Naval Era Governors of Guam

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Guam Naval Governors

30 August 1899 – 10 December 1941

Guam was ceded to the United States from Spain by the Treaty of Paris on 10 December 1898. The following February, US Navy Commander Edward D. Taussig officially took possession of the island for the United States.

US Naval Station, Guam was established 7 August of the same year with the entire island designated as a Naval Station and Captain Richard P. Leary designated as commanding officer and governor of Guam.

The Navy governed Guam until it was surrendered to the Japanese on 10 December 1941. During this time Guam had 38t naval governors under its first 41 years of American rule. The governors and the dates they ruled Guam are listed below.

Term End Governor
1899 1900 Richard Phillips Leary
1899 1900 William Edwin Safford (acting)
1900 1901 Seaton Schroeder
  1901 William Swift
1901 1903 Seaton Schroeder
1903 1904 William Elbridge Sewell
  1904 Frank Herman Schofield (acting) (photo)
  1904 Raymond Stone (acting) (photo)
1904 1905 George Leland Dyer
1905 1906 Luke McNamee (acting)
1906 1907 Templin Morris Potts
  1907 Luke McNamee (acting)
1907 1910 Edward John Dorn
1910 1911 Frank Barrows Freyer (acting)
1911 1912 George Robert Salisbury
1912 1913 Robert Edward Coontz
1913 1914 Alfred Walton Hinds (acting)
1914 1916 William John Maxwell
  1916 William P. Cronan (acting)
  1916 Edward Simpson (acting)
1916 1918 Roy Campbell Smith
1918 1919 William Wirt Gilmer
  1919 W.A. Hodgman (acting)
1919 1920 William Wirt Gilmer
1920 1921 Ivan Cyrus Wettengel
1921 1922 James S. Spore (acting)
1922   Adelbert Althouse
  1922 John P. Miller (acting)
1922 1923 Adelbert Althouse
1923 1924 Henry Bertram Price
1924 1926 Alfred Winsor Brown (acting)
1926 1929 Lloyd Stowell Shapley
1929 1931 Willis Winter Bradley
1931 1933 Edmund Spence Root
1933 1936 George Andrew Alexander
1936 1938 Benjamin Vaughan McCandlish (photo)
1938 1940 James Thomas Alexander
1940 1941 George Johnson McMillin
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