a time, served as the railroad's director. In 1837, Scammon became an attorney for the State Bank of Illinois. Scammon served as the court reporter for the Illinois Supreme Court from 1839 through 1845. He wrote volumes of reports that became the first ever published in the state, and which were considered be of high-quality. In 1839, Scammon was appointed to the Chicago Board of School Inspectors. From 1843 through 1845, Scammon served as chairman of the Chicago Board of School Inspectors, the city's school board. Scammon served as a Chicago alderman (city councilor) from 1845 through 1846. As an alderman, Scammon advocated for public schools, and helped to secure the construction of new schools in the city. In 1844, Scammon founded the Chicago Daily Journal, a Whig-leaning newspaper that eventually became a Republican newspaper. Politically, Scammon was a member of the Whig Party, until the party's collapse. Scammon was an opponent of slavery. He supported Whig nominees Henry Clay in the 1844 presidential election and Zachary Taylor in the 1848 United States presidential election (supporting the later despite having already joined the Free Soil Party by the time of the 1848 election). He would frequently be approached about running for office throughout his life, but only accepted offers to be nominated three times (for alderman in 1845, for United States congress in 1848, and for Illinois Senate in 1860). Scammon played a key role in getting the Michigan Central Railroad extended into Chicago. In 1848, Scammon was nominated for United States Congress by the Whig party. He lost his election by more than 1,000 votes. The district he ran in was overwhelmingly Democratic. However, Scammon did manage to lead the vote in the portions of the district which lied within the city limits of Chicago. By the 1850s, Scammon had amassed a sizeable fortune. Scammon would serve as president and director for a number of banks and insurance companies in Chicago. Scammon became a large stockholder in the Chicago Marine Bank in 1849. In 1851, Scammon refounded the bank and served its president. He would later found the Mechanics National Bank in 1865, and would also found the Chicago Fire and Marine Insurance Company, also serving as the president of these two ventures. Scammon was a booster of Chicago, giving money to fund improvement projects in the city. For a time, Scammon was a member of the Free Soil