Melville Judson Salter (born Sardinia, New York, June 20, 1834;[1] died Pawnee Station, Kansas, March 12, 1896[2]) was a politician and civic leader who was twice elected the eighth Lieutenant Governor of Kansas serving under Governor Thomas A. Osborn.
[3] In 1856 he learned of the death of his mother and decided to return home; while in Panama, a chance decision to take a railroad excursion with a friend saved him from the Watermelon Riot.
The settlers' claims were vindicated by a US Supreme Court decision (Leavenworth Lawrence and Galveston Railroad Company v. United States) delivered in 1876.
By 1890 Salter had moved from Independence to Pawnee Station in Bourbon County, Kansas, where he ran a store with two of his sons.
[7] Salter was a strict Baptist, and one source tells the story of how, asked to organize a dance for the governor, Lt. Gov.