Benjamin Franklin Potts

Benjamin Franklin Potts

Benjamin Franklin Potts (born January 29, 1836 in Fox , Ohio , † June 17, 1887 in Helena , Montana ) was an American general and politician . He was the seventh governor of the Montana Territory from 1870 to 1883 .

Life

There are no particularly good sources on Benjamin Potts. According to a list of all Union generals in the Civil War , he was a shop clerk, teacher and lawyer before that war. During the Civil War he rose to brevet on -Generalmajor. After the war he was again a lawyer, politician, territorial governor in the Montana Territory and rancher. In 1867 he was elected to the Ohio Senate.

Territorial governor in Montana

In 1869, Potts was named Montana Territorial Governor by President Ulysses S. Grant to succeed James Mitchell Ashley . He was to hold this office until 1883. Potts owed this appointment to his friend General William T. Sherman , who stood up for him. Potts also got on very well with future Presidents Rutherford B. Hayes and James A. Garfield . In Montana he tried to bridge the political rifts between the Republicans and the Democrats , as well as within his Republican Party. After all, he managed to successfully manage his territory for 13 years. He has the longest reign of all governors in this area.

literature

• Potts, Benjamin Franklin . In: James Grant Wilson, John Fiske (Eds.): Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography . Supplement. D. Appleton and Company, New York 1901, pp. 219 (English, full text [ Wikisource ]).

Web links

• Benjamin F. Potts in the database of Find a Grave (English)