Researching William Lane

Lane was born in Bristol, England into an impoverished family. After showing great skill in his education, he worked his way into Canada as first a linotype operator, then as a reporter for the Detroit Free Press where he would later meet his future wife Ann Lane, née Macquire. After settling in Australia with his wife and child, as well as his brother John, he became active in the Australian labour movement, founding the Australian Labour Federation and becoming a prolific journalist for the movement. He authored works covering topics such as labour rights and white nationalism.

After becoming disillusioned with the state of Australian politics following an ideological split in the labour movement, he and a group of utopian acolytes (among them influential writer and poet Mary Gilmore) moved to Paraguay in 1892 to found New Australia, with the intention of building a new society on the foundations of his utopian ideals. Following disagreement with the colony regarding the legality of miscegenation and alcohol consumption, he left to found the nearby colony Cosme in May 1894, and later abandoned the project altogether in 1899.

Upon resetting in New Zealand he continued his journalistic endeavours until his death in August 1917. After his death he was both celebrated as a champion of utopian socialism, and condemned as the arrogant leader of a failed new society. Due to his radical politics and his extensive journalistic career, he remains a controversial figure in Australian history.

Born in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, to Presley Carr Lane and Sarah "Sallie" Stephenson, Lane attended college in Pennsylvania and studied medicine in Louisville, Kentucky. He entered the 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 town hall. He was also instrumental in beautifying the city with fountains and greenery. The City Seal was adopted, and election procedures were written. Perhaps the most memorable event of his service was an 1825 visit by 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. After this service, Lane returned to St. Louis and practiced medicine until his death in 1863. He was buried at Bellefontaine Cemetery. A street in St. Louis is named in his honor.

He was married to an American, May Armstrong of Brooklyn, New York City.