Jonathan Young Scammon (July 27, 1812 – March 17, 1890) was an early settler in Chicago, Illinois, arriving in the city in 1835. He went on to become politically important as a lawyer, banker, and newspaper publisher. His first wife was Mary Ann Haven Dearborn, a niece of General Dearborn, with whom he had four children. His second wife was Maria Gardner Wright. Early life and education Scammon was born in Whitefield, Maine on July 27, 1812. His father was Eliakim Scammon, who spent stints serving in both the Maine State House and Maine Senate. Scammon was brothers with Eliakim P. Scammon and Charles Melville Scammon. Scammon attended Maine Wesleyen Seminary and Lincoln Academy. In 1831, Scammon graduated from Waterville College. Scammon read law in Hallowell, Maine, and would practice law throughout his life. In 1835 he was admitted to the bar in Kennebec County, Maine. Career In 1835, after being admitted to the bar in Maine, Scammon traveled across several states, and arriving in Chicago in 1835, where he stayed to wait out poor weather. Before he could leave, however, Henry Moore, who was the incumbent deputy clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County, told Scammon that he would be unable to finish his term as clerk, and asked Scammon to fill the office. Scammon accepted, serving as deputy clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County from 1835 through 1836. He, therefore, became an early settler of Chicago. In 1836, Scammon entered a legal partnership with Buckner Stith Morris, who himself had recently arrived to the city from Kentucky. Their partnership lasted only eighteen months, with Morris leaving the practice. A year later, he began partnering with Norman B. Judd. In approximately 1845, Scammon and Judd created a formal law partnership together, which ended in 1847. Scammon advocated for a free public school system to be established in Chicago. In 1837, Scammon created the charter for the Chicago Public School System. In approximately 1837, Scammon would join a business venture. Along with Chicago's inaugural mayor William Butler Ogden, he built the Galena and Chicago Union Railroad, which began service in 1848 and was the first railroad from Chicago. Ogden's grandnephew would later marry Scammon's sister-in-law. When Eastern financiers refused to support the railroad, Ogden and Scammon raised the money by riding on horseback along the proposed route and taking donations from the farmers he passed. He, for