Melville Judson Salter (born Sardinia, New York, June 20, 1834;[1] died Pawnee, Kansas, March 12, 1896[2]) was a politician and civic leader who was twice elected the eighth Lieutenant Governor of Kansas.
Born into a farming family, Salter went west to California in 1852 to seek his fortune in the gold fields.[3] After a few years he returned east, settling in Michigan and remaining there until 1871. Salter then bought land near Thayer in Neosho County, 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, Kansas, which he held until 1884.
Salter was a strict Baptist, 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.[4]
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 became the first elected female mayor in the United States.