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. Family 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. Education and early career Russell attended Harvard College, graduating in 1877. He excelled at history, political economy, and ethics, and was poor in language, math, and chemistry. He was a member of the Hasty Pudding Club, and was an active participant in varsity sports, boxing, playing football, and on the school's rifle shooting squad, where he was considered an excellent marksman. He was also politically active, campaigning for Samuel J. Tilden in the 1876 presidential election. In 1879, he received his law degree from the Boston University School of Law, and was the first to graduate summa cum laude from that school. While studying at BU he won the Lawrence prize for the best legal essay. He was admitted to the Massachusetts bar in 1880 and began