(Arthur) Anton Mellette

(Arthur) Anton Mellette

6 February 1872

14 October 1953

Politician's Private Secretary

Arthur Anton Mellette, who went by “Anton,” was born to Margaret Wylie and Arthur Calvin Mellette on 6 February 1872 in Muncie, Indiana, and moved with his family to the Dakota Territory when he was six years old. From 1891 to 1893, Anton worked as an assistant transcribing clerk for the South Dakota Surveyor General, and in the spring of 1893, he began working at the bank of C. H. Vinton in Redfield, South Dakota. Following the sudden deaths of his brother Wylie in 1894 and his father in 1896, Anton moved to Pittsburg, Kansas, to live with his mother and younger brother, Dick, and worked for his brother Charlie’s company, Pittsburg Wholesale Grocery. Anton obtained a law degree from Indiana University in 1903. In 1905, he started working for U.S. Representative Philip P. Campbell and served as the congressman’s private secretary for the rest of Campbell’s political career. Anton often traveled to Washington, D.C., with Campbell and went to France during World War I to serve as a clerk for the Assistant Auditor for the U.S. War Department. Anton retired in 1933 and living with his mother until her death in 1938. Anton died on 14 October 1953 and is buried in Mount Olive Cemetery in Pittsburg, Kansas.