OKGENWEB NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any
format for profit or presentation by any other organization or
persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must
obtain the written consent of OKGenWeb State Coordinator.

Presentation here does not extend any permissions to the public. This
material can not be included in any compilation, publication,
collection, or other reproduction for profit without permission. Files
may be printed or copied for personal use only.
=====================================================================

JOSEPH W. SCROGGS, A. M.
Vol. 3, p, 1316-1317

Professor Scroggs is one of the honored and influential figures in
educational circles in Oklahoma, where he is now director of the
university extension work in connection with the University of
Oklahoma, at Norman, Cleveland County. Special interest attaches to
his long and really eminent pedagogic career by reason of the fact
that he is consistently to be designated as one of the pioneer
educators in Oklahoma, where he initiated his work as a teacher in
1879, when he established his residence in the old Indian Territory.
He has ever been a close and appreciative student and is a man of
find scholarship, broad views, mature judgment and high ideals, so
that his influence has been benignant and valuable in all the
relations of life. The lineage of the Scroggs family traces back to
staunch Scotch origin and the original American progenitors came from
Scotland and established residence in Pennsylvania about the year
1771, Gen. J.E. Scroggs, a great-great-uncle of Professor Scroggs of
this review, having gone forth as a patriot soldier from Pennsylvania
in the Revolutionary war, in which he rose to the rank of Brigadier
general.

Prof. Joseph Whitefield Scroggs was born neat Greenfield, Dade
County, Missouri, on the 26th of October, 1852. His father, William
Lee Scroggs, was born at Lenoir, Caldwell County, North Carolina, in
1816, and died at Greenfield, Missouri, in 1896. William L. Scroggs
acquired a good education, as gauged by the standards of the locality
and period in which he was reared, completing his sophomore year in
Dickenson College, North Carolina. As a young man he removed from his
vative commonwealth to Mississippi, where he engaged in teaching
school. Later he resided in Arkansas for some time, and there his
marriage to Miss Jane ERWIN was solemnized. She died when still a
young woman and the one surviving child of this union is John E., who
is a retired farmer residing at Greenfield, Missouri. For his second
wife William L. Scroggs wedded Miss Sarah Caroline MITCHELL, who was
born at Holly Springs, Mississippi, on the 24th of August 1832, and
who died at Greenfield, Missouri, in 1884. Of the children of this
marriage the first, William L. is deceased, the Professor Scroggs of
this sketch was the next in order of birth; Mary Frances is the wife
of John A. ORR, a retired farmer and banker residing at Mount Vernon,
Missouri; Ellen Winifred is the window of Henry BRUMBACK, who was a
lawyer by profession and she maintains her residence in the City of
Minneapolis, Minnesota; Laura is the wife of Alexander MCCONNELL and
they reside in Kansas City, Missouri; Rev. Luther M. is a clergyman
of the Presbyterian Church and now resides at Hillsdale, Kansas; Dr.
Walter Reese Scroggs, an able physician and surgeon, is engaged in
the practice of his profession in the city of San Francisco,
California; Minnie is the wife of Thomas SHRIVER a representative
merchant at Mount Vernon, Missouri, Lillie Caroline is the wife of
Horace WEIR, a prosperous farmer near Greenfield, Missouri; Alfred M.
is in business at Iola, Kansas; Belle is the wife of George A.
POLLARD, a teacher in the high school at Minneapolis, Minnesota; and
the other four children died young.

After his first marriage William Lee Scroggs continued his residence
in Arkansas for a short time, and then removed to Dade County,
Missouri, where he engaged in farming, but for many years he there
served in the office of public administrator, of which fiduciary post
he continued the incumbent for nearly a quarter of a century. In
politics he was originally a whig and later a republican, and during
the Civil war he did all in his power to support the cause of the
Union. He was a most earnest and zealous member of the Presbyterian
Church, in which he held the position of ruling elder for forty-six
years.

Prof. Joseph W. Scroggs acquired his early education in the public
schools of Greenfield, Missouri, where he completed a three years'
course in the high school. In pursuance of his ambitious plans for
the obtaining of a higher education, he entered Lafayette College, at
Easton, Pennsylvania, and in this institution he was graduated as a
member of the class of 1875 and with the degree of Bachelor of Arts.
From this celebrated old institution he received in 1910 the degree
of Master of Arts, after the presentation of an admirable thesis
entitled "Religion and Reality." This thesis is to be embodied in a
book which the professor will bring to publication in 1916, the
carefully prepared and cogent argument brought forth being an attempt
to identify the spiritual world with the Noumenon of Kant, the great
German philosopher. In 1902 he received the honorary degree of Doctor
of Divinity from Washburn College in recognition of his work in
Philosophy and theology.

After his graduation in Lafayette College Professor Scroggs taught
one year in the public schools of his home city of Greenfield,
Missouri, after which he was engaged in the music business, at
Carthage and Springfield, that state, until the autumn of 1878, when
he became principal of the schools of Peirce City, Missouri. He
retained this position one year and then, in 1879 came to Indian
Territory and established his residence at Vinita, the present
judicial center of Craig County, Oklahoma. There he founded Worcester
Academy, which he bought to a high standard and of which he continued
to be principal for five years. In 1884 he assumed the office of
principal of Rogers Academy, at Rogers, Arkansas, where he continued
his efficient service in this capacity for the ensuing fourteen
years. In 1898 he accepted the position of principal of the Southern
Kansas Academy, at Eureka, where he remained thus engaged for six
years. In 1904 Professor Scroggs returned to Oklahoma and established
his residence at Kingfisher, where he served as professor of the
departments of philosophy and education in Kingfisher College until
1913, since which hear he has served as director of University
extension in connection with the University of Oklahoma, at Norman,--
a position to which he has brought his fine scholastic attainments,
his broad pedagogic experience and his well proved executive and
administrative ability, so that he is one of the prominent and
influential factors in connection with educational interest in the
state which he is honoring by his character and achievement.

In politics Professor Scroggs pronounces himself an dependent
democrat, and he is well fortified in his positions concerning
economic and governmental polity. He is a valued member of the
Oklahoma State Teachers' Association and of the Norman Chamber of
Commerce, of both he and his wife hold membership in the
Congregational Church.

In the year 1879, at Peirce city, Missouri, Professor Scroggs wedded
Miss Flora Hawley BECKWITH, who was raised and reared in that state
and whose father, the late Milan S. Beckwith, was for many years
connected with the stockyards in the City of St. Louis. Mrs. Scroggs
was summoned to eternal rest on the 12th of June1901, at Eureka,
Kansas, and she is survived by four children, concerning whom the
following brief record is consistently entered at this juncture;
Maurice Dwight was graduated in the University of Washington with the
degree of Bachelor of Arts, and is now in the service of the
Government, as superintendent of an irrigation plant at Hermiston,
Oregon. Wendell, who was graduated at Washburn College, Topeka,
Kansas with the degree of Bachelor of Arts, now holds a responsible
position with a leading dry-good house in the City of Hutchinson,
that state. Gladys Flora is the wife of Thomas HAWTHORNE and they
reside in the City of Portland, Oregon, Mr. Hawthorne being
government engineer of the irrigation plant at Irrigon, that state.
Mrs. Hawthorne was graduated at Kingfisher College, Oklahoma, from
which institution she received the degree of Bachelor of Arts.
Schiller, the youngest of the children, completed the work of the
junior year in Kingfisher College and is now a member of the United
States Army, being stationed in the Philippine Islands.

In the City of Topeka, Kansas, on the 29th of November 1906, was
solemnized the marriage of Professor Scroggs to Miss Idora ROSE,
daughter of the late Joseph Rose, of Van Wert, Ohio, and no children
have been born of this union.

Typed for OKGenWeb by Charmaine Keith, October 10, 1998.