Thomas Alexander Scott
(Father of Edgar T hompson. Scott, Sr who commissioned the building of the 1906 Mansion)  
Born in 1823 in Peters Township near Fort
Loudoun, in Franklin County, Pennsylvania,Scott
was the seventh of 11 children. His father, who
operated an inn at a stagecoach stop, died while
Scott was a child.  Scott joined the Pennsylvania
Railroad in 1850 as a station agent, and by 1858
was general superintendent. Scott took a special
interest in mentoring aspiring railroad employees
such as Andrew Carnegie. In 1860, Scott
became the first Vice President of the
Pennsylvania Railroad and President upon the
death of J. Edgar Thompson in 1874.
According to Wikipedia, Scott was notoriously
secretive about his business dealings,
conducting most of his business in private
letters, and instructing his business partners
to destroy them after they were read
Appointed in 1861 by President Abraham Lincoln as
the U.S. Assistant Secretary of War during the
American Civil War, Scott played a major role in
using railroads in the war effort. He had a role in
negotiating the Republican Party's Compromise of
1877 with the Democratic Party; it settled the
disputed presidential election of 1876 in favor of
Rutherford B. Hayes in exchange for the federal
government pulling out its military forces from the
South and ending the Reconstruction era.
He was politically powerful and did much to create
the modern corporation
The Lingering Influence of Darby's Thomas Scott
After more than 150 years, the Pennsylvania Railroad
president still casts a shadow on American politics.
He died on 21 May 1881, and is buried at
Woodlands Cemetery in Philadelphia.