Arthur C. Mellette
1842-1896

Only one man, Arthur C Mellette, served as governor of both the territory of Dakota and the state of South Dakota.

Mellette came to Dakota Territory in 1879 to work as register at the United States Land Office in Springfield. When the office was transferred to Watertown in 1880, he began a long association with that city, practicing law and engaging in a wide rang of business activities there. His political experience soon drew him into the battle for statehood for southern Dakota. He was a delegate to the 1883 constitutional convention and chaired the 1885 convention, which chose him as governor of the provisional State of South Dakota. In March 1889, President Benjamin Harrison appointed Mellette to be the last governor Dakota Territory. In October of that year, he was elected governor of the new state of South Dakota. His time in office, which lasted until January 1893, was troubled by drought, revenue shortages, and unrest on the state's Indian reservations, In 1895, Mellette lost most of his property to the state as bond for funds stolen by State Treasurer W.W. Taylor.*

Arthur C. Mellette died in Pittsburg, Kansas, on 25 May 1896. He is buried in Watertown, where the Mellette residence, built in 1883, is preserved by the Mellette Memorial Association.

*see Volume 15 Number 2 of South Dakota History for more on Taylor's embezzlement of the state's treasury.
A more detailed profile is printed in Volume 2 Number 2 of South Dakota History, the journal of the South Dakota State Historical Society.