Benjamin Wright Scandrett, of Topeka, was born at Faribault, Rice county, Minnesota, March 3, 1883, a son of Henry A. Scandrett, a native of Pennsylvania, and wife, Jane Whipple, who was born in New York state. Henry A. Scandrett was a prominent and influential citizen of Faribault and served as judge of the probate court in Rice county for several years. His death occurred in 1884, a few months after the birth of his youngest son, Benjamin Wright. His wife and four children, Cornelia W., Henry A., Jeanie W., and Benjamin W., now survive him.

Benjamin W. Scandrett received his early education in the public schools and in the Shattuck military academy at Faribault. He then entered the University of Minnesota at Minneapolis, and for three years pursued the studies of civil engineering, and during his student life there became a member of the Delta Kappa Epsilon college fraternity. Becoming interested in the legal profession he began the study of law in the Washburn College Law School at Topeka and graduated there in 1906. After his graduation he served as assistant reporter for the supreme court of Kansas for one year, and then entered active practice as the junior member of Blair, Scandrett & Scandrett, one of the most reliable and best known law firms of the state, in which his brother, Henry A. Scandrett, a prominent attorney of Topeka, is one of his partners. During the several years of his practice Mr. Scandrett has already won recognition, through his marked legal ability and ready success. In addition to general practice he is first assistant general attorney for the Union Pacific Railroad Company in the states of Kansas and Missouri. He is a member of the Shawnee county and Kansas state bar associations, the Topeka, Country, and Commercial clubs of Topeka.