Attorney of Los Angeles, California, starting in 1886 and continuing as the senior partner in the law office of Messmore & Young, in partnership with James E. Young. Veteran of the Civil War, starting as a Lieutenant-Colonel with the Fourteenth Wisconsin Regiment Volunteer Infantry, and later as a Colonel with the Thirty-first Wisconsin Regiment Volunteer Infantry. He reportedly served on the personal staff of Gen. Ulysses S. Grant until mustering out in 1864. The son of John and Jane (Moat) Messmore of Canada, his family moved to Michigan when he was young and many sources claim he was born in Detroit. He studied law and was admitted to the bar in Wisconsin, partnering in 1852 with Amasa Cobb, the future Union Army general and Nebraska politician. Col. Messmore was a member of the Wisconsin State Assembly in 1861, and he also served as a circuit judge. After the War but before coming to California, he was a deputy collector of internal revenue in Washington D.C. and New York, and in 1877 he was the editor and publisher of the Grand Rapids Morning Democrat newspaper in Grand Rapids, Michigan. In California he ran unsuccessfully for Congress in the Democratic primary race against George S. Patton in 1894. His first wife was Edith Helen McKenney. They lived in Illinois before moving to Wisconsin. After her death in 1860, he married Margaret A. (Jones) Hull in Wisconsin in 1861. They both died from pneumonia just two days apart. Some sources indicate he was born in Canada, like his father, and came to Michigan at a young age.
Attorney of Los Angeles, California, starting in 1886 and continuing as the senior partner in the law office of Messmore & Young, in partnership with James E. Young. Veteran of the Civil War, starting as a Lieutenant-Colonel with the Fourteenth Wisconsin Regiment Volunteer Infantry, and later as a Colonel with the Thirty-first Wisconsin Regiment Volunteer Infantry. He reportedly served on the personal staff of Gen. Ulysses S. Grant until mustering out in 1864. The son of John and Jane (Moat) Messmore of Canada, his family moved to Michigan when he was young and many sources claim he was born in Detroit. He studied law and was admitted to the bar in Wisconsin, partnering in 1852 with Amasa Cobb, the future Union Army general and Nebraska politician. Col. Messmore was a member of the Wisconsin State Assembly in 1861, and he also served as a circuit judge. After the War but before coming to California, he was a deputy collector of internal revenue in Washington D.C. and New York, and in 1877 he was the editor and publisher of the Grand Rapids Morning Democrat newspaper in Grand Rapids, Michigan. In California he ran unsuccessfully for Congress in the Democratic primary race against George S. Patton in 1894. His first wife was Edith Helen McKenney. They lived in Illinois before moving to Wisconsin. After her death in 1860, he married Margaret A. (Jones) Hull in Wisconsin in 1861. They both died from pneumonia just two days apart. Some sources indicate he was born in Canada, like his father, and came to Michigan at a young age.
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Father and Mother Buried Jan. 9, 1902
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