John Wilson Shaffer (5 July 1827-31 October 1870) was the Republican Governor of the Utah Territory from 20 March to 31 October 1870, succeeding Charles Durkee and preceding Vernon H. Vaughan.
Biography[]
John Shaffer was born in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania in 1827, and he settled in Freeport, Illinois in 1849 and became a merchant. He served as Stephenson County sheriff in 1856, as quartermaster of the 15th Illinois Infantry Regiment during the American Civil War, and as President Ulysses S. Grant's territorial governor of Utah in 1870. He died just a few months into his tenure.