Frank Scott was my great-grandmother Nellie’s brother. He died years before I was born so I never knew him. While researching Grama Nellie, I found her brothers – the middle brother was Frank. I don’t remember her ever speaking of her brothers. I asked my older relatives and they weren’t sure either. I tend to ask the same questions repeatedly so eventually one of my mom’s cousins said that she thought she remembered an uncle Frank that cut the grass at Beaver Brook.

That was indeed uncle Frank. He worked for the city’s Parks department until his untimely death. He had no children so it’s not too hard to understand being forgotten by his great nieces and nephews. His death made front page news though in January of 1948.

Frank Scott was born in Worcester on 8 May 1891 to Hannah E. Scott and William J. Scott. Hannah was the daughter of Edward W. Scott and Catherine Annie Jackson. Edward and Annie had been enslaved in Virginia before traveling to Massachusetts with Methodist missionaries. Hannah was born in West Boylston, MA where the family settled. William J. Scott was born in Rutland, VT to Harriet Quow and William Scott. William is said to have escaped from slavery in Maryland and made his way to Vermont. Harriet Quow was the daughter of Sylvester Quow and Lucretia Willett both from the Black farming community in Vermont.

Frank Scott was a Teamster and drove trucks before working for the city. By 1930 and age 40, he was married to Ethel Wilson a woman 12 years his senior. Ethel was the daughter of Joseph Wilson and Nina Perkins. Frank’s death record lists him as widowed so Ethel may have predeceased him.

On January 2, 1948, a blizzard struck Worcester, MA. Frank was caught in the storm while walking home from work and died of a heart attack.