The February 26th, 1920, edition of the “Morning News” in Danville read “James Scarlett, Montour County’s Most Prominent Citizen, Is Dead.” The sub-headline read “An Example of a Poor Boy Who Rose To Great Heights by His Own Ability.”

Reading about the life of James Scarlet creates an image in your mind of a man you would certainly have liked to have known, and either called a friend, or admired as a professional, a gentleman, and a person.

One hundred years ago, the New Jersey-born, but Montour County-raised attorney brought the national spotlight to Pennsylvania when he prosecuted those responsible for the graft scandal that rocked the Capitol and the citizens of the commonwealth. 

Arthur Toye Foulke, in his history “My Danville”, says Scarlet was a skilled storyteller off duty. Foulke writes that Scarlet’s most intriguing story, or one he told later, told of his babyhood when he was abandoned in a basket on a Danville doorstep, wrapped in a scarlet blanket, which is how he got his name.

Scarlet was born on December 31st of 1848, in Elizabeth, New Jersey. His father was a sea captain of English birth, and his mother was of Scotch-Irish descent. 

Just how the boy, James Scarlet, came to live in Danville depends on the story you wish to believe. One says a well-to-do farmer got permission from the five-year-old’s parents to bring him to Pennsylvania. Another story says he arrived in Danville when he became an orphan. The facts show he spent a few years working on the farm of W. W. Pinneo, now a part of Danville State Hospital.

After attending the schools of Danville, Scarlet apprenticed and learned the trade of a blacksmith. One story associated with the local attorney tells that he was headed to the Union County Courthouse in Lewisburg for a case and broke a carriage wheel. Finding that the local blacksmith was under the weather, Scarlet donned the blacksmith apron himself, made the repair and went on to his scheduled courthouse appointment.

Scarlet graduated from Princeton University in 1874, and according to Foulke’s account, was a classmate of another local Danville attorney, the Honorable James H. M. Hinckley.

After “reading” law for three years in the office of Thomas Galbraith, Scarlet gained admission to the Montour County Bar and later gained admission to practice before both Pennsylvania and U.S. courts, including the Supreme Court. 

Scarlet’s national prominence came when he was the commonwealth counsel for the Capitol Investigation Commission that uncovered the 1907 graft scandal in Harrisburg. State Treasurer William H. Berry uncovered the misappropriation of state funds in furnishing the new capitol building in 1906. 

Historical reports say the costs exceeded three-fold the limit of $4,000,000.00 that the legislature had set in 1901. Berry obtained independent estimates of the cost of the capitol's decorations and furnishings. They revealed that the state had paid $5,500 for the ceiling in Berry's office that should have cost $550; the "Oak wainscoting worth $1,800" actually cost the state $15,500; a contractor who "had offered to supply a chandelier for $193" had charged the state $2,000; and a state official paid $150 for a bootblack stand but collected $1,619 for it from the State. Berry estimated that the state overpaid by $5,000,000 for its capitol.

Foulke says Scarlet spent four years on the case and was paid just twenty-five thousand dollars. But all eighteen persons accused in the graft case were convicted, bringing Scarlet national attention and offers to join major law firms from across the country. 

Besides his reputation as the prosecutor for the state, Scarlet had an excellent reputation in the local courtroom, described as an uncompromising foe of dishonesty and hypocrisy.

Scarlet was married to Lizzie G. Lyon of Danville in 1883, and they had one son, James, Junior. 

As we mentioned, the attorney was an avid sportsman. Once, while hunting with a friend, a shotgun pellet struck him in the eye. This incident caused him to lose vision in that eye.

Scarlet reportedly also loved to sit with his friends in a local sporting goods store on Mill Street and swap stories with his “buddies” when he wasn’t in the courtroom or outdoors.

Adding to the reputation of the lawyer, sportsman and storyteller was Scarlet’s untiring support for the Geisinger Memorial Hospital. In the July 1992 edition of Danville’s Bicentennial Gazette, Jennie Wydra wrote that Scarlet played a great role in the hospital’s construction through his interest, counsel and advice. Wydra says he was a familiar figure inside the hospital, with that deep bass voice and familiar cane thumping through the hallways. Daily rounds included a look through microscopes, as well as visiting patients and doctors alike. 

A sudden heart attack claimed James Scarlett’s life on February 25th, 1920, at his home at 111 Mill Street, the building said to be the first brick structure ever built in Danville. 

A short time after his death, The Geisinger Hospital placed a bronze tablet in the lobby in his honor, stating that no one had done more for the institution in the early days of its development.

Doctor Harold L. Foss, the first chief of staff for the hospital, reflected on Scarlet’s life soon after the attorney’s passing. “So closely has the late James Scarlet been associated with Geisinger Memorial Hospital, so keen has his interest been in its development and so manifestly helpful his kindness and advice to those who were directing the institution’s destinies that in his death the hospital has lost one of its greatest supporters and the staff a true, and respected friend.”

Scarlet lies in the Odd Fellows Cemetery off Bloom Road, near the final resting place of Abigail and George Geisinger.