Albert L. Myer

Major Albert L. Myer was Mayor of Ponce, Puerto Rico in 1899. He is best remembered for having filled as interim mayor of Ponce after the forced resignation of popularly-elected mayor Luis Porrata Doria. Major Myer was appointed by the first military governor of Puerto Rico, Major General Nelson A. Miles.

A devastating hurricane, called San Ciriaco, had hit the southern coast of Puerto Rico on August 8, 1899. A year earlier the United States had invaded the island and installed a military central government based in San Juan. General Nelson A. Miles had been installed by the President of the United States as the first American military governor of the Island, and Francisco Porrata Doria had been elected mayor by the people of Ponce as was the custom for many decades under the old Spanish system.

San Ciriaco, however, proved to be the test of the mayorship of Porrata Doria. As a result of the impact of the hurricane, a number of demonstrations took place around the island to denounce the municipal government’s poor response to the disaster. “The most serious demonstration of tension took place in Ponce, where damage and mortality had been extensive, especially for the poor. A large crowd of several hundred indigent residents gathered to denounce mayor Porrata Doria for not giving the population adequate warning or taking appropriate measures. A detachment of the U.S. Fifth Cavalry broke up the demonstrations, but the mayor was eventually forced to resign.”

At this point the military governor, General Miles, appointed as interim mayor of Ponce the U.S. military commanding officer for Ponce, Major Albert L. Myer. Major Myer did not, as intended, perform all the functions of the mayor. Instead he assumed only some of the authority of the municipal government. Despite the mayoral change, however, tensions remained high, with the blame being placed back and forth on various factions.

In 1900, Major Myer was replaced by popularly-elected civil mayor Pedro Juan Rosaly.