Warren Jay Terhune

Warren Jay Terhune (born May 3, 1869 in Midland Park , New Jersey , † November 3, 1920 in Utulei , American Samoa ) was an American naval officer. He was the military governor of American Samoa in 1919 and 1920 .

Career

Warren Terhune attended 1885 to 1889 the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis ( Maryland ). In the following years he served as an officer on various ships and naval bases in the United States Navy . He took part in the Spanish-American War of 1898 . In 1911 he was promoted to commander , which is equivalent to a lieutenant colonel in the army. During an uprising in Nicaragua , Terhune was directly involved in the fighting and had to fight his way out of the enclosed city of Managua to his ship together with a small force . By 1917 Terhune commanded the Seventh Marine District in Florida . He then directed a Navy training camp in Minneapolis .

On June 10, 1919, Terhune succeeded John Martin Poyer as the new governor of American Samoa. His following term of office was marked from the start by difficulties and problems, for which he was at least partly to blame. He stripped the locals of important say and removed some Samoan members of the government from their offices. He also banned weddings between members of the U.S. Navy and natives. All of this fueled resistance to him and also to the US presence. Some of Terhune's associates openly sided with his opponents and complained against his policies to the Secretary of the Navy in Washington, DC, where an investigation into what was going on in Samoa was ordered. Even before this commission arrived, Warren Terhune shot himself on November 3, 1920. His office fell to Waldo A. Evans .

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personal data
SURNAME	Terhune, Warren Jay
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	American naval officer
DATE OF BIRTH	May 3, 1869
PLACE OF BIRTH	Midland Park , New Jersey
DATE OF DEATH	November 3, 1920
Place of death	Utulei , American Samoa