Transcribed from "An Illustrated History of The
Big Bend Country, embracing Lincoln, Douglas, Adams and Franklin counties,
State of Washington", published by Western Historical Publishing
Co., 1904.
EDWIN F. SCARBOROUGH, a lawyer
and pioneer of Wilbur, was born July 8, 1847, in Jackson county, Iowa.
His father, Captain George Scarborough, was a native of Connecticut and
a captain in the Black Hawk War. He spent a great portion of his
life in the state of Illinois, in which state he was a member of the legislature.
During the war mentioned he became intimately acquainted with Abraham Lincoln,
and afterward was a client of that famous man. He died in Illinois,
in 1851, in his forty-sixth year. The mother of Mr. Scarbarough was
Sarah (Wilson) Scarborough, a native of Ireland who came to the United
States at the age of sixteen, and died in Nodaway county, Missouri, in
1882, being at the time seventy-two years of age. The family originally
comprised four children. They are, besides the subject; Mrs. Eliza
McMillan, of Paradise Valley, Nevada; Mary and Sarah Ellen, both deceased.
Mr. Scarborough divided
his time between Galena, Illinois, and Jackson county, Iowa, until 1863,
when he went to Nodaway county, Missouri, with his mother, and there received
a finished common school education. Later he was graduated from the
high school of Marysville, Missouri, and at once began teaching.
He followed this vocation here until in 1879, when he went to Lewis, Nevada,
and engaged in mining and at intervals teaching school. Returning
to Missouri, he again taught school until 1882 when he came to Cheney,
Washington, via San Francisco and Portland. Two years prior to coming
west he began the study of the law, which he continued upon arriving at
Cheney. In the fall of 1883 he came to Lincoln county and settled
on a ranch twenty miles northwest of Wilbur, in what is known as the California
settlement, and engaged in farming and teaching school. While here
he was notary public and justice of the peace for his neighborhood, which
at that time comprised very few settlers as compared with its present population.
In 1895 he bought a home in Wilbur, in which he lived with his family during
the school year, and in 1900 he sold his farm and removed to Wilbur where
he has since made his continuous home. He was admitted to the bar
in 1901, since which date he has been engaged in the practice of his profession
in his home city, and has built up a flattering business. He has
also been a member of the city council, and enjoys the trust and respect
of his fellow townsmen. His fraternity affiliations are limited to
membership in the K. O. T. M.
Mr. Scarborough was
married, November 18, 1875, in Nodaway county, Missouri, to Nancy M. Hicks,
who is a native of Schuyler county, Illinois, where she was born
in 1856. With her parents she went to Red Wing, Minnesota, and from
there to Nodaway county, Missouri. Her father, Eli Hicks, died in
Missouri about 1887, in his seventy-sixth year, while her mother, whose
maiden name was Jalah Stallard, is still living in her eighty-eighth year,
in Gentry county, Missouri. Mrs. Scarborough has three sisters and
four brothers, three of whom are Methodist ministers.
To Mr. and Mrs. Scarborough
have been born six children: Lavanchia M., wife of Charles Hill, at Hartline;
Clarence, in Davenport; Maud, who has charge of the telephone office at
Wilbur; Ella, her assistant; Eva, and Emma. The first named was born
in Missouri the second in Nevada, and the other three in Washington.