James Wilmot was born on June 26, 1849 in Walworth County, Wisconsin, United States. Both his grandfather and father were newspaper men. His father, David Wilmot Scott, removed to Galena, Illinois, shortly after the birth of his son, where he became associated with Charles H. Ray in publishing the Jeffersonian.
After graduating from the Galena High School, James Wilmot Scott attended Beloit College two years.
Having learned the printer's trade in his father's office, Scott went to New York soon after his return from college. There he became intensely interested in floriculture, and he contributed short articles to horticultural periodicals. However, his early training asserted itself.
He returned to Galena, Ill. , and with his father founded the Industrial Press. In 1875, he went to Chicago, where for the remainder of his life he was associated with journalism. In Chicago he first purchased an interest in the National Hotel Reporter but at the end of six years withdrew to found a paper of his own.
In May 1881 he organized the Chicago Herald Company, in which he later obtained the controlling interest. Within ten years it had increased from four to twelve pages, and the Herald Company boasted of a fine building equipped with twenty modern presses. The Sunday edition reached a size of forty-eight pages by 1887, featuring new departures in the newspaper field.
He was elected president of the Chicago Press Club for three years, and president of the United Press, an organization for the collection and distribution of news. In connection with the World's Columbian Exposition, he rendered important service in bringing the fair to Chicago. As a member of the committee on arrangements and chairman of the press committee, his was an important voice in the fair.
In 1890 plans for the establishment of an evening paper resulted in the appearance of the Chicago Evening Post. In 1895 the Chicago Times was purchased in order to consolidate it with the Herald, but before the plans were completely realized he died suddenly in New York City.
James Wilmot Scott organized the Chicago Herald Company, its growth was remarkable, it was one of the youngest dailies in the western metropolis and a pioneer among two-cent morning papers. So successful was the Chicago Herald under his management, that he was chosen president of the American Newspaper Publishers' Association.
Through the years Scott stood firm for civil service reform and was never a violent partisan in politics.
Although at first he supported in Chicago Herald Company the Republican party, in its first year it became independent Democrat, and it supported Cleveland and hard money. The policy of the paper was distinctly conservative, but it consistently advocated a reduction in tariff duties and civil service reform.
Scott was a bluff, big, hearty individual and the soul of fellowship. He was typical of the West in his time and a man of liberal ideas.
Quotes from others about the person
William C. Bryant, publisher of the Brooklyn Daily called Scott "the brightest newspaper publisher in this country".
Scott was married to Carrie Green in 1873. Their one child died in infancy.
