Observatory, named for his deceased wife's maiden name. In 1863, when the Chicago Astronomical Society sought to build an observatory affiliated with the University of Chicago, Scammon offered to pay for the construction of the observatory tower and dome, provided that the observatory was named for wife, Mary Ann Haven Dearborn, an offer which the organization accepted. Scammon also paid the director's salary until financial difficulties arose following the Great Chicago Fire in 1871. Scammon was involved in the creation of the Illinois Humane Society. In the 1870s, Scammon began suffering financial difficulties from which he never recovered. He lost a significant amount of property in the Great Chicago Fire. Scammon was involved in the founding of Chicago’s Hahnemann Hospital, and served on its board of trustees for many years, up until his death. In 1870, he donated the land and buildings for the hospital, which was originally named Scammon Hospital, but was soon renamed Hahnemann Hospital following the Great Chicago Fire. He would serve as a trustee of the hospital. In 1872, Scammon founded the Chicago Inter Ocean newspaper, which replaced the Chicago Republican (which had gone defunct after the Great Chicago Fire) as the owner of an Associated Press franchise. He served as the newspaper's editor for a number of years. He left the newspaper after its corporate reorganization in 1875. Scammon was involved in the Swedenborgian Church, building the first such church in Chicago, creating the Illinois Society of the Swedenborgian Church, and serving as vice-president of the United States general convention of the church for ten years. Scammon also introduced homeopathy to Chicagoans. Scammon had a large portrait painted of him by the famous portrait painter George Healy. Scammon died March 17, 1890 in Chicago. His death had been preceded by five weeks of illness. Personal life Scammon married Mary Ann Haven Dearborn in 1837, and they had four children. She died in 1858. In 1867, he remarried to Maria Gardner Wright. He died at his home in Chicago on March 17, 1890, and was buried at Oak Woods Cemetery. He was the brother of Eliakim P. Scammon, who was a career officer in the United States Army and Brigadier General in the Union Army. He was also the brother of Charles Melville Scammon who is a 19th-century whaleman, naturalist and author of Marine Mammals of the Northwestern Coast (1874). Scammon's son Charles T. Scammon, at