John Alexander Martin (March 10, 1839 – October 2, 1889) was the 10th Governor of Kansas. Origins Martin was born in Brownsville, Pennsylvania, a son of James and Jane Montgomery (Crawford) Martin. His father was a native of Maryland, and his mother a native of Pennsylvania. He was of Scots-Irish extraction, and the family was related to General Richard Montgomery. His maternal grandfather, Thomas Brown, was the founder of Brownsville, Pennsylvania. Martin was educated in the public schools and, at the age of fifteen, began learning the printer's trade. He spent a brief time in Pittsburgh, where he worked as a compositor in the office of the Commercial Journal. Freedom's Champion In 1857, at the age of 18, he came to the Kansas Territory, bought the newspaper known as the Squatter Sovereign, published at Atchison, and changed the name to Freedom's Champion. He continued to publish this paper until his death. He was a firm free-state man and soon became actively identified with the political affairs of the territory. In 1858 he was nominated for the territorial legislature, but declined because he was not yet of legal age. In 1859 he was a delegate to the Osawatomie convention which organized the Republican party in Kansas, and for the remainder of his life he was an unswerving supporter of the principles and policies of that organization. His intelligent activity in political affairs led to his being honored by election or appointment to various positions of trust and responsibility. On July 5, 1859, he was elected secretary of the Wyandotte constitutional convention; was secretary of the railroad convention at Topeka in October, 1860; was a delegate to the Republican national convention of that year, and was elected to the Kansas Senate in 1861. Civil War service Before the expiration of his term as senator the Civil War broke out, and in October 1861, he was mustered into the United States volunteer service as lieutenant colonel of the 8th Kansas Volunteer Infantry. Early in 1862 he was appointed provost marshal of Leavenworth and held the position until his regiment was ordered to Corinth, Mississippi in March. There the 8th Kansas Infantry became a part of Maj. Gen. Don Carlos Buell's army, and it remained in the Army of the Cumberland until the close of the war. On November 1, 1862, Martin was promoted to colonel, and a few weeks later was assigned to