William S. Messervy

William Sluman Messervy (August 26, 1812 – February 19, 1886) was an American trader on the Santa Fe Trail who in 1850 was elected to represent the New Mexico Territory in the United States House of Representatives. He did not take his seat because Congress did not yet recognize New Mexico’s territorial authority.

He later served as Secretary of the Territory and in 1854 was acting Governor of New Mexico.

In 1854, Messervy returned to his home town, Salem, Massachusetts, where he was elected as Mayor and became a Justice of the Peace.

Early life Messervy was born and raised in Salem, Massachusetts, the son of Captain William Messervy and his wife Eliza Passarow, who had been married in Boston in May 1810. His father was a ship’s master in the East Indies trade, among others. He was named for his maternal grandfather, Captain William Sluman, who had been killed while in command of a private armed vessel during the American Revolutionary War.

Messervy was the eldest son in a family of ten children. A younger brother, Thomas, went to sea in a whaler.

Career Business After leaving school, Messervy began his career in business as a clerk and book-keeper in a large firm in Boston, and worked for several such firms. later moving to Independence, Missouri.

At the outbreak of the Mexican–American War later in April 1846, Messervy was in Chihuahua. Together with other United States citizens, he was interned there, until after the Battle of the Sacramento River in February 1847 he was freed by troops led by Colonel A. W. Doniphan. After the war ended early in 1848, Messervy ran his business from Santa Fe, From 1854, the Pennsylvania Railroad ran all the way to Pittsburgh.

Political career Election as territorial delegate in Congress On June 20, 1850, at the same time as the adoption of a state constitution for New Mexico, Messervy was elected as the first member of Congress from the new state. Although elected to serve in the 31st Congress, the U.S. House of Representatives did not recognize Messervy’s election because Congress did not accept New Mexico as a state. Messervy was therefore never officially seated in Congress.

When Congress passed the Compromise of 1850 on September 9, 1850, it included an organic act which organized the Territory of New Mexico, with boundaries taking in most of the later states of New Mexico and Arizona and parts of southern Colorado. Although Messervy is sometimes considered to have been elected as a non-voting Delegate, In the fall of that year, Kingsbury travelled to the east in search of a wife, and in December 1853, in Salem, he married Messervy’s sister Kate, a match which Messervy and Webb had both encouraged. Kate Messervy was already suffering from tuberculosis, and she also suffered from depression. At about this time, Messervy decided to retire from business, and in February 1854 Webb formed a new partnership with Kingsbury.

On April 1, 1854, Messervy became acting Governor of New Mexico, by virtue of his office as Secretary, when another new Governor, David Meriwether, went out of state. On the same day, he bought the Exchange Hotel, Santa Fe, and rented it to his former clerk Thomas F. Bowler for $100 a month.

In April 1854, Messervy, in Santa Fe, wrote to Kingsbury that he would "give a dollar an hour if you and Webb were only here—it would take a great load off my shoulders."

At the end of April 1854, soon after the Battle of Cieneguilla in the war with the Jicarilla, Messervy was superintendent of Indian affairs in New Mexico, as well as acting Governor. On April 29, 1854, he wrote to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, George Washington Manypenny:

In June 1854, Webb and Kingsbury returned to Santa Fe from the east with their new wives, and Messervy prepared to return to Salem. His inaugural address on March 24, 1856, was printed. He was also appointed as a director of local corporations In 1858, he was listed as a justice of the peace at Salem.

Messervy was an Old Line Democrat, but during the American Civil War was a strong Republican.

Soon after his return to Salem, Messervy married Lucy Jane Dodge and with her had two sons.

Messervy died on February 19, 1886, after a long and painful illness. One of his two sons, George Passarow Messervy, graduated from Harvard and became an admiralty lawyer. He retired to travel the world, and his book The Quick-Step of an Emperor: Maximilian of Mexico was published in London in 1921.