Wilmot Wood Brookings (October 23, 1830 – June 13, 1905) was an American pioneer, frontier judge, and early South Dakotan politician. He was provisional governor of the Dakota Territory, and both the cities of Wilmot and Brookings as well as the county of Brookings, South Dakota are named for him. Early life Brookings was born on October 23, 1830, in Woolwich, Maine to Abner and Susannah Bayley Brookings. (The 1860 Dakota Territory census lists his birthplace, possibly incorrectly, as North Carolina). Brookings attended Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, graduating in 1855. He married Clara Carney of Dresden, Maine and went on to teach at Litchfield, North Anson, and Wiscasset before being admitted to the bar in May 1857. Dakota Territory Brookings moved to Sioux Falls, Minnesota Territory on August 27, 1857, where he helped pioneers organize a county government (Minnehaha County). The county appointed him district attorney. In February 1858, Brookings rode a horse from Sioux Falls to the Yankton area during a blizzard. His horse slipped and fell into Split Rock Creek in the freezing weather. Brookings made it safely to Yankton, but his wet legs had suffered such severe frostbite they both needed to be amputated. He spent the rest of his life using a pair of squeaky, wooden legs that caused him discomfort and sometimes made walking difficult. Provisional governor When Minnesota was admitted to the union in 1858, Sioux Falls became part of the newly forming Dakota Territory. Though Dakota Territory did not officially form until 1861, an interim provisional government formed in January 1859 and elected Brookings to the upper house of the interim territorial legislature. That legislative body later appointed Brookings Governor of Dakota Territory. However, the federal government refused to acknowledge either the provisional government or its territorial governor (his term lasted until March 2, 1861) as official. When the region finally did become an organized territory in 1861, Brookings was elected to the Territory Council for two years and later served three straight terms as a representative from Yankton County. In 1864 he served as territory speaker of the house and was appointed superintendent of the U.S. Military Wagon Road from Minnesota to Montana in 1865. Later political career After the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, territory Republicans opposing Lincoln's Democratic successor Andrew Johnson nominated Brookings as their congressional delegate, on an anti-Johnson platform. Brookings lost to fellow Republican Walter A. Burleigh. Brookings