Henry Houston Scott was born in Texas in 1854. Although there seems to be no clear record that he was born a slave, he is thought to have been because the Surrey Historical Society’s Jim Foulkes found some records indicating that Scott had applied twice for compensation through a special American court for former slaves. Scott married Amy Florence Arledge in Texas after slavery was abolished and the couple moved to Oklahoma where they received a land grant.

The Scotts moved to Canada in 1912, bringing three of their ten children with them. They settled in Cloverdale, purchasing seven acres of land and becoming one of the first African descent families there. Henry Scott cleared a road from Bose Road (64 Avenue) and Pacific Highway (176 Street) up to the Scott farm, which is where 181A Street would be today.

Henry Scott passed away shortly after his wife’s death in 1934. His three children stayed in Canada and continued to contribute to their community: Jesse Richard worked on the family farm and played professional baseball; Roy Floyd worked at a lumber mill before taking a job as a porter with the Canadian Pacific Railway, and; Geraldine Myrtle Benola, the family’s youngest, died in 1971, and was the last to be laid to rest with her family in the Surrey Centre Cemetery.

The family’s grave had gone unmarked for 84 years in the Surrey Centre Cemetery, as they probably couldn’t have afforded a gravestone. In 2018, the Surrey Historical Society installed a plaque honouring the family’s final resting place. In 2019, thanks to efforts once again by the Surrey Historical Society, the vacant lot that bore apple, cherry and pear trees from the original farm was named Henry Houston Scott Park by the City of Surrey.