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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.

TermEndGovernor
18991900Richard Phillips Leary
18991900William Edwin Safford (acting)
19001901Seaton Schroeder
1901William Swift
19011903Seaton Schroeder
19031904William Elbridge Sewell
1904Frank Herman Schofield (acting) (photo)
1904Raymond Stone (acting) (photo)
19041905George Leland Dyer
19051906Luke McNamee (acting)
19061907Templin Morris Potts
1907Luke McNamee (acting)
19071910Edward John Dorn
19101911Frank Barrows Freyer (acting)
19111912George Robert Salisbury
19121913Robert Edward Coontz
19131914Alfred Walton Hinds (acting)
19141916William John Maxwell
1916William P. Cronan (acting)
1916Edward Simpson (acting)
19161918Roy Campbell Smith
19181919William Wirt Gilmer
1919W.A. Hodgman (acting)
19191920William Wirt Gilmer
19201921Ivan Cyrus Wettengel
19211922James S. Spore (acting)
1922Adelbert Althouse
1922John P. Miller (acting)
19221923Adelbert Althouse
19231924Henry Bertram Price
19241926Alfred Winsor Brown (acting)
19261929Lloyd Stowell Shapley
19291931Willis Winter Bradley
19311933Edmund Spence Root
19331936George Andrew Alexander
19361938Benjamin Vaughan McCandlish (photo)
19381940James Thomas Alexander
19401941George Johnson McMillin