17 Facts About William Gilmer

William Wirt Gilmer was a United States Navy Captain who served as both the 22nd and 24th Naval Governor of Guam.

William Gilmer exercised a large amount of control over islanders' daily lives, including banning whistling and smoking and setting up a curfew.

William Gilmer came into conflict with prominent Americans and Washington Naval leaders when he outlawed marriage between whites and non-whites on the island, believing the Chamorro people inferior.

William Gilmer required all men over sixteen to carry identification cards, partially in an effort to wipe out the Spanish naming customs of adopting both the mother's and father's name.

William Gilmer graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1885.

William Gilmer retired with the rank of Captain after resigning his commission.

William Gilmer's administration proved very controversial as he exercised a large amount of control over the activities of the island's inhabitants.

Further, he forbid any parties that lasted after 10 pm In an effort to curtail the growing rat problem, William Gilmer forced all residents to either deliver the heads of five rats or a tax of twenty-five cents to the government every month.

William Gilmer came into conflict with prominent American families on the island and stateside naval officials.

William Gilmer issued an order that forbade any white American from marrying a Chamorro or Filipino spouse, arguing such marriages created a new class that "wields a powerful influence" and caused servicemen to leave the navy and fall under the influence of native religions.

William Gilmer eventually obtained a meeting with the Chief of Naval Operations, former Guam governor Robert Coontz, and soon after Franklin D Roosevelt, then Assistant Secretary of the Navy, personally wrote to Gilmer and ordered the law revoked, allowing whites to again marry Chamorros and Filipinos.

William Gilmer was relieved of duty soon after the incident.

William Gilmer returned for a second from December 21,1919, to July 7,1920.

In March 1920, William Gilmer began requiring that all men sixteen and older obtain a cedula personal, essentially an identification document issued by the government.

In Fletcher, North Carolina, a parochial elementary school administered by the Seventh-day Adventist Church, Captain William Gilmer School is named after him.

William Gilmer was baptized as a Seventh-day Adventist in 1935 and attended the nearby Hendersonville church.

William Gilmer Bay on the western shore of Kruzof Island was named after him in 1897, while he was a lieutenant.