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

Lieutenant Governor of Kansas

The Lieutenant Governor of Kansas is the lieutenant governor of the U.S. state of Kansas. The lieutenant governor is elected on a ticket with the governor for a four-year term...

.

Born into a farming family, Salter went west to California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

 in 1852 to seek his fortune in the gold fields. After a few years he returned east, settling in Michigan

Michigan

Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....

 and remaining there until 1871. Salter then bought land near Thayer

Thayer, Kansas

Thayer is a city in Neosho County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 497.-Geography:Thayer is located at...

 in Neosho County

Neosho County, Kansas

Neosho County is a county located in the U.S. state of Kansas. As of the 2010 census, the county population was 16,512...

, Kansas and became a prominent local citizen. 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 (Leavenworth Lawrence and Galveston Railroad Company v. United States) delivered in 1876. Salter was elected lieutenant governor of Kansas in 1874 and again in 1876. He resigned in 1877 to take a post as registrar of the land office in Independence

Independence, Kansas

Independence is a city in and the county seat of Montgomery County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 9,483.-Geography:...

, Kansas, which he held until 1884.

Salter was a strict Baptist

Baptist

Baptists comprise a group of Christian denominations and churches that subscribe to a doctrine that baptism should be performed only for professing believers , and that it must be done by immersion...

, and one source tells the story of how, asked to organize a dance for the governor, Lt. Gov. Salter instead read psalms and prayers until all the musicians left.

Salter married Sarah Hinkle in 1856; they had three sons. His son Lewis A. Salter, a lawyer and businessman, married Susanna M. Kinsey, who as Susanna M. Salter

Susanna M. Salter

Susanna Madora "Dora" Salter was a U.S. politician and activist. She served as mayor of Argonia, Kansas, becoming the first woman elected as mayor and the first woman elected to any political office in the United States....

became the first elected female mayor in the United States.