William Russell (governor)

William Eustis Russell
Photo published in the 1890s
37th Governor of Massachusetts
In office January 8, 1891 – January 4, 1894
Lieutenant	William H. Haile Roger Wolcott
Preceded by	John Q. A. Brackett
Succeeded by	Frederic T. Greenhalge
Mayor of Cambridge, Massachusetts
In office 1884–1887
Preceded by	James Augustus Fox
Succeeded by	Henry Gilmore
Member of the Board of Aldermen of Cambridge, Massachusetts
In office 1883–1884
Member of the Common Council of Cambridge, Massachusetts
In office 1882–1882
Personal details
Born	(1857-01-06)January 6, 1857 Cambridge, Massachusetts
Died	July 16, 1896(1896-07-16) (aged 39) Sainte-Adelaide-de-Pabos, Quebec, Canada
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	Margaret Manning Swan
Signature

William Eustis Russell (January 6, 1857 – July 16, 1896) was a lawyer and Democratic Party politician from Massachusetts. He served four terms as mayor of Cambridge, and was the 37th Governor of Massachusetts, serving from 1891 to 1894. He was the state's youngest ever chief executive, and was the first Democrat since the American Civil War to serve more than one term in that office.

Educated at Harvard and Boston University Law School, Russell practiced law in the family firm. He was politically a conservative Democrat, supporting the presidential campaigns of Grover Cleveland and the gold standard for the national currency. He gave a speech in favor of the latter at the 1896 Democratic National Convention immediately prior to William Jennings Bryan's Cross of Gold speech, and refused efforts to draft him as an opponent to Bryan for the Presidential nomination. About a week later, he died quite suddenly at a fishing camp in Quebec; he was 39. He was viewed by eastern Democrats as a future party leader and presidential contender.

William Eustis Russell was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the ninth child and fourth son of Charles Theodore Russell and Sarah Elizabeth (Ballister) Russell. On his father's side, he was descended from Thomas Hastings, and William Russell, both 17th-century settlers of Massachusetts, while his mother was of Huguenot descent. Russell's father was a politically active Democratic Party lawyer, who served as mayor of Cambridge 1861-62. Russell was the father of Cambridge mayor Richard M. Russell, and the great-grandfather of small government advocate Carla A. Howell and writer Thomas E. Ricks. In 1885, Russell married Margaret Manning Swan; they had three children.