William McKinley Document Signed

Partly-printed vellum DS as president, one page, 15.5 x 19.25, May 4, 1898. President McKinley appoints John M. Poyer as a "Lieutenant in the Navy…in the service of the United States." Signed at the conclusion by William McKinley, and countersigned by Secretary of the Navy John D. Long. The blue Navy Department seal remains affixed to lower vignette. In fine condition. John Martin Poyer (1861–1922) served as the twelfth Naval Governor of American Samoa. During the 1918 flu pandemic, Poyer quarantined the territory to stop the spread of the pandemic to American Samoa. Because of his actions, no deaths occurred in American Samoa, and he received the Navy Cross.