Walter Bennett Scates was born on January 18, 1808, in South Boston, Virginia. The family moved to Hopkinsville, Kentucky, and he grew up and attended school there. He moved to Frankfort, Illinois, in the early 1830s, and he earned a living as a lawyer. He later moved to Vandalia, Illinois, which was then the state’s capital. He married Mary Ridgeway on November 21, 1836, and they had at least seven children: Walter, born around 1840; Clarence, born around 1842; Eugene, born around 1845; Mary, born around 1848; Charles, born around 1853; Lillie, born around 1856; and William, born around 1859.

 

He supported the Democratic Party. He served as state attorney general and a circuit court judge, and he was elected to the state Supreme Court in 1841. He served until 1847. By 1850, he was working as a lawyer in Mount Vernon, Illinois. He was elected to the state Supreme Court again in 1853, and he became chief justice two years later. He resigned in 1857 and settled in Chicago, Illinois.

 

In June 1862, he received a commission as a major in the Union army. He served on General John A. McClernand’s staff, and he later became an assistant adjutant general with the rank of lieutenant colonel. He mustered out on January 4, 1866.

 

In March 1865, President Abraham Lincoln offered him the position of chief justice of the New Mexico Territory. Scates, however, declined the offer. Instead, he served as Chicago’s custom house collector under President Andrew Johnson. He held the position until 1869. He moved to Evanston, Illinois, in the 1860s, and by 1870, he owned $12,000 of real estate and $3,000 of personal property. He died there of “paralysis” on October 26, 1886.

 

Image: Walter B. Scates (courtesy Wikicommons)

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