James Tufts

James Tufts (* 1829 in New Hampshire; † August 18, 1886 in Niobrara, Nebraska ) was an American politician of the Republican Party. He was appointed in the summer of 1868 as acting governor of the Montana Territory, and was also Inspector of Indian Affairs ( superintendent of Indian affairs ).

Tufts was born in 1829 in New Hampshire and came in 1863 to Virginia City in present-day Montana. First he sat as a representative of Alder Gulch district in the Idaho Territorial Legislature; the territory of Montana was then still the Idaho Territory. In 1864 he left the city back to work in New York City, but returned in 1867 back to hold the post of Secretary of the Territory of Montana from March 28, 1867. Following the resignation of Green Clay Smith as governor of Montana Territory Tufts held provisionally this office until the new governor James Mitchell Ashley reached the country. Tufts was not until April 20, 1869 Secretary of the Territory of Montana, and then ran for a position as a delegate in the U.S. Congress, but it suffered a defeat. He died on 18 August 1886 in Nebraska.