In Search of Reuben Messervey
For some time, Reuben Alfred Messervey was on my list of “Still
Researching”. The son of John Messervey and Sarah Hoar, he appeared in
Census records and his marriage to Fanny Bell in 1876 in Halifax, Nova Scotia
was registered in the Nova Scotia vital records. However, on both his
marriage record and in the 1871 Census, his place of birth is indicated as the
United States, in fact, on the marriage registration it looks like “Winstead,
Conn.” All his siblings were born in Halifax, Nova Scotia after his
parents permanently relocated from Sandy Point, Newfoundland. However,
with his father’s merchant trader background, it was not impossible that he was
born in the US during a trading trip in 1853. To date, I have found no
record of Reuben’s birth despite the availability of many birth records in the
US. Perhaps John and Sarah did not want to record his birth in the US,
but could not record it in Canada either. I am still looking!
On
Reuben’s marriage certificate, his occupation is listed as merchant. He is also
found in the Halifax city directory for 1876 as living at 109 Maitland Street
(the same address as his father John) with occupation as trader. Later
entries, 1896 and 1900, have his wife, Fanny listed as widow of Reuben and
living at 7 John Street in Halifax. The assumption becomes that he died in or
before 1896. Another mystery arises: where is Reuben’s death
certificate? There is no record in the Nova Scotia Vital Statistics.
I then turned to Fanny Messervey, his widow, to see if any clues could be
identified in her documented history.
In
the 1901 Census, Fanny is seen still living at 7 John Street in Halifax, status
as widow. There are two children with her, a son J. Arthur born in 1878 and a
daughter Ethel M. born in 1880. Both of these births took place during
the gap in Nova Scotia civil registration (1878-1908) so the lack of birth
registration was not unusual. Interestingly, Ethel at the time of her
marriage in 1904, did not identify her father as deceased but noted his
profession as inventor, not a trader. In the 1901 Census, the son J.
Alfred noted his occupation as inventor. This piqued my curiosity and
just for fun, I did a search by name for Reuben in Google patents (what would
we do without Google). Despite my scepticism, what turned up but 3
registered patents under Reuben’s name, related to refrigeration and to some
aspect of a ship’s hull. In 1891, records show the patents assigned to a
J. Watson. Reuben’s information was left languishing as I tracked other
Messervys and it was only when Edward Chafe in Newfoundland sent me information
on Reuben’s death that I turned back to what turned out to be Reuben’s tragic story.
Reuben
died 16 May 1892, in an asylum for the insane in Westboro, Massachusetts at the
age of 39 years. The cause of death was listed as mania and
pneumonia. His occupation was listed as clerk and place of birth Nova
Scotia. The Westboro Asylum was built in 1885 and although the era was
not known for its forward thinking with mental illness, it is noted that
Westboro actually applied homeopathic principles to treatment of mental
illness.
Where
Reuben A. Messervey spent the last year of his life – Westboro Insane Asylum
How
did Reuben, who clearly had the capacity to create inventions that were
actually implemented and produced earnings, end up with an early death in
an asylum? What happened that his wife Fanny and the two children were
living in Halifax in 1901 (Census) while Reuben was identified as having mania
and died one year later in the US? While the details of his story have
passed into history, I was able to find a series of newspaper articles that due
to a very newsworthy event, included some of Reuben’s story.
The Boston Evening Transcript 1 of Dec.8, 1891 describes the
attempted murder of a wealthy Bostonian banker, Russell Sage, by an assailant
with an amateur bomb. While Mr. Sage escaped, the bomber did not
and he was not able to be identified. Reuben A. Messervey was initially
the prime suspect as he was well-known by Sage’s and other offices in downtown
Boston, where he frequently visited to tell yet again his story. Reuben was
described as a “lunatic” who claimed to be an inventor and believed that
Russell Sage held the key to millions of his dollars. Due to his manner,
people did not believe his claims to be an inventor. Apparently, his references
to the millions were not related to his patents, but to some uncle who died
many years previously and left all his money to him. His drop-in visits to
these offices (in our pre-security obsessed days) were not relished in the
summer of 1891 as it appeared he was becoming more manic and people were afraid
of potential violence. On September 1, when the attack on Mr. Sage
occurred, people recalled having a visit from an R.A. Messervey near that date.
When the police followed up, the Westboro Asylum was able to confirm that
Reuben had been in the asylum since May of 1891 and at no time would have been
outside the asylum. Further investigation found that although the summer
visitor (and likely bomber) used the name R.A. Messervey he did not exactly
resemble Reuben physically. Everyone remembered Reuben focusing on his
patent stories while the R.A.Messervey seemed only interested in Mr. Sage’s millions.
While it was known that Reuben was from Nova Scotia and lived in Medford, MA
before the asylum, R.A.Messervey only once referred to Medford. Finally,
it was concluded that the person who died in the bomb attempt and called
himself R.A. Messervey was likely a former inmate of the asylum who had been
discharged in the summer. Having learned Reuben’s tale of patents and money
while in the Asylum, he may have seen an opportunity (albeit a deluded one) to
get Reuben’s money. While a year later in May 1892, Reuben died having
never recovered from his mania, at least he was exonerated from being the
attempted murderer of Russell Sage.
Recall the reference
in the newspaper article to Reuben living in Medford MA before the asylum
(1891). Ancestry.ca revealed that Reuben was a registered voter in
Massachusetts in 1883. A further check revealed that his daughter Ethel was
born in Medford 12 August 18802.
On this record Reuben’s place of birth was cited as Westminster, Vt or
Ct. and his occupation was bookkeeper. I have not yet found a
record of birth or death for J. Alfred Messervey listed as Fanny’s son in the
1901 Census, nor have I found Reuben’s birth, whether in Vermont, Connecticut,
Nova Scotia or elsewhere. Based on the tragic circumstances of Reuben’s
mental health, one can only surmise that Fanny took her children back to Nova
Scotia after Reuben died.
The
family is not in the Medford 1880 US Census and unfortunately, the 1990 US
Census was almost all lost through fire but we do know that Ethel was born 12
August 1880 in Medford. The date of the 1880 Census was June. We
can surmise that sometime between June and early August, they took up residence
in Medford. More research to be done – so many Messervys and so little
time!
1Boston
Daily Evening Transcript. Dec.8, 1891. Google Newspaper Archive. Accessed
18 October 2016. https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=MOUuoOoUJb4C
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