May 5, 1775…Alexander McNair Born
Alexander McNair, the first governor of Missouri, was born May 5, 1775, in Pennsylvania. After a brief attendance at the old Philadelphia College, he commanded a company organized to suppress the Whiskey Rebellion. McNair
considered Washington's review of the provisional army in which he was commissioned First Lieutenant, April 23, 1799, the greatest honor of his life.
When he came to St. Louis in the winter of 1804, he witnessed the transfer of the Louisiana territory, March 10. After his appointment as justice of the court of common pleas, he was chosen one of the five trustees of the town of
St. Louis and sheriff of St. Louis County. During the war of 1812 he organized and commanded a company of mounted rangers, was appointed adjutant and inspector general of the territorial forces with the rank of colonel and in 1814 was commissioned United States marshal for the territory. Two years later, he was appointed by President Madison as Register of the Land District of St. Louis.
Following his term as a member of the Missouri Constitutional Convention of 1820, he won the 1820 election for governor by receiving 72 percent of the total votes cast although his opponent was General William Clark, territorial
governor for seven years. McNair was inaugurated Governor of Missouri September 18, 1820, and served until 1824. He opposed any restriction of slavery but to hasten Missouri's admission into the Union approved her adroitly worded
"Solemn Public Act." He urged no startling policies, but studied and laid before the assembly copies of the laws of older states.
Following his retirement he received a commission as agent for the Osage Indians. He died from influenza, March 18, 1826, following a visit to his agency.
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