Welcome to Day 1 of our MOvember Wyo Whiskers feature! Today we meet Fenimore Chatterton, our “poster ‘stache.”
Governor Fenimore Chatterton (WSA Sub Neg 1610)
Chatterton arrived in Wyoming in 1878 as a clerk in the mercantile and banking business at Fort Steele. He later took over as post trader, selling the business in 1888 to focus on politics and law. Chatterton represented Carbon County in the First and Second State Legislatures. In 1903, while serving his second term as Secretary of State, Governor DeForest Richards died in office, making Chatterton acting governor for the next two years.
After leaving office in 1907, Chatterton devoted his efforts to bringing railroad and irrigation projects to Wyoming, especially in the Lander and Riverton region. He believed that three things were essential to Wyoming’s growth: population, transportation and production.
Shortly before his death at age 97 in 1958, Chatterton published the memoir “Wyoming’s Yesterdays” about his life in Wyoming during the dynamic territorial and early statehood years.
Wyoming Postscripts 