William A. Massey

Who was William A. Massey?

William Alexander Massey was a United States Senator from Nevada. Born in Trumbull County, Ohio, he moved with his parents to Edgar County, Illinois in 1865. He attended the common schools, Union Christian College in Merom, Indiana, and the Indiana Asbury University in Greencastle, Indiana. He studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1877, commencing practice in Sullivan, Indiana. He moved to San Diego, California in 1886, and to Nevada in 1887, where he prospected and mined, and later took up the practice of law in Elko, Nevada.

Massey was a member of the Nevada Assembly from 1892 to 1894, and was district attorney from 1894 to 1896. He was a justice of the Nevada Supreme Court from 1896 to 1902, when he resigned. He moved to Reno, Nevada and resumed the practice of law, and was appointed as a Republican to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the death of George S. Nixon by Governor Tasker Oddie.

Massey served in the Senate from July 1, 1912 to January 29, 1913. He was defeated for election to the remainder of Nixon's term by Democrat Key Pittman. While in the Senate, he was chairman of the Committee on Mines and Mining.