A resident of distinction in Harrison County, Ohio, Lanphear Herbert Scott is one of those interestingly named politicians who was given a surname as a first name! Scott served as Mayor of Cadiz, Ohio during the early 1900s and was later elected to three terms in the Ohio State House of Representatives after serving as mayor.
Lanphear H. Scott was born in Harrison County, Ohio on February 12, 1856, one of nine children born to John Walter and Jane Pettis Scott. John and Jane were respective residents of Yorkshire, England, and the Isle of Wight and had immigrated to the United States some years previously. Lanphear Scott attended schools local to the Harrison County area and later enrolled at the University of New York and Columbia University, graduating with an LL.B. degree.
During the mid-1870s Scott is listed as residing in Newark, New Jersey, and here operated a law practice for some time. He relocated back to Cadiz in 1888 and here was "engaged with his brothers as a jeweler and inventor." In July 1901 Scott married in Cadiz to Julia Williams, and the couple is recorded as being childless during the duration of their marriage.
In 1903 Lanphear Scott was elected as Mayor of Cadiz and served one term in this office. Nearly five years later the Republican party officers of Harrison County put Scott's name up for nomination to the Ohio State House of Representatives and proved to be successful, defeating "the incumbent in office and another man for the nomination."
An article on Scott's nomination that appeared in the Jeweler's Circular in May 1908.
Scott took his seat in January 1909 and served a total of three terms in the legislature, the last of which concluded in 1915. The Ohio Manual of Legislative Practice (where the above picture of Mr. Scott was found) denotes that his three terms in the House were a first for any representative from Harrison County, stating that "he was the first and only person to be honored this way by his constituency". During his service, Scott was named to several House Committees, those being Finance and Appropriations, Constitutional Amendments and Initiative and Referendum, Manufactures, Commerce, and Villages.
Lanphear Scott is listed by the Ohio Manual as being a member of the Republican House majority during his terms and was lauded as being "one of the ablest orators in the house", and his career as an attorney "made him a conservative and critical member as to legislative measures." During research on Scott's life, information was located that mentions his being severely injured in a train derailment that occurred near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in November 1912. Scott was still serving in the legislature at the time and was a passenger on board a train traveling from Cincinnati when it went off the rail and plunged over an embankment! Scott himself is listed as suffering a fractured leg during the crash and four other passengers are recorded as losing their lives.
This article on the accident appeared in a 1912 edition of the Van Wert Daily Bulletin.
After leaving the legislature in the mid-1910s, Lanphear Scott returned to his earlier interests as a Harrison County merchant and jeweler. The 1913-14 Ohio Manual makes note of Scott having oil drilling interests, and he is listed as owning a "small ranch on the Texas Gulf coast which mainly occupies his attention as a hunting preserve." In addition to this, Scott also was an active member of the local Knights of Pythias and Odd Fellows lodges, as well as the Masons.
Lanphear Herbert Scott died at age 67 on April 5, 1923, in Ohio. A burial location for him is unknown at the time of this writing, but sources mentioning the Scott family make light of a family vault at a cemetery in Cadiz so it may not be a foregone conclusion that Lanphear himself may be buried here.
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