Person:John Scott (138)

The Rev. Dr. John Witherspoon Scott (January 22, 1800-November 29, 1892) was an American Presbyterian minister and academic whose daughter, Caroline Harrison became first lady of the United States as wife of Benjamin Harrison. Scott was the son of George McElroy and Anna (Rea) Scott and was born in Beaver County, Pennsylvania. Educated at Yale University, he became the first professor of science at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. He was ultimately fired from that position during the presidency of George Junkin for his anti-slavery views. After teaching in Cincinnati, he returned to Oxford, Ohio in 1849 as the first president of a Presbyterian women's college known as the Oxford Female Institute from which his daughter Caroline graduated in 1852. Scott presided over the wedding of his daughter to the future U.S. President Benjamin Harrison in 1853. Dr. Scott later served as president of the Oxford Female College and as professor at Hanover College. He resided with President and Mrs. Harrison in the White House and died there in 1892, about a month after his daughter's death.