Henry Alexander Scandrett, a prominent attorney and member of the firm of Blair, Scandrett & Scandrett, at Topeka, was born at Faribault, Minn., April 8, 1876. His father, Henry Alexander Scandrett, son of Thomas Scandrett and a native of Allegheny county, Pennsylvania, was an influential citizen of Faribault, serving as judge of the probate court for several years and engaged in a prosperous business career in that place until his death, in 1883. At the beginning of the Civil war he enlisted as a private in a New York regiment and rose during the service to the rank of first lieutenant. He was captured in an engagement with the Confederates and was held in Andersonville prison, finally gaining his freedom through an exchange of prisoners. He was married to Miss Jane Whiting Whipple, a daughter of the eminent clergyman, Rt. Rev. Henry Benjamin Whipple, D. D.; LL. D., and his wife, Cornelia Wright. Reverend Whipple was the first bishop appointed in the Protestant Episcopal diocese of Minnesota and served as bishop of that diocese for forty-two years. His daughter, Jane Whiting, was born at Adams, Jefferson county, New Jersey, March 10, 1847, and is now making her home with her son, Henry Scandrett at Topeka. Henry A. Scandrett lived in his native state until after his graduation in the law department of the University of Minnesota, and received during that time the best educational advantages of the state. For five years he was a student in the Shattuck school, a well known military academy, located at Faribault, and after his graduation there in 1894 entered the University of Minnesota, receiving the degree of Bachelor of Laws four years later, in 1898. While in his senior year at the university he began the study of law and was enabled, after his completion of the literary course to enter the second year of the law school, in which he graduated with the degree of Doctor of Laws in 1900. In order to fit himself more thoroughly for the profession, during his last year of attendance at school, he read law in the office of John B. Atwater, a noted attorney in Minneapolis. Although devoting his attention and interest so assiduously to his legal studies, young Scandrett found time to win a place of prominence in the athletic world of his university, and for three years was a member of the 'varsity football team and during his senior year was honored with its captaincy. Soon after the close of his college career he accepted a position in Omaha, Neb., as claim adjuster in the claim department of the Union Pacific Railway Company, and since that time his business connection with the railway company has remained unbroken. In the spring of 1901 he removed to Kansas City, where he held the same position as in Omaha. He came to Topeka in November of the same year and became a member of the law firm of Loomis, Blair & Scandrett, attorneys for the Union Pacific Railway Company in the states of Kansas and Missouri, and whose successor, Blair, Scandrett & Scandrett—the present firm which came into existence May 7, 1908—retains the same position. Beside the prominence which his marked ability and success as an attorney have brought him, Mr. Scandrett holds important and influential offices in the railroad world, being a director in both the Topeka & Northwestern and the Missouri, Kansas & Gulf Railway companies. He is a member of the Shawnee County, the Kansas State, and the American bar associations and is active in the social organizations of Topeka, holding membership in the Commercial, the Topeka, the Country and the Saturday Night clubs. Mr. Scandrett is a member of the Protestant Episcopal church and is a vestryman in Grace Cathedral at Topeka.