William Carr Lane

William Carr Lane
William Carr Lane
	James S. Calhoun
Succeeded by	David Meriwether
1st Mayor of St. Louis, Missouri
	In office; April 14, 1823 – 1829
Preceded by	None
Succeeded by	Daniel Page
	In office; November 15, 1837 – 1840
Preceded by	John Fletcher Darby
Succeeded by	John Fletcher Darby
Personal details
Born	December 1, 1789; St. Louis, Missouri
Political party	Whig
Spouse	Mary Ewing
Profession	Medical doctor
Signature

William Carr Lane (December 1, 1789 – January 6, 1863) was a

St. Louis, Missouri, serving from 1823 to 1829 and 1837 to 1840. He later served as Governor of New Mexico Territory

, from 1852 to 1853.

Biography

Born in

U.S. Army, and was appointed post surgeon at Fort Harrison on the Wabash River north of Terre Haute, Indiana, in 1816. He resigned from the army in 1819 to enter private practice. He married on February 26, 1818, in Vincennes, Indiana

, to Miss Mary Ewing, daughter of Nathaniel Ewing and Ann Breading. Their children were Anne Ewing Lane (1819–1904), Sarah L. Lane (1821–1887), and Victor Carr Lane (1831–1848).

Lane served as St. Louis's first mayor from 1823 to 1829, when the city's population was around 4,000. He oversaw the first public health system in the city, free public schools, and street improvements, including the paving of Main Street. Lane helped erect the city's first

Lafayette

. Lane served again as mayor from 1837 to 1840.

In 1852, President Millard Fillmore appointed him governor of the New Mexico Territory. During his tenure, Lane seized disputed land in the Mesilla Valley that he had no authority over. He sought to use the land as a route for the transcontinental railroad, but President Franklin Pierce did not approve of the seizure. Further tensions over the disputed land were eased when James Gadsden purchased it.^[2] After this service, Lane returned to St. Louis and practiced medicine until his death in 1863. He was buried at Bellefontaine Cemetery.^[3] A street in St. Louis is named in his honor.

References

^ "William Carr Lane (1789-1863)". Dickinson College. Retrieved April 21, 2021.
^ "William Carr Lane". New Mexico History. Retrieved September 7, 2021.
^ "Mayoral Spotlight: William Carr Lane". StLouis-MO.gov. October 1, 2015. Retrieved September 8, 2021.

Conard, Howard Louis (1901). Encyclopedia of the History of Missouri. Vol. 1. New York; Louisville; St. Louis: The Southern History Company. pp. 569–572.
OCLC 32872107
.

"Proceedings of the Board of Aldermen of the City of St. Louis". Daily Commercial Bulletin & Missouri Literary Register. November 14, 1837.

"Proceedings of the Board of Aldermen of the City of St. Louis". Daily Commercial Bulletin and Missouri Literary Register. December 2, 1837.

Twitchell, Ralph Emerson; Carr Lane, William (1917). Historical Sketch of Governor William Carr Lane. Santa Fe: Historical Society of New Mexico.
OCLC 2629819
.

Darby, John Fletcher (1880). Personal Recollections. St. Louis: G. I. Jones and Company. p. 335.
OCLC 497877
. Retrieved May 20, 2010.

External links

Richard Edwards & Merna Hopewell, Edwards's Great West and Her Commercial Metropolis (1860) p. 571 "William Carr Lane, First Mayor of St. Louis"
William Carr Lane at the St. Louis Public Library Mayors Exhibit website.
William Carr Lane at Find a Grave

Political offices
New title	Mayor of St. Louis, Missouri 1823–1829	Succeeded by Daniel Page
Preceded by John Fletcher Darby	Mayor of St. Louis, Missouri 1837–1840	Succeeded by John Fletcher Darby
Preceded by James S. Calhoun	Governor of New Mexico Territory 1852–1853	Succeeded by David Meriwether

[1] "William Carr Lane (1789-1863)". Dickinson College. Retrieved April 21, 2021.

[NMHistory-2] "William Carr Lane". New Mexico History. Retrieved September 7, 2021.

[stlouisgov-3] "Mayoral Spotlight: William Carr Lane". StLouis-MO.gov. October 1, 2015. Retrieved September 8, 2021.

[1]

[2]

[3]

v t e Governors of New Mexico
U.S. Military Admin (1846–1851)	Military Kearny Price Washington Munroe Civilian Bent Vigil Connelly
U.S. Territory (1851–1912)	Calhoun Lane Meriwether Rencher Connelly Mitchell Pile Giddings Axtell Wallace Sheldon Ross Prince Thornton Otero Hagerman Curry Mills
State (since 1912)	McDonald C. De Baca Lindsey Larrazolo M. Mechem Hinkle Hannett Dillon Seligman Hockenhull Tingley Miles Dempsey Mabry E. Mechem Simms E. Mechem Burroughs E. Mechem Bolack Campbell Cargo King Apodaca King Anaya Carruthers King Johnson Richardson Martinez Lujan Grisham
See also Spanish governors of New Mexico

Authority control databases
International	FAST VIAF
National	Germany United States
Other	NARA SNAC