Melville J. Salter

Who was Melville J. Salter?

Melville Judson Salter was a politician and civic leader who was twice elected the eighth Lieutenant Governor of Kansas.

Salter's family left their farm in New York and moved to Battle Creek, Michigan when Salter was one year old. In 1840 the family moved again, to Marshall, Michigan, where he became a Baptist at the age of 16. Salter went west to California in 1852 to seek his fortune in the gold fields. In 1856 he learned of the death of his mother and decided to return home; while in Panama, a chance decision to take a railroad excursion with a friend saved him from the Watermelon War riot. He remained in Michigan until 1871. Salter then bought land near Thayer in Chetopa Township, Neosho County, Kansas, where he served for five years as township trustee. For several years he was the president of the Settlers' Protective Association, which was organized to protect settlers' land claims from competing claims by Native Americans and railroads. The settlers' claims were vindicated by a US Supreme Court decision delivered in 1876. Salter was elected as a Republican to be lieutenant governor of Kansas in 1874 and again in 1876.