John Flittie was a U.S. politician who served as North Dakota

North Dakota

North Dakota is a state located in the Midwestern region of the United States of America, along the Canadian border. The state is bordered by Canada to the north, Minnesota to the east, South Dakota to the south and Montana to the west. North Dakota is the 19th-largest state by area in the U.S....

's first Secretary of State

North Dakota Secretary of State

The North Dakota Secretary of State is an elected office in the U.S. state of North Dakota. The current Secretary of State is Alvin Jaeger. The general duties of the Secretary of State include being the custodian of the state's Great Seal and other official state documents, recording the official...

 from 1889 to 1892. He was born in Lesja

Lesja

Lesja is a municipality in Oppland county, Norway. It is part of the traditional region of Gudbrandsdal. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Lesja....

, Norway

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

, but his family emigrated to North America

North America

North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

 in 1867, settling in Watonwan County, Minnesota

Minnesota

Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...

. He was graduated from Mankato Normal School (now Minnesota State University, Mankato) in 1878 and moved to Dakota Territory

Dakota Territory

The Territory of Dakota was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from March 2, 1861, until November 2, 1889, when the final extent of the reduced territory was split and admitted to the Union as the states of North and South Dakota.The Dakota Territory consisted of...

 soon after. He was a member of the Dakota Territorial Council (the upper house

Upper house

An upper house, often called a senate, is one of two chambers of a bicameral legislature, the other chamber being the lower house; a legislature composed of only one house is described as unicameral.- Possible specific characteristics :...

 of the territorial legislature

Legislature

A legislature is a kind of deliberative assembly with the power to pass, amend, and repeal laws. The law created by a legislature is called legislation or statutory law. In addition to enacting laws, legislatures usually have exclusive authority to raise or lower taxes and adopt the budget and...

) in 1885-1886, and won election as a Republican

North Dakota Republican Party

The North Dakota Republican Party is the North Dakota affiliate of the United States Republican Party. The party platform is generally conservative.The North Dakota Republican Party is strongly in control of the state's politics...

 to the newly created office of Secretary of State in 1889. After serving an abbreviated 1-year term, he was re-elected to a full 2-year term in 1890. He did not seek re-election in 1892. He died in Williston, North Dakota

Williston, North Dakota

-Demographics:Preliminary data from a 2010 housing study indicates that population has grown by nearly 22 percent over the past decade; the actual increase might be much higher. Williston is in western North Dakota's booming oil patch, and adequate, affordable housing has become a concern. The...

.