{{Short description|American educator, pastor, and real estate dealer (1821–1890)}} {{Infobox person | image = Nathan Scarritt 1821 1890 Missouri USA.png | birth_date = {{birth date|1821|4|14}} | birth_place = Edwardsville, Illinois, US | death_date = {{Death date and age|1890|5|22|1821|4|14}} | alma_mater = McKendree College (1842) | occupation = Educator, pastor, real estate dealer | children = William Chick Scarritt | relatives = William Miles Chick (father-in-law){{br}}Dorothy McKibbin (granddaughter){{br}}John Calvin McCoy (brother-in-law){{br}}Isaac McCoy }}
'''Nathan Scarritt''' (April 14, 1821 — May 22, 1890) was an American educator, pastor and real estate dealer.
== Early life and education == Scarritt was born on April 14, 1821, in Edwardsville, Illinois,<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |date=2023-10-13 |title=Historic Homes Tour Guide - Northeast News |url=https://northeastnews.net/pages/hometours/ |access-date=2024-07-13 |language=en-US}}</ref> the seventh of twelve children. His parents, Nathan and Latty, traveled from New Hampshire on wagon. As a child, he worked on a farm in Alton, Illinois, and didn't receive a proper education.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Coleman |first=Daniel |title=Nathan Scarritt |url=https://kchistory.org/document/biography-nathan-scarritt-1821-1890-methodist-minister-and-teacher |access-date=2024-05-09}}</ref>
At age 16, Scarritt began attending McKendree College, having to work as a cleaner for the school to pay for tuition. During his third year of college, his father became ill and he left school to care for him. The school paid for his final year, and he graduated in 1842 as valedictorian.<ref name=":0" />
== Education career == To pay off student debts, Scarritt worked briefly as a schoolteacher in Waterloo, Illinois until 1845, when he moved to Fayette, Missouri.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Conard |first=Howard L. |date=1901 |title=NATHAN SCARRITT |url=https://kchistory.org/islandora/object/kchistory%3A89083 |access-date=2024-05-09}}</ref> There, he worked as a teacher and helped establish Howard Female College. For his efforts, the University of Missouri awarded him an honorary Master of Arts.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2020-09-28 |title=The Rev. Nathan Scarritt: from teacher to preacher to real estate dealer |url=https://martincitytelegraph.com/2020/09/28/the-rev-nathan-scarritt-from-teacher-to-preacher-to-real-estate-dealer/ |access-date=2024-05-10 |language=en-US}}</ref>
== Religious career == Scarritt converted to the Methodist Episcopal Church, South denomination of Christianity in 1848, and began working at the Shawnee Methodist Mission. In 1850, he married Martha Matilda Chick, daughter of William Miles Chick. That same year, he moved out of his home and onto a farm.<ref name=":1" />
He left the Methodist Mission in 1852, and was later appointed by a bishop as an elder of the Kickapoo people. He also worked as a traveling minister for the Delaware, Shawnee and Wyandot tribes<ref>{{Cite web |date=1 March 2004 |title=REV. NATHAN SCARRITT-PAST AND PRESENT. |url=https://kchistory.org/islandora/object/kchistory%3A78123 |access-date=2024-05-09}}</ref>—with translations done by Silas Armstrong.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Image 29 of The Methodist missions among the Indian tribes in Kansas |url=https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcmassbookdig.methodistmission00lutz/?sp=29&st=text |access-date=2024-05-10 |website=Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA}}</ref>
== Death and legacy == Scarritt died on May 22, 1890. His son William Chick Scarritt was a lawyer and owner of the William Chick Scarritt House.<ref>{{Cite web |title=William Chick Scarritt Residence |url=https://kchistory.org/image/william-chick-scarritt-residence-2 |access-date=2024-05-12 |website=Kansas City Public Library}}</ref> Scarritt's granddaughter was Dorothy McKibbin, a manager of the Manhattan Project.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Steeper |first=Nancy Cook |title=Gatekeeper to Los Alamos: Dorothy Scarritt McKibbin |date=2003 |publisher=Los Alamos Historical Society |isbn=978-0-941232-30-2 |location=Los Alamos, N.M |pages=13–14}}</ref>
Scarritt donated US$5,000 (equivalent to about $152,000 in 2024) to the Neosho Collegiate Institute sometime between the 1870s and 1890s. It changed its name to Scarritt College in his honor.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Conard |first=Howard L[ouis |url=http://archive.org/details/encyclopediahis00conagoog |title=Encyclopedia of the history of Missouri |date=1901 |publisher=New York, Louisville [etc.] The Southern history company, Haldeman, Conard & co., proprietors |others=Harvard University}}</ref>
== References == {{Reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Scarritt, Nathan}} Category:1821 births Category:1890 deaths Category:People from Edwardsville, Illinois Category:People from Kansas City, Missouri