My apologies for accusing bro. Scofield of being divorced and remarried three times. It is Ruckman who has done that. Scofield was only remarried once.
http://www.rayofhopechurch.com/scofield.htm
Notes on C. I. Scofield and the Scofield Bible
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THE SCOFIELD BIBLE and C. I. SCOFIELD
By Glenn R. Goss, Th. D.
Professor of Bible Philadelphia College of Bible
The year 1909 (almost 90 years ago!) was quite a year. Louis Bleroit of France piloted a small monoplane across the English Channel; homesteaders began to arrive in Montana; the NAACP was founded; Al Capp, creator of Li'l Abner, was born; Einstein became a leading scientific thinker in Europe; Grand Prairie, Texas, was incorporated; the first Siberian huskies were introduced to Alaska; George Sargent won the U. S. Open in Golf; Pittsburgh beat Detroit 4-3 to take the World Series; and, of great importance but little noted, Oxford University Press published The Scofield Reference Bible. It was released to the public in January, 1909, and revised by Scofield and his team of consultants as the New and Improved Edition in 1917. Now, almost 90 years later, the 1917 edition is still being printed by Oxford University Press, and the 1967 edition, the Scofield Study Bible (the title today) is offered in four versions: the King James, the New International Version, the New American Standard Bible, and the New King James Version. The first million copies were printed by 1930. Since then the number published has escalated, and so has the diversity in versions and languages. The Scofield is now printed in at least seven languages other than English.
But who is C. I. Scofield? Many know there is a Scofield Memorial Church in Dallas. What is the connection between the church and Scofield himself? How did the Scofield Reference Bible come to be? And why is the Scofield Study Bible so loved by some and so disliked by others?
Cyrus Ingerson Scofield was born in Michigan in 1843. When the Civil war began, he was in Tennessee with his sisters. While there, he enlisted in the Confederate army. Military records show he fought in the Confederate Army for over a year in 1861-1862, then was discharged by reason of not being a citizen of the Confederate States, but an alien friend. Scofield told his biographer Charles Trumbull that he served through the war, and that he was awarded the Confederate Cross of Honor. After the war, Scofield located in St. Louis, married, and had a family of two daughters and a son. His wife was from a French Catholic family, and she and her daughters remained in that church till their deaths. His son died as a young boy. He joined a law firm, read and studied to be admitted to the bar. In 1869 he and his family moved to Kansas, where he was admitted to the bar to practice law. He was elected twice to the Kansas legislature, in 1871 and in 1872. President Grant appointed him as the United States District Attorney of Kansas June 9, 1873. He affirmed, in the oath of office, that he had never voluntarily born arms against the United States . . . He evidently had no problem with that claim, even though he had fought in the Confederate Army. He resigned December 20, 1873, amid charges and counter-charges of political corruption. That ended Scofield's political career.
Scofield probably moved his family back to St. Louis, for his son Guy died in December, 1874, and was buried in St. Louis. But by 1879 his life had deteriorated to the extent that he drank heavily and was involved in several questionable court cases. For most of this time, his wife and daughters were back to Atchison, Kansas. Mrs. Scofield filed for divorce in 1881, but that case was dismissed. A second filing of the case resulted in a divorce decree in 1883. These and other legal actions involving Scofield, and several notations in city directories, provide some of the only evidence about him during the time from 1873 to 1879.
A published account of Scofield's life in can be found in The Life Story of C. I. Scofield by Charles Gallaudet Trumbull, published by Oxford University Press in 1920. An unpublished Master Thesis, "A Biographical Sketch of C. I. Scofield" was written by William A. BeVier at Southern Methodist University in 1960. Both of these are complimentary of Scofield. Joseph M. Canfield wrote and published, The Incredible Scofield in 1988. This book is very critical of Scofield's theology and personal life. Due to the lack of existing records, and the lack of information in records that do exist, both BeVier and Canfield make much use of terms such as "it seems," "probably," and "evidently." Trumbull, on the other hand, writes factually, since much of his information came directly from Scofield himself. But even Trumbull passes over the period of 1873 to 1879 with nothing more than a reference to Scofield's habit of drinking. Though not much is certain about this period, one thing is clear. A change was needed in Scofield's life. Both Canfield and BeVier agree with Trumbull that a conversion did take place. Canfield questions if it was real, at least at first, and he does not agree on the time. But all recognized that Scofield needed a change in his life. And, God had prepared a man to meet that need.
