Alaskan History
~ Mottrom ~ Dulaney Ball A lawyer, newspaper publisher, Confederate Army officer and collector of customs for the United States Department of the Treasury. From March 27, 1878 to June 13, 1879, he was the highest-ranking federal official in the Department of Alaska, making him de facto governor of the territory. “Mottrom Dulany Ball was one of the earliest and strongest advocates for the establishment of civil government in Alaska. He was the first person elected to public office from Alaska, and his legacy includes his many years of work as a founding father of the forty-ninth state.� One of the most unusual statesmen in Alaska’s history is the little-known Mottrom Delany Ball, who was raised in a genteel southern family, fought as a Confederate colonel in the Civil War, and was among the earliest and strongest advocates for the establishment of civil government in the territory, becoming the first person elected to public office in Alaska. The United States purchased Alaska from the Russian Empire in 1867; before that time it was known as Russian America, and controlled by the governors and general managers of the Russian-American Company. After the purchase the unorganized territory of Alaska, vast regions of which were still unexplored, was originally under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Department of War, administered by Army officers for the first 10 years. In 1877 the Army was withdrawn from Alaska, leaving the customs collector the only federal official in the land for two years. During this time three men served as the de facto governor of the territory, with Montgomery Pike Berry serving from June to August, 1877; Henry C. de Ahna serving from August 1877 to March, 1878; and lawyer and newspaper publisher Mottrom Dulaney Ball serving from April 1878 to June, 1879.
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