Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Charles and Margaret (Hamilton) Scott, he pursued his early education in the public schools and afterward attended the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland, from 1876 until his graduation in 1880.
[2][1] The success of his legal practice led to his selection as a member of the Wyoming constitutional convention of 1889, where he aided in framing the organic law of the state.
On February 3, 1906, Governor Bryant Butler Brooks appointed Scott to a seat on the Wyoming Supreme Court vacated by Josiah Alexander Van Orsdel, who held the seat briefly following the death of Jesse Knight.
In the general election that year, Scott ran as a Republican against former justice Herman V.S.
[1][2] Scott married Agnes Delight Coates of Jordan, Minnesota on July 1, 1885.