James Tufts
American politician (1829-1884)
James Tufts (September 19, 1829 – August 18, 1884) was a United States politician and acting governor of Montana Territory in 1869.
Biography
Born in Charlestown, New Hampshire, Tufts graduated from Middlebury College in 1855. He was admitted to the bar in 1857 and was an attorney in Iowa.
Career
Tufts moved to Niobrara in the Nebraska Territory in 1859, where he became a probate judge and served in the territorial legislature. Tufts moved to the Dakota Territory in 1861 and served as secretary for the legislative council of the Dakota Territory. He was appointed US Commissioner to adjust military claims in the Dakota Territory in 1862.
Tufts moved to Idaho Territory in 1863 and served in the Idaho Territorial Legislature. He was the first Speaker of the Idaho Territorial House of Representatives.
He was appointed territorial secretary for the Montana Territory in 1867, and served as its acting governor from March 1869 to April 9, 1869.
Tufts ran for the Montana territorial delegate to the United States House of Representatives and lost the election.
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The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 17, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1681214. VIAF identifies the subject as 28570489. The Library of Congress control number is n86840312. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1829, 1884, 1869 and 1855.
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This entry incorporates text from “James Tufts” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.