Samuel Raymond Scottron (c. February 1841 – October 14, 1908)Ancestry.com. New York, New York, Extracted Death Index, 1862–1948 [database online]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2014. Retrieved July 11, 2018. was an African-American inventor, merchant, and businessman. He received six patents throughout his career for inventions including an improved mirror, a curtain rod, a supporting bracket, a pole tip, and two designs for window cornices. Scottron lived in Brooklyn, New York City.
Life and career Samuel Scottron was born free in c. 1841, in Philadelphia, and moved as a child with his family to New York City. However various sources have discrepancies in around his date of birth and place of birth. He completed grammar school when he was 14 years old, and later received his engineering degree from Cooper Union in 1878.
During the American Civil War, Scottron was the sutler for the 3rd United States Colored Infantry, and almost went bankrupt. To recoup his finances, he operated grocery stores in Gainesville and Jacksonville, Florida, and then a barber shop in Springfield, Massachusetts, where his parents were originally from.
Scottron served on the Brooklyn Board of Education as the only black member, and was a leader in the Republican Party. He advocated for the abolition of slavery in Cuba and Puerto Rico. Scottron served as a founding member and leader of the Cuban Anti-Slavery Committee.
A chapter in the book The Negro in Business (1907) by Booker T. Washington is about Scottron.
Family Scottron married Anna Maria Willett, a New Yorker, in 1863; they had six children.1880 Federal Census for Kings County (New York) Enumeration District 20, Sheet 2, Lines 21–30 (1061 Lafayette Street, Brooklyn, New York)
Scottron died at the age of 67 on October 14, 1908, of natural causes in his home in Brooklyn.
Inventions Improved Mirror, March 31, 1868 Adjustable Window Cornice, February 17, 1880 Cornice, January 16, 1883 Pole Tip, September 21, 1886 Curtain Rod, August 30, 1892 Supporting Bracket, September 12, 1893
Publications
References
External links
United States Patent and Trademark Office