 Along with founding Mayor William Butler Ogden (whose grandnephew would later marry Scammon's sister-in-law), he built the first railroad from Chicago in 1848, the Galena and Chicago Union Railroad, which ran from Chicago to a point ten miles west of town.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 also created the charter for the Chicago Public School System in 1837.