Governors of Washington Territory and Washington State

  • Posted 5/11/2003
  • HistoryLink.org Essay 5454

This is a complete list of the governors of Washington Territory and Washington state. The list includes birth and death dates and dates of office. Washington Territory was founded on March 2, 1853. Washington became a state on November 11, 1889.

Territorial Governors

Isaac Stevens (1818-1862), term of office, 1853-1857

Charles H. Mason (1830-1859), Acting, terms of office, 1854, 1855, 1857

Fayette McMullen (1810-1880), term of office, 1857-1859

Charles H. Mason (1830-1859), Acting, term of office, 1858-1859

Richard D. Gholson (1802-1861), term of office, 1859-1861

Henry M. McGill (1831-1915), Acting, term of office, 1860-1861

William H. Wallace (1811-1879), term of office, 1861

L. Jay S. Turney (d. 1881), Acting, term of office, 1861-1862

William Pickering (1798-1873), term of office, 1862-1866

George E. Cole (1826-1906), term of office, 1866-1867

Marshall F. Moore (1829-1870), term of office, 1867-1869

Alvin Flanders (1825-1894), term of office, 1869-1870

Edward Salomon (1836-1913), term of office, 1870-1872

Elisha P. Ferry (1825-1895), term of office, 1872-1880

William A. Newell (1817-1901), term of office, 1880-1884

Watson C. Squire (1838-1926), term of office, 1884-1887

Eugene Semple (1840-1908), term of office, 1887-1889

Miles C. Moore (1845-1919), term of office, 1889

State Governors

Elisha P. Ferry (1825-1895), term of office, 1889-1893

John H. McGraw (1850-1910), term of office, 1893-1897

John R. Rogers (1838-1901), term of office, 1897-1901

Henry McBride (1856-1937), term of office, 1901-1905

Albert E. Mead (1861-1913), term of office, 1905-1909

Samuel G. Cosgrove (1841-1909), term of office, 1909 -- served for a day

Marion E. Hay (1865-1933), term of office, 1909-1913

Ernest Lister (1870-1919), term of office, 1913-1919

Louis F. Hart (1862-1929), term of office, 1919-1925

Roland H. Hartley (1864-1952), term of office 1925-1933

Clarence D. Martin (1884-1955), term of office, 1933-1941

Arthur B. Langlie (1900-1966), term of office 1941-1945

Mon C. Wallgren (1891-1961), term of office 1945-1949

Arthur B. Langlie (1900-1966), term of office 1949-1957

Albert D. Rosellini (1910-2011), term of office, 1957-1965

Daniel J. Evans (b. 1925), term of office, 1965-1977

Dixy Lee Ray (1914-1994), term of office 1977-1981

John Spellman (b. 1926), term of office, 1981-1985

Booth Gardner (1936-2013), term of office, 1985-1993

Mike Lowry (1939-2017), term of office, 1993-1997

Gary Locke (b. 1950), term of office, 1997-2005

Christine Gregoire (b. 1947), term of office, 2005-2013

Jay Inslee (b. 1951), term of office, 2013-present


Sources:

"Territory Governors" and "State Governors," Washington State Library Website (http://www.statelib.wa.gov/governor/gov_table.htm), accessed July 17, 2003.
Note: This essay was corrected on November 10, 2004,  August 8, 2010, January 25, 2012, and April 1, 2019, and updated in September 2005 and on May 1, 2017.


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