Josiah Scott (politician)

{{Short description|American judge}}

{{for|American football player|Josiah Scott (American football)}}

{{Infobox officeholder

|honorific-prefix =

|name = Josiah Scott

|honorific-suffix =

|image = Josiah Scott age 74 (page 8 crop).jpg

|alt =

|caption =

|office = Justice of the Ohio Supreme Court

|term_start = November 29, 1856

|term_end = February 9, 1872

|appointer = Salmon P. Chase

|predecessor = Rufus P. Ranney

|successor = William H. West

|state_house2 = Ohio

|district2 =Delaware & Crawford Counties

|term_start2 =December 7, 1840

|term_end2 =December 5, 1841

|predecessor2 =Andrew H. Patterson

|successor2 = James Griffith, Thomas W. Powell, George W. Sharp

|alongside2 = Emer Moore

| birth_date = {{birth date|1803|12|1}}

| birth_place = Washington County, Pennsylvania, US

| death_date = {{death date and age|1879|6|15|1803|12|1}}

| death_place = Bucyrus, Ohio, US

|restingplace = Oakwood Cemetery, Bucyrus

|restingplacecoordinates =

| party = Republican

| otherparty = Whig

|spouse = Elizabeth McCracken
Susan Elizabeth Moffit

|children = five

|residence =

|alma_mater = Jefferson College

|religion =

|signature =

|signature_alt =

|website =

}}

Josiah Scott (December 1, 1803 – June 15, 1879) was a Republican politician in the U.S. State of Ohio who was in the Ohio House of Representatives, and was an Ohio Supreme Court Judge 1856–1872.

Josiah Scott was born at Washington County, Pennsylvania, not far from Cannonsburg, where he graduated from Jefferson College (now Washington & Jefferson College) in 1823. He returned to Jefferson College as a tutor from 1827 to 1829. He studied law and in 1830 he moved to Bucyrus, Crawford County, Ohio, where he practiced law.Smith 1898 : 66–67

In 1840, Scott was elected to the Ohio House of Representatives for the 39th General Assembly as a Whig.Ohio 1917 : 271 Presidential elector in 1844 for Clay/Frelinghuysen.Taylor 1899 : 255

In 1856, Scott was nominated by the Republican Party for Judge of the Ohio Supreme Court, and he defeated incumbent Democrat Rufus P. Ranney and a third party candidate with a plurality of the votes in the General Election.Smith 1898 : 65 Ranney resigned the seat soon after the election, and Scott was seated late in 1856. He was re-elected in 1861, and again in 1866, but declined re-nomination in 1871.

In 1870, Scott developed a method to construct magic squares.{{cite journal |journal=The Maine Journal of Education |volume=4 |pages=446–449 |date=December 1870 |title=Magic Squares|last=Clark |first=James |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OcIBAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA446}}

In 1872, Scott returned to Crawford County, and private practice. In 1876, Governor Hayes appointed him to the Supreme Court Commission of Ohio, and he resigned at the end of a three-year term in 1879.

Scott married Elizabeth McCracken on February 8, 1838. They had five children before she died in 1844. Scott married again May 4, 1846, to Susan Elizabeth Moffit, who had no children and died in 1891. He died June 15, 1879, from kidney disease and was buried in Oakwood Cemetery, Bucyrus.{{cite web | url= http://www.supremecourt.ohio.gov/SCO/formerjustices/bios/scottJ.asp | publisher= The Supreme Court of Ohio & The Ohio Judicial System | title= Josiah Scott | url-status= dead | archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20120320175153/http://www.supremecourt.ohio.gov/SCO/formerjustices/bios/scottJ.asp | archivedate= 2012-03-20 }}Supreme Court of Ohio : Supplement 5