Merchant, banker, builder of railroad to the Rio Grande. Born in Albany, N. Y. Came to South Texas in 1868. Chartered the Corpus Christi, San Diego and Rio Grande narrow gauge railroad in 1875. Later, reorganized it as the Texas-Mexican Railroad, to be built from Corpus Christi to Laredo. In 1884 he chartered and became president of the San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railway, which in time had 688 miles of track, and gave South Texas a new outlet to the Gulf of Mexico and international trade.

Setting out (1900) to run a railroad to southmost tip of Texas, he obtained right of way for segment of the St Louis, Brownsville and Mexico Railway from Robstown to Brownsville. The "Lott Railroad" tracks reached this point in February 1903. When for the first time a passenger train ran all the way from Corpus Christi to Brownsville, July 4, 1904, the new town of Kingsville held a special Fourth of July celebration. For some years prior to his death, Lott lived in Casa Ricardo Hotel in Kingsville. He and his wife, the former Mary Cicele Reynolds, are buried in the Chamberlain Cemetery, Kingsville.

Lott's work, vital to South Texas development, also enhanced national prosperity at turn of the century.