was an invalid and himself and little children were destitute. The President [of the association, General Byron Pierce] stated that steps had already been taken to afford Mr. Scott a little relief, when the Association voted to appropriate $15.00 for the same purpose. A box of clothing has been sent to Mr. Scott.”

By 1880 he was working as a farmer and living with his wife and children in Little Traverse.

Job applied for a pension (no. 1155768) which was possibly rejected because of his uncertain wartime status, and he was living in Grand Rapids in December of 1886 when he became a member of the Old Third Michigan Infantry Association. By 1888 he had moved to St. Louis, Gratiot County where he was living in 1890 and 1893.

Job died on September 6, 1895, probably in Gratiot County, and was buried in Ithaca cemetery