Frank E. Stott Family Papers

Collection

Identifier: Mss 239

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

The Stott and Hughes Store Series includes correspondence, some with J.E. O'Brien, business calendars, warranty and contract deeds, mortgages, various pamphlets, checkbooks, opera house operation records, sales book, and various tax receipts which are fairly complete. The Stott Family Papers Series contains personal correspondence with relatives and friends, mostly to Mrs. Stott, but including a letter to Mr. Stott from his partner's son telling of his father's death. Another letter of particular interest is from Esther Dahler, farmer and postmistress to the Beyer family about a cafe in Montpelier. The Kirksville (Missouri) Mercantile College ledger dates to Mr. Stott's attendance there in 1895. The tax receipts are on the Stott home, paid in 1918 by George M. Johnson. The Angela Stott Papers include booklets made in school, 8th grade diploma, high school diploma (1937), commencement memories, several graduation cards, prom souvenirs and other high school memorabilia. The Dakotan was issued by Dakota Business College in Fargo in 1938. The Frank Stott, Jr. material has high school material, spiritual banquets and flower cards at his death, driver’s license, naval dog tags, service identification cards and his naval diesel engineers pin. The other folder contains a letter from Cecil Tracy Post No. 760 at Jamestown in May 1948 on his death, a memorial from the Working Boys Home, and letters from his employees. The I.O.O.F. File contains a membership book of Lodge No. 125 at Montpelier from 1908 to 1926. The Dr. Nichols Sanitarium pamphlets include a publication by the Sanitarium, Your Magazine, and a brochure on La Verna Heights Home where Frank Stott went twice for skin cancer treatment. Also there are brochures on Spears Chiropractic Hospital at Denver. The Stutsman County Fair File contains a ribbon won in 1962 by Mrs. Stott for her sweet corn. The OrthEnglerth genealogy contains a pedigree chart and family work sheets, and pertains to those who came to North Dakota. Mrs. Stott's 80th birthday celebration material contains the guestbook, a Happy Birthday book by the second and third grade, a letter to her daughter describing the event, her 'Thank You, songs, and a newspaper article on the event. The estate papers of Mary Stott include mortgage releases, transfer in trust, sale bill, bond releases, agreement with Harvey and Patti DeBuch and correspondence. Finally there is material related to the Schenecker genealogy and souvenirs from events attended.

Dates

1895-1976

Creator

Stott, Frank Ellsworth, 1875-1963. (Person)

Access

The collection is open under the rules and regulations of the Institute.

Copyrights

Biography

Frank Ellsworth Stott was born January 8, 1875 near Kirksville, Adair County, Missouri, the son of Charles Dean Stott and Louise Haden. After high school, he attended the State Normal School and the Kirksville Mercantile College. He became an insurance salesman in Illinois for a short time after which he returned to Kirksville and found a job as a cowboy driving a herd of horses to a ranch west of Aberdeen, S.D. He and another cowboy on the drive decided to come up to N.D. and look around. He filed on a homestead, the SW¼, Section 4, Township 136, Range 64, La Moure County - for 7 years, and also worked for Mr. Jordon in the Adrian grocery store. In 1905 he traded his homestead for a store at Montpelier with W.N. and Hattie Campbell of Ypsilanti. For a time he had a partner, a Mr. Rohr. The store burned down and in 1913 he bought another store with H.A. Hughes as a silent partner. Mr. Hughes was a salesman living in Aberdeen, S.D. His son, Merritt, dissolved the partnership in 1945. Mr. Stott and Mary Ellen Schenecker, one of his clerks, were married on June 25, 1917 at Dickey. Mary was the daughter of pioneers, John Schenecker of Marion, and his wife, Karen Barbara Arth. They had two children, Angela Juanita and Frank Eugene. In 1955 the Stotts celebrated 50 years in the store business. Mr. Stott had been town treasurer for many years, as well as being involved in local activities such as the Montpelier Telephone Exchange and the Farmer's Elevator Company, of which he was President of the Board of Directors. He belonged to the Odd Fellows Lodge and was its early treasurer, and also to the Modern Woodmen of America. He died July 7, 1963. Mrs. Stott continued on in the store, remodeling it by removing the second story which had been one of the best dance halls in N.D. with name bands from Chicago and Minneapolis. She sold the store in 1973 to Harvey DeBuck's and continued to clerk for them. When they sold it to Floyd Brown, who remodeled and created the Circle 13 bar, Mrs. Stott began clerking for H.E Rhode who established a new grocery store. After a fall in the store, she retired. Mrs. Stott died August 9, 1976 at St. Joseph's Manor at Edgeley. Both are buried in the Catholic Cemetery in Montpelier beside their son Frank Eugene, and their two sons-in-law, James Murray and James Connery.

Extent

1.6 Linear Feet (1.6 linear feet.)

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Abstract

Missouri native who owned and operated in Montpelier, ND.

Provenance

Donated by Angela Brennan, 1977 (Acc. 2008).

Separation Record

The following non-manuscript items were removed from the Frank E. Stott Papers and sent to the section indicated. Books (Library book collection, consult catalog for call numbers and location)

Buffalo Bill's Wild West, n.d., The Custer Drama 1962, Theodore Roosevelt and the Dakota Badlands, 1958

Broadsides (Institute broadside collection)

Color top of calendar for Naze Barn, Montpelier with Christ and lost sheep.

Oral interview

One cassette from interview done with Mrs. Mary E. Stott, Feb. 10, 1975 by the Oral History project staff of the State Historical Society of North Dakota.