Frederick Messmore

Frederick Messmore in 1918.

Frederick W. Messmore (July 11, 1889–June 24, 1969) was a Justice of the Nebraska Supreme Court. He was appointed on August 9, 1937, to fill a vacancy created by the death of Judge Edward E. Good, and served until 1965.

Born in Boone County, Iowa, to H. A. and Clara J. (Davidson) Messmore, descendants of pioneers of the state, the family moved to Nebraska around 1907 or 1908.

Messmore was Gage County Attorney from 1914 to 1918, County Judge from 1920 to 1928, District Judge from 1928 until he was appointed an Associate Justice of the Nebraska Supreme Court in 1938. He served on the Supreme Court bench for 28 years, until his retirement in 1965.

FREDERICK W. MESSMORE. — In the year that marked the semi-centennial of the admission of Nebraska as one of the sovereign states of the Union, Gage county numbered as one of its most efficient and valued officials Frederick W. Messmore, who is still serving as county attorney and who has the further distinction of being one of the youngest men

to be the incumbent of such office in the entire state. He is making a splendid record as a public prosecutor and through his official activities is enhancing his reputation and is solidifying his status as one of the representative members of the bar of Gage county.

in 1907 he removed with his family to Nebraska and established his residence at Randolph, Cedar county, where he successfully conducted a hotel, later continuing in the same line of enterprise in turn at Laurel, that county; Geneva, Fillmore county; and Nelson, Nuckolls county. In 1915 he and his wife established their home at Beatrice, and here it is his intention again to engage in the hotel business within the near future. Mr. Messmore is unwavering in his allegiance to the Democratic party, he and his wife hold membership in the Presbyterian church, and in the timehonored Masonic fraternity he has received the thirty-second degree of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, besides being affiliated also with the Mystic Shrine. Of the four children of Mr. and Mrs. Messmore, the subject of this review is the younger of the two now living, and Sylvia is the wife of T. O. Hester, a banker at Wiota, Cass county, Iowa.

The preliminary educational discipline of Frederick W. Messmore was acquired principally in the public schools of the city of Council Bluffs, Iowa, where he completed the curriculum of the high school and also took a course in the Northwestern Business and Normal College. After his graduation in the same he followed the trend of his ambition and well formulated plans by enrolling himself as a student in the Creighton Law School, in the city of Omaha. In this well ordered institution he was graduated as a member of the class of 1912, and his admission to the Nebraska bar was virtually coincident with his reception of the degree of Bachelor of Laws. In 1913 Mr. Messmore entered, with characteristic vigor and earnestness, upon his professional novitiate, and he was favored in being at this time able to associate himself with General L. W. Colby, of Beatrice, one of the leading members of the Gage county bar. He maintained this alliance until his election to the office of county attorney, in 1914, and the estimate placed upon his administration of the affairs of this important office was unequivocally shown in his reelection in 1916.

In April, 1913, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Messmore to Miss Jennie Frances Saxe, who was born at Belden, Cedar county, Nebraska, a daughter of Allison and Frances (Boughn) Saxe, and she was reared in the home of her mother's uncle, Zack Boughn, who was one of the pioneer settlers of this state. Mr. and Mrs. Messmore have no children.