City of Bloomington, Illinois
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About Judge John M. and Charlotte Ann Scott:
John Milton Scott (1824-1898) lived and worked in McLean County for nearly all of his adult life. After being admitted to the Illinois bar in 1848, he relocated from Belleville to Bloomington, where he formed a law practice and was acquainted with notable contemporaries Abraham Lincoln, David Davis, and Asahel Gridley. In Bloomington, Mr. Scott met and married Charlotte Ann Perry (“Ann”), the daughter of a Presbyterian minister. They had two biological children, both of whom died before age two. Judge and Mrs. Scott lived at 312 S. Main Street in Bloomington for all of their married life. Before serving as a Judge, Mr. Scott was elected to several local offices, including county school commissioner, city clerk, Bloomington city attorney, and McLean County Court. In 1856, he ran for the Illinois Senate but lost by a narrow margin. In 1862, Mr. Scott was appointed to fill the Illinois Circuit Court vacancy created by Judge David Davis’s election as Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court. In 1870, Judge Scott was appointed to the Illinois Supreme Court, where he served until 1888, including three one-year terms as Chief Justice (1875, 1882, 1886).
Based on what we know of John and Ann Scott, they seem to have done what they could to promote equity at a time in which minority populations and women were pervasively marginalized. For example, Judge Scott ran for the Illinois Senate on the Republican ticket as the first “openly avowed anti-slavery candidate.” Later, he left First Presbyterian Church when its minister openly supported slavery and helped found Second Presbyterian Church, which opposed slavery. When he died, he left instructions for a representative of 2nd Presbyterian to help oversee the Trust, which we believe was meant to ensure that Black residents and freed slaves would receive health care. Judge Scott’s writings and decisions as a Judge demonstrated an affinity for the working class. For example, in “Bettering the Condition of the Laboring Class,” he advocated for changes to “the current social system which allowed the non-laboring class to stockpile enormous sums of wealth while another class, the laborer, could barely secure the necessities of life.” Judge Scott treated his wife, Ann Scott, as an equal partner (which was not a given, at the time), and designated a portion of his estate to the education of girls.
After leaving the judicial bench to retire in 1888, John Scott was a founding member of the McLean County Historical Society in 1892 and served as its president until his death. Judge Scott is buried with his wife and children in Evergreen Memorial Cemetery.
About the John M. Scott Trust:
Upon his death in 1898, Judge Scott directed that a portion of his sizable estate be “forever under the direction and control” of the City of Bloomington, and be used to “erect,” “construct” and “furnish” “…a building suitable for a hospital and to be used for hospital purposes.” Judge Scott stipulated that “…the Elders of the Second Presbyterian Church” retained the “privilege” to “…visit said hospital and advise as to its management and especially to see that patients that may be admitted to said hospital are kindly cared for and humanely treated.” The hospital he envisioned was
“…for the use and benefit of all sick or otherwise disabled persons, male or female, old or young, without regard to nationality or religious beliefs no matter from what cause such sickness may arise…and who may not be able to pay for needed care and attention in the hospital…. It is particularly desired that all persons who may be injured in an accident and who may have no friends at hand to care for them or who may have no money or other means to pay…may be admitted…”
Once a hospital was constructed, if funds remained, Judge Scott ordered them held in trust as an endowment fund for the hospital. Judge Scott’s last surviving annuitant died in 1976, by which time his entire estate was worth $6.9 million and the community had three hospitals (Brokaw, Mennonite, and St. Joseph). Thus, using his estate to fund hospital construction was no longer relevant. The Courts intervened, and in 1981 ordered that 55% ($5.4 million at the time) of the estate should be held in a charitable trust and used by the City of Bloomington to create a preventative health center for disadvantaged persons. Thus, on 11/20/1981, the City of Bloomington Council became Trustee of the John M. Scott Health Care Trust. Today, the passively managed Trust is invested in indexed, low-fee funds and is worth over $14 million.