Benjamin F. Potts - Postbellum Career

Postbellum Career

Potts mustered out of the army in January 1866 and returned to Carroll County, Ohio, where he resumed his legal and political careers. He changed political parties and joined the Republicans. A moderate, he was elected to the Ohio State Senate in 1867. Three years later, he accepted an appointment from a fellow Ohio politician and former general, President Ulysses S. Grant, as the governor of the Montana Territory, but only after first refusing it because the adoption of the Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in the Ohio Legislature depended upon his vote, which would be lost if he vacated his seat. Potts served until 1883. As governor, he was heavily involved in Indian affairs, as well as working to get several new frontier towns chartered, including Missoula. The bipartisan political stability Potts brought to Montana played an important role in the gradual lessening of vigilante activities and lawlessness in the territory. He later served in the territorial legistature.

Benjamin F. Potts died in 1887 in Helena, Montana, where he was buried initially in the Benton Avenue Cemetery. His remains were later moved to Forestvale Cemetery.