Born in Upper Canada, near Detroit, Isaac Messmore grew up in Michigan and later studied law as a young man, graduating from the Richmond Law School in Virginia; he went on to live in La Crosse, Wisconsin, where he practiced law in the 1850s. In 1861, he served in the Wisconsin State Assembly as a Republican. Later in 1861, he was appointed a Wisconsin Circuit Court judge; however, his appointment to the bench was ruled to have been improperly authorized by the governor, and thus invalid. Messmore next went on to serve in the 31st Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry Regiment during the American Civil War, attaining the rank of colonel. After the end of the war, Messmore resettled in Washington, D.C., where he was very soon appointed assistant commissioner of the Internal Revenue Bureau. While in Washington, in 1867, he acquired the Meridian Hill estate, an older property which sat a short distance north of the White House; he then subdivided this tract of land, and its lots were sold to create a new neighborhood. In the late 1860s, he next served on the Metropolitan Revenue Board of the City of New York, primarily fighting excise-tax fraud. Messmore subsequently moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he purchased and became, in 1881, the editor and publisher of the newspaper The Democrat. He later relocated to Los Angeles, California, about 1888, where he was active in the California Democratic Party. There, in 1894, running for—but losing—the position of Representative from California's 6th congressional district. Colonel Messmore was noted to have been a defender of the rights of the average citizen against the economic power of the railroads.
Family
Isaac first married Editha McKenney in 1848; she died about 1860. He remarried, in about 1861, Margaret A. Jones of New York, who lived with him until his death. Children: a son, Charles and a daughter, Florence, as well as an adopted stepson, William Hull. Isaac Messmore died in California in 1902, two days after the death of his wife, Margaret. Both died of pneumonia. Messmore died in Los Angeles, California on January 8, 1902.
