Harvey David Scott

Harvey David Scott (October 18, 1818 – July 11, 1891) was an American lawyer and politician who served one term as a U.S. Representative from Indiana from 1855 to 1857. He was born near Ashtabula, Ashtabula County, Ohio, where he spent his early years and attended the local public schools. Little is recorded about his family background or early childhood, but his subsequent educational and professional pursuits indicate an early commitment to formal learning and public service.

Scott pursued higher education at Asbury University in Greencastle, Indiana, an institution that later became DePauw University. His studies there prepared him for a career in the law, and after completing his legal training he was admitted to the bar in Indiana. He commenced the practice of law in Terre Haute, Vigo County, Indiana, establishing himself as an attorney in a growing community that was becoming an important regional center in the mid-nineteenth century.

Alongside his legal practice, Scott became active in local affairs and held several local offices in Indiana, although the specific posts are not fully documented in surviving records. His involvement in public life during this period reflected the broader political ferment of the 1850s, as new parties and coalitions emerged in response to sectional tensions and debates over slavery and national expansion. Through his legal work and local service, he built the reputation that would support his election to national office.

Scott was elected as an Indiana People’s Party candidate to the Thirty-fourth Congress and served in the U.S. House of Representatives from March 4, 1855, to March 3, 1857. The People’s Party in Indiana was part of the realignment of political forces in the decade before the Civil War, drawing in elements opposed to the extension of slavery and dissatisfied with the existing party structures. During his single term in Congress, Scott participated in the legislative work of a body deeply divided over sectional issues, though the detailed record of his committee assignments and specific legislative initiatives is sparse.

After leaving Congress at the conclusion of his term, Scott returned to Indiana and resumed the practice of law. He continued to be a prominent figure in the legal community of Vigo County and, in recognition of his professional standing, was elected or appointed judge of the circuit court of Vigo County, serving from 1881 to 1884. In this judicial capacity he presided over a broad range of civil and criminal matters in a period of continued growth and change for the region, bringing to the bench the experience of both a practicing attorney and former member of Congress.

In his personal life, Scott was the father of Fred Newton Scott, who became a noted rhetorician and an influential figure in the development of rhetoric and composition studies in American higher education. This connection underscores the family’s ongoing engagement with education and public discourse across generations, linking Harvey David Scott’s nineteenth-century legal and political career with his son’s later academic contributions.

In 1887, after more than four decades of professional and public activity in Indiana, Scott moved to California, part of a broader late-nineteenth-century migration to the West for reasons that likely included health, climate, and new opportunities. He settled in Pasadena, Los Angeles County, where he spent the final years of his life. Harvey David Scott died in Pasadena on July 11, 1891. He was interred in Mountain View Cemetery, leaving a legacy as a mid-nineteenth-century lawyer, local official, circuit court judge, and one-term U.S. Representative from Indiana.