INDIAN EXPERIENCES, LOVE OF NATURE, MORE COLLEGE, IDAHO JOBS

Indian Experiences
My stay in Kamiah proved to be a most interesting experience. It is the headquarters of the historically prominent Nez Perce Indians.  Chief Joseph, during the period of Indian wars, made the longest fighting retreat recorded in the history of those wars. A goodly percentage of the Indians in the Kamiah area were well-educated and were successful farmers or businessmen.

Example of a Nez Perce girl in 1910.  Library of Congress

A nice looking young Indian girl named Josephine, who had spent several years in schools in the East preparing to become a school teacher in an English school, returned to Kamiah while I was there. A few (white) young people with whom I had become acquainted knew Josephine and would invite her to accompany us on a picnic or cook-out. She would tell us about the history of her people and point out interesting writings on rocks made by Indians many years ago.

Example of Anasazi petroglyphs, New Mexico.  Library of Congress

One day she told us she would be leaving in a few days to accept a teaching position in a college in Kansas. The next day one of my white friends said, ‘Did you hear what happened to Josephine?’ The tribal council had held a meeting to consider Josephine’s plans and concluded she was about to get entirely away from the tribe. They decided she should marry one of the middle-aged men of the tribe and so informed her. A few days later, I saw Josephine on the street wearing the typical Indian shawl over her head and with her eyes looking downward. She never again spoke to any of us and was clearly back into the tribe--undoubtedly with a broken spirit.

Love of Nature
Never having lived in a mountainous area, I was truly fascinated with the Kamiah setting. I got a pair of elk skin high top shoes that were waterproof and began hiking among the foothills. Father had a Brownie (camera) that took 5” x 7” pictures and had a splendid lens. He had converted it to a film pack from the original glass plates. I would strap that camera over a shoulder, take a lunch Mother had prepared, and spend most of the day hiking and enjoying the beautiful scenery.

Kenneth ready for a hike

Carrie Mae, Elzumer, and Roland; Kenneth in back

Carrie Mae in the center; Roland is on the far left and Kenneth on the far right.  Others?

Winter was an especially interesting time. All cars were put in storage as the road up the bill to nearby towns was too treacherous for winter travel so horse-drawn sleds were in common use. The snow storms were the most beautiful I have ever seen. Being located in a “pocket” among the hills, we never had winds of any consequence, so the snow would pile up six inches and more on fences and tree limbs and the large flakes would fall so thickly one could hardly see across the street.

Occasionally the sun would appear and settle the snow, then another big snow would pile it up again. I would join a few boys my age in shoveling off a frozen part of the river nearby for skating but by the time we had the snow pushed away, we would be too tired to do much skating. Often there would be another snow during that night— so it was a contest with the weather and so far as skating was concerned we usually lost out.

Example of ice skaters at Lake Forest, Chicago.  Chicago Daily News negatives collection. Courtesy of Chicago History Museum

First Employment in Idaho
Father was able to get an appointment for me as his assistant to help him with his duties as receiver for the three failed banks. When he went to Kooskia [Orofino], I would stay at the bank in Kamiah and occasionally I would spend a few days at the Orofino bank.


Christmas with Indians
The most unusual Christmas program I ever at tended was at an Indian church in Kamiah. They had a large Christmas tree that reached to the ceiling and was attractively decorated with home made ornaments.

There was a program in which the children took part and finally the chief of the tribe recited the experiences of the tribe when the government troops were pursuing them in what has been recorded in history as the longest military retreat [1,600 miles]. This was given in their native tongue while the congregation swayed back and forth with a monotone that reached a loud pitch at crucial points of the story. A member of the tribe sitting next to me interpreted the story for me--and it was an exciting story!  [Click on Retreat and Surrender and scroll down to section of the same title read the account.] 

More College
I decided to enroll with the Lasalle Extension University for a higher accountant degree. I completed the course about three years later and took the C.P.A [Certified Public Accountant] examination in Boise.  At that time I was living in Blackfoot, Idaho. The man who took the two day examination when I did wrote me about the outcome. He learned from the clerk in the Idaho State House that our papers were graded according to the standards of the American Institute of Accounting in New York City and both of us received passing grades.

One of the two members of the Idaho examining board signed the report. When the other board member came in the clerk said, ‘We have two more C.P.A’s” The board member marked through our grades on the report and reduced them about 30%. He said, “Now add up the grades and see how many new C.P.A’s we have.” Of course that failed both of us.

My companion took the examination again and was given a passing grade. I had become manager of the Livestock Credit Corporation at Blackfoot and never took the time to go through that two-day ordeal again. So that is how near I came to a C.P.A. degree.

Kenneth Leroy Scott

Car Accident
One day when my father had a business trip to a neighboring town up on the prairie for transportation he engaged a man who had a taxi business, and took Mother, Roland, and Marvin along. While coming back down the canyon road, the steering gear broke and the car went off the road, rolled over, throwing everyone out and landed in a ditch. Fortunately, no one was seriously hurt except Mother who had a ligament in one of her legs injured and she suffered from that the remaining years of her life. Roland must have been asleep and was pitched into some bushes and came crawling out shouting, “What is going on here?”

Experiences as Bank Receiver
In 1921, I was appointed receiver of the failed bank at Montpelier, Idaho not far from the Wyoming line. Later, I was receiver of the State Bank at Weiser, Idaho. My third assignment was at the Fruitland State Bank near the Oregon line. I rented a warehouse to store several big trucks that the former cashier of the bank bought with bank funds that I repossessed. Also I accumulated farm equipment and some livestock that borrowers turned in as payment on their debts. One day a borrower came in the bank and said, “I’m leaving town. The only thing I have left under the mortgage to the hank is a horse and saddle and I’ve tied him to the tree in front of the bank.” I occasionally would hold a public auction to sell those items.

My next and final receivership was of the D. W. Stanrod and Co. Bank at Blackfoot, Idaho. This had been one of the oldest and largest banks in southern Idaho. It was established by Mr. Stanrod who had a general store that supplied miners and truckers who hauled ore from the mines in the Salmon River Country to the smelters in Utah. The miners would ask him to store their gold nuggets in his safe and that led to his opening a bank.

Example of gold nuggets from a mine in Alaska, circa 1900.   Courtesy of Western History/Genealogy Department, Denver Public Library

At the time of the bank failure, Mr. Stanrod was quite old and he could never believe that his son, the cashier had committed many crimes of misappropriating bank funds and bonds left for safe keeping and had made many bad loans which caused the bank’s failure.

The State Bank Commissioner sent John Beaker, an able attorney and certified public accountant with much experience in investigating bank failure, to Blackfoot to make a thorough audit of the bank records. I was authorized to help him make the audit which proved to be an exciting experience. Presently, I was able to trace irregular transactions through the bank records and help assemble evidence for the criminal trial.

As receiver, I received many claims for preference over depositors. I would assemble facts from the bank records and prepare a formal presentation to the District Court. To save the expenses of an attorney presenting the cases, I was granted permission to present those cases to the District Judge for decision.

This period of bank failures when the depositors often lost practically all their deposits resulted in improved examination of banks and ultimately to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation to guarantee deposits up to certain amounts.

In this period when I was a receiver, I saw many extremely tragic cases where persons lost their life savings. Sometimes well managed banks without any irregularities would be the victim of false rumors causing “a run” on the bank when depositors would form long lines into the bank to demand their deposit in cash.

Since no bank ever has more cash than a small percentage of its deposits, such a run would force the bank into receivership for no reason except the panic of depositors from false rumors. The difference now is that depositors have confidence in the government guarantee.