Background
Beverley was born in Amarillo, Texas to William and Clara (Hendricks) Beverley.
lawyer Governor of Puerto Rico
Beverley was born in Amarillo, Texas to William and Clara (Hendricks) Beverley.
He attended local schools and went to college at the University of Texas in Austin.
During this period, he was appointed as acting governor of Puerto Rico in 1929 and in January 1932, he was appointed Governor by President Herbert Hoover and served through 1933. He was the only non-Puerto Rican appointee of 15 from 1900 to 1952 who could speak Spanish before going there. He served in the United States Army during World War I as an artillery officer, serving in France.
Beverley was active in Republican Party politics in Texas.
Beverley was appointed as Assistant Attorney General of Puerto Rico in 1925, serving until 1927. Beverley spoke Spanish as a second language.
In 1927, he was appointed as Attorney General of Puerto Rico, serving until 1932. When appointed as governor of Puerto Rico for periods in 1929 and 1932-1933, he was the only one of fifteen non-Puerto Ricans to serve in that position between 1900 and 1952 who already spoke Spanish.
The two men had a close relationship for the rest of their lives.
In Beverley"s tenures as governor, he had to deal with a major hurricane in which several people died and there was extensive damage. He also managed through the end of Prohibition on the island. In 1932, during his second period of governor, he provoked controversy by recommending the use of birth control.
American Catholics were much more disturbed by this and raised many objections than did Puerto Ricans, who mostly ignored his comments.
Soon after taking office, he had to deal with agitation resulting from charges made by Pedro Albizu Campos, president of the Nationalist Party, that Cornelius Rhoads, an American medical researcher with the Rockefeller Foundation, had been working on a United States plot to exterminate Puerto Ricans, based on Rhoads" own letter that became public. He ordered an investigation by the Attorney General José Ramón Quiñones, who found no evidence of wrongdoing by Rhoads of the American health project
On August 11, 1931, Beverley was one of seven people, including five officials, on board a chartered Pan American Airways Sikorsky seaplane flight tour of Puerto Rico, including the wife of then-Governor Teddy Roosevelt. The plane sank on landing, but no one suffered any injuries.
The people were all taken off by boats.
Following his service as governor, Beverley continued to live and work in Puerto Rico as the head of a large firm. He practiced law and served on numerous commissions and was active in the United States Coast Guard reserve, helping lead efforts to protect Puerto Rican waters during World World War World War II In the 1960s Beverley returned to Austin, Texas. He lived there until his death in 1967.