Julia Green Scott

Julia Green Scott (February 14, 1839 – April 29, 1923) was an American socialite, philanthropist, businesswoman, and landowner who served as the president general of the Daughters of the American Revolution from 1909 to 1913. She was one of the largest landowners in the American Midwest, running multiple farms and owning tens of thousands of acres of land. After her husband, Matthew T. Scott, died in 1891, Scott took over as the largest shareholder and president of the McLean County Coal Company. She was presented the Medal of French Gratitude of the First Class in 1921 by Jean Jules Jusserand for her efforts to rehabilitate the French commune Tilloloy after World War I, and for helping find homes for over 4,000 French children left orphaned by the war.

Scott was born in Danville, Kentucky on February 14, 1839, to Rev. Lewis W. Green and Mary Lawrence "Peachy" Fry. Her father, a Presbyterian minister, served as the president of Centre College, Transylvania University, and Hampden–Sydney College. Through her mother, Scott was a descendant of the surveyor and adventurer Colonel Joshua Fry and the Revolutionary War veteran Joseph Fry. Scott's great-grandfather, Captain James Speed, was an American officer in the Revolutionary War. She was also a descendant of the Washington family through both of her parents and a descendant of the Colonial Virginian statesman, planter, explorer, and physician Thomas Walker. Scott was the sister of U.S. Second Lady Letitia Green Stevenson.

Scott attended finishing school in New York.

Scott met her future husband, businessman Matthew T. Scott, while he was a student at Centre College and while her father served as the college's president. They married on May 12, 1859, and moved to the prairie in Central Illinois. They were among the first residents, and founders, of the town of Chenoa. She and her husband eventually owned over 45,000 acres of land in Illinois, Iowa, and Tennessee.

In 1870 Scott and her husband moved to Springfield. After a short time there, they moved to Bloomington, where her husband became the president of the McLean County Coal Company and founded the Democratic newspaper The Bulletin. In 1872 they purchased a mansion at 701 E. Taylor Street.

Scott and her husband had three children: Lewis, Letitia and Julia.

After her husband died in 1891, Scott took charge of managing 9,000 acres of farmland in Illinois and Indiana, and became the principal stockholder and president of the McLean County Coal Company. Between 1900 and 1901, Scott had additions built onto the family home on Taylor Street, including two new porches and interior additions designed by the architect Arthur L. Pillsbury.

Scott maintained a spring residence in Washington, D.C., a summer residence in Charlevoix, a fall residence in Bloomington, and a winter residence in Mississippi.