James Scollay Whitney

James Scollay Whitney (May 19, 1811 – October 24, 1878) was an American business executive and politician. He was the father of Henry Melville Whitney and William Collins Whitney who became successful entrepreneurs in their own right. Early life Whitney was born on May 19, 1811, in the part of South Deerfield, Massachusetts that was then known as "Bloody Brook".

Career In 1835, when he was only 24, Whitney was elected and commissioned brigadier general of the 2nd Brigade of the Massachusetts State Militia, which he was largely influential in reorganizing. Upon succeeding to the management of his father's manufacturing business in 1838, he moved it to Conway, Massachusetts, where he became a large manufacturer.

A Jacksonian Democrat, Whitney was town clerk of Conway from 1843 to 1852. He represented Conway in the legislature of 1851 and, in the same year, he was appointed sheriff of Franklin County. In 1853, he was elected to the convention for the revision of the state constitution, in which he was prominent in the deliberations of the delegates. Whitney again represented Conway in the legislature of 1854.

In 1854, Whitney was appointed superintendent of the federal armory at Springfield, Massachusetts, by President Franklin Pierce, holding the position until 1860. He was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention of 1856 in Cincinnati, which nominated James Buchanan, and also that of 1860 in Charleston, which was wracked by sectional dissension before finally nominating Stephen A. Douglas. When Whitney left the Springfield Armory in 1860, President Buchanan appointed him Collector of Customs for the Port of Boston. He was removed, however, by the incoming Republican administration of Abraham Lincoln in 1861. William Collins Whitney (1841–1904), who first married Flora Payne, daughter of Senator Henry B. Payne of Ohio. After her death, he married Edith (née May) Randolph. Susan Collins Whitney (1845–1939), who married lawyer Henry F. Dimock (1842–1911), son of Timothy Dimock. Lorinda Collins "Lily" Whitney (1852–1946), who married Charles T. Barney (1851–1907), president of the Knickerbocker Trust Company.

Whitney died in Boston on October 24, 1878. He was succeeded as president of the Metropolitan Steamship Company by his son, Henry M. Whitney.