Philander Scoville was born around 1847 in Ohio to John G. Scoville and Ruth Chapman. His father was a carpenter who owned $400 of real estate and $200 of personal property. The family lived in Milan, Ohio, until the mid-1850s, when they moved to Brighton, Iowa. By 1900, he was working as a farmer in Goshen, Ohio, and his mother was living with him. A decade later, he was living in Lorain, Ohio. He died in Lorain on March 29, 1927.