Talk:List of Governors of Guam

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[edit] Early Governors

I've added two more acting-Governors and removed "William Coe" from the list, unless someone can find some evidence other than [1] for his existance. I know that they are an extremely good resource, but I've been searching newspaper archives and haven't found any trace of him, but that doesn't mean he doesn't exist. What I do have is several news articles that say that E. D. Taussig, who is not on the worldstatemen list, was the first governor to re-raise the American flag over Guam (March 1899), after the handful of local Governors following the US conquest and pullout in the Spanish-American war. I then have articles about Louis A. Kaiser (also not on their list) handing the keys to Gov. Leary, when he arrived in August 1899. Coe could have been another acting Gov. during that window, but for the life of me I can't find him and I'm getting pretty good at finding Navy people. (There should be an news article *somewhere* about him being promoted, for example, but nothing in the 1890 to 1910 timeframe that I see with my resources.) It's still hard to prove a negative. JRP 05:29, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] More early Governors - Joaquín Cruz Pérez

According to Guam govermnet website, Mr. Cruz Pérez was Acting Governor from 2/1 to 4/20/1899. Now, from what I can see of the timeline, this doesn't work. I have a New York Times article ("Spaniards Rise in Guam") from 12/30/1898 that mentions Sisto's overthrow of Portsach. (The following day, there is an article in the Times saying that "Captain Kempft" would be appointed Governor, but that obviously didn't happen.) On 1/15/1899, the NYT says that Leary was appointed Governor and he would (eventually) set out on the Yorktown. It would take quite a while for him to arrive, so there is plenty of room for acting-Governors. Then, the NYT says on 3/1/1899 (with a byline of 2/21 from Honolulu) that Taussig has "raised the flag" and is acting Governor. (According to a Guam history site, he arrived 1/12 and Sisto was Governor at the time. That site also supports the Portsach -> Sisto -> Jose Palomo -> Sisto progression.) An NYT article from 4/16 ("Government of Guam") seems to indicate that Taussig didn't stay long, setting up a local government. This could be where Cruz Perez fits in. In an article dated 8/2 ("Progress of the Governor of Guam"), the paper says that Kaiser is acting Governor. Leary finally arrives 8/29 and takes over.

To make a long story short, I'm reordering the list a bit, against what Worldstatesmen says. I'm still leaving out Coe, because I can find no mention of him anywhere, though he could have been on the "local government", but his name doesn't sound Spanish and it was already pretty clear that Portusach was the only American on the island. JRP 13:40, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

Spoke too soon. Chamorro history site says that Coe was Samoan, which explains why I can't find Navy records of him. (They sure had fast turnaround...) Worldstatesmen says he was Gov until 8/7, which overlaps with Kaiser but because there is a gap from there to when Leary arrives, it all still fits. Good. Mystery solved. Sorry for the ramble. JRP 13:51, 8 June 2006 (UTC)