Christopher Columbus Scott (April 22, 1807 – January 19, 1859) was a justice of the

Arkansas Supreme Court The Supreme Court of Arkansas is the highest court in the state judiciary of Arkansas. It has ultimate and largely discretionary appellate jurisdiction over all state court cases that involve a point of state law, and original jurisdiction ...

from 1848 to 1859.Arkansas Courts
A Self-Guided Tour of Justice Building Portraits
(2016), p. 4. Born at

Scottsburg, Virginia Scottsburg is a town in Halifax County, Virginia, United States. The population was 119 at the 2010 census, down from 145 at the 2000 census. Geography Scottsburg is located in eastern Halifax County at (36.759890, -78.790515). Virginia State ...

,Fay Hempstead, ''Historical Review of Arkansas'' (1911)
p. 452-53
Scott was orphaned at the age of eleven and was raised by a brother. In 1827, at the age of 20, Scott graduated from Washington College (now

Washington and Lee University , mottoeng = "Not Unmindful of the Future" , established = , type = Private liberal arts university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $2.092 billion (2021) , president = William C. Dudley , provost = Lena Hill , city = Lexing ...

) with highest honors, and at the head of his class. He moved to

Gainesville, Alabama Gainesville is a town in Sumter County, Alabama, United States. Founded in 1832, it was incorporated in 1835. At the 2010 census the population was 208, down from 220. Confederate Lieutenant General Nathan Bedford Forrest surrendered his men ne ...

, in 1828, to study law, but abandoned it for mercantile pursuits. Proving unsuccessful in this venture, he returned to Virginia, and attended Staunton Law School. Scott then returned to Gainesville, where he "soon became an active practitioner". He later moved to Camden, Arkansas, and in 1846 he was elected judge of the Arkansas Eighth Judicial Circuit, encompassing that city. He remained in that position until 1848, when Governor

Thomas Stevenson Drew Thomas Stevenson Drew (August 25, 1802 – January 1879) was the third Governor of the U.S. state of Arkansas. Biography He was born in Wilson County, Tennessee. Drew moved with his family to Louisiana and then, in 1818, to Arkansas. He wor ...

appointed Scott as an associate justice of the state supreme court, to a seat vacated by the resignation of Williamson Simpson Oldham. Scott then won reelection to the court for a term of eight years in November 1850, and was reelected again in 1858. His opinions were noted for being lengthy, a "natural result of his fluency in writing". While traveling from Camden to Little Rock in January, 1859, he contracted pneumonia and died at the Anthony House, a famous old hotel in Little Rock.

References

1807 births 1859 deaths People from Halifax County, Virginia Washington and Lee University alumni Justices of the Arkansas Supreme Court People from Gainesville, Alabama People from Camden, Arkansas {{Arkansas-state-judge-stub