William Spry
American politician (1864–1929)
title: "William Spry" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1864-births", "1929-deaths", "19th-century-mormon-missionaries", "american-leaders-of-the-church-of-jesus-christ-of-latter-day-saints", "american-mormon-missionaries-in-the-united-states", "burials-at-salt-lake-city-cemetery", "english-emigrants-to-the-united-states", "english-latter-day-saints", "english-leaders-of-the-church-of-jesus-christ-of-latter-day-saints", "farmers-from-utah", "law-enforcement-officials-from-utah", "commissioners-of-the-united-states-general-land-office", "republican-party-governors-of-utah", "republican-party-members-of-the-utah-house-of-representatives", "mission-presidents-(lds-church)", "people-from-tooele-county,-utah", "politicians-from-windsor,-berkshire", "united-states-marshals", "latter-day-saints-from-utah", "20th-century-members-of-the-utah-legislature"] description: "American politician (1864–1929)" topic_path: "law" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Spry" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary American politician (1864–1929) ::
::data[format=table title="Infobox officeholder"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | William Spry |
| image | William Spry.jpg |
| order | 34th |
| office | Commissioner of the General Land Office |
| president | Warren G. Harding |
| Calvin Coolidge | |
| Herbert Hoover | |
| term_start | March 22, 1921 |
| term_end | April 21, 1929 |
| predecessor | Clay Tallman |
| successor | Charles C. Moore |
| office1 | Chair of the National Governors Association |
| term_start1 | August 24, 1915 |
| term_end1 | December 14, 1916 |
| predecessor1 | David I. Walsh |
| successor1 | Arthur Capper |
| order2 | 3rd |
| office2 | Governor of Utah |
| term_start2 | January 4, 1909 |
| term_end2 | January 1, 1917 |
| predecessor2 | John Christopher Cutler |
| successor2 | Simon Bamberger |
| birth_date | |
| birth_place | Windsor, England, UK |
| death_date | |
| death_place | Washington, D.C., U.S. |
| party | Republican |
| spouse | Mary Wrathall |
| children | 3 |
| :: |
|name = William Spry |image = William Spry.jpg |order = 34th |office = Commissioner of the General Land Office |president = Warren G. Harding Calvin Coolidge Herbert Hoover |term_start = March 22, 1921 |term_end = April 21, 1929 |predecessor = Clay Tallman |successor = Charles C. Moore |office1 = Chair of the National Governors Association |term_start1 = August 24, 1915 |term_end1 = December 14, 1916 |predecessor1 = David I. Walsh |successor1 = Arthur Capper |order2 = 3rd |office2 = Governor of Utah |term_start2 = January 4, 1909 |term_end2 = January 1, 1917 |predecessor2 = John Christopher Cutler |successor2 = Simon Bamberger |birth_date = |birth_place = Windsor, England, UK |death_date = |death_place = Washington, D.C., U.S. |party = Republican |spouse = Mary Wrathall |children = 3 William Spry (January 11, 1864 – April 21, 1929) was an American politician who was the third governor of the State of Utah. He is the namesake of the William Spry Agriculture Building that houses the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food.
Life and career
Spry was born at Windsor, Berkshire, England. He emigrated to Utah Territory with his parents at the age of eleven.
In 1885, Spry was called as an LDS Church missionary and went to serve in the Southern States Mission. From 1888 to 1891, Spry served as president of the Southern States Mission. In 1890, during his mission, Spry received permission from the leaders of the church to return briefly to Salt Lake City where he married Mary Alice Wrathall.
In 1894, Spry was elected county collector in Tooele County, Utah. In 1902 Spry was elected to the Utah House of Representatives and in 1905 he was appointed one of the members of the Utah state board of land commissioners. From 1906 to 1908, Spry served as United States Marshal for the District of Utah.
He served as governor of Utah from 1909 to 1917. He was a Republican. Spry was a strong opponent of Prohibition, and vetoed two bills that would have implemented this. In 1915, Spry refused President Woodrow Wilson's request to reconsider the impending execution of Joe Hill and allowed the execution to take place on November 19.
From 1921 to 1929 Spry served as commissioner of Public Lands.
Spry died in Washington, D.C., in 1929 when he was still serving as the Federal Commissioner of Public Lands. He was buried at Salt Lake City Cemetery.
References
References
- (1971). "William Spry: Man of Firmness—Governor of Utah". University of Utah Press.
- [[Andrew Jenson. Jenson, Andrew]]. ''Encyclopedic History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints''. (Salt Lake City, Utah: [[Deseret News Press]], 1941) p. 822 {{full citation needed. (December 2013)
- [[Andrew Jenson. Jenson, Andrew]]. ''LDS Biographical Encyclopedia''. Vol. 4, p. 381 {{full citation needed. (December 2013)
- [http://le.utah.gov/asp/roster/complist.asp?letter=S Utah Legislators roster]
- [[Daniel H. Ludlow. Ludlow, Daniel H.]], ed., ''[[Encyclopedia of Mormonism]]''. p. 1158 {{full citation needed. (December 2013)
- (2002). "Joe Hill: The IWW & the Making of a Revolutionary Workingclass Counterculture". Charles H. Kerr.
- [[Daniel H. Ludlow. Ludlow, Daniel H.]], ed., ''[[Encyclopedia of Mormonism]]''. p. 634 {{full citation needed. (December 2013)
::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::