Edward Scofield

Edward Scofield around 1900

Edward Scofield (born March 28, 1842 in Clearfield , Clearfield County , Pennsylvania , †  February 3, 1925 in Oconto , Wisconsin ) was an American politician and from 1897 to 1901 the 19th  governor of the state of Wisconsin.

Early years

Edward Scofield dropped out of school at the age of 13 to begin an apprenticeship in printing with a newspaper in Indiana, Pennsylvania. He stayed with this newspaper until the outbreak of the civil war . During the war he was a member of an infantry regiment from Pennsylvania. He fought, among other things, in the Battle of Gettysburg in July 1863. A year later he was taken prisoner by the Confederates . After his release, he had to recover from an illness he contracted while in detention.

In 1868 he moved to Oconto, Wisconsin, where he got into the lumber business. Over the years he became a successful businessman in his new home. Between 1887 and 1890, Republican Scofield was a member of the Wisconsin Senate . In 1894 he unsuccessfully applied for his party's nomination for governor. Two years later he had more success. He not only won his party's nomination, but also the subsequent gubernatorial elections with 59.7 percent of the vote against the Democrat Willis C. Silverthorn.

Governor of wisconsin

Edward Scofield took up his new office on January 4, 1897. After re-election in 1898, he was able to exercise it until January 7, 1901. A central accounting system was introduced into the administration of Wisconsin during his reign. The budget for the school system was increased, the bank control laws were revised and an anti-corruption law was passed, particularly to prevent bribery in connection with elections. The governor also supported the federal government's war effort in connection with the Spanish-American War that broke out in 1898 . Wisconsin also had to deploy soldiers for this purpose.

At the end of his tenure, Scofield retired to Oconto, where he continued his business affairs. Politically, he no longer appeared. Edward Scofield died in 1925. He was married to Agnes Potter, with whom he had three children.

Web links

• Edward Scofield in the database of the National Governors Association (English)
• Wisconsin Historical Society (English)