He was born on October 14, 1786 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, the son of Jacob and Isabella Servoss. His father was a merchant, trading between Philadelphia and Albany, New York. The yellow fever left Thomas an orphan in 1798.
There is no information about his education.
In 1802 he entered the great Philadelphia counting-house of Daniel W. Coxe who, with forty vessels, carried on a brisk trade with the lower Mississippi. In 1810 he started by way of Pittsburgh and the Ohio River to settle at Natchez, Miss. , promising his reluctant young wife that as soon as he made money enough, he would return to settle down as a merchant in Philadelphia or New York City.
At Natchez, he entered into partnership with one Henry Turner of that place, became one of the most popular residents of the town, and developed a very profitable trade. His particular correspondent in the East was Peter H. Schwenk of New York, a brother-in-law, who sent his manufactures and received cotton in return. Servoss is credited with having sent the shipments of rifles needed for the defense of New Orleans in 1815.
Servoss kept his promise to his wife and went to New York in 1816, but it was too late and she died. After the death of his wife, Servoss returned to the Mississippi, settled at New Orleans, and engaged in business on a larger scale.
His business prospered until the "cotton panic" of 1825, when he lost, among other things, 500 bales through the failure of the firm of Jeremiah Thompson. He then returned to New York City where he lived until his death. By 1827 he was living on Broome Street, and he later moved to Harlem.
His New Orleans friends sent him goods on consignment, and in 1827 he established a regular and very profitable line of sailing packets between New York and New Orleans. He ran this "Louisiana Line" until about 1831, when he sold it to Edward Knight Collins. This venture seems to have restored the Servoss fortune. Servoss was a director of the North American Trust & Banking Company, and a trustee of the Chambers Street Bank for Savings.
He was active in the American Bible Society, probably through the influence of John Pintard.
He died in 1866.
Thomas Lowery Servoss was the head of North American Trust & Banking Company and the first to run "Louisiana Line". His organized line was one of the most successful of the coastal packet lines, for New Orleans shipped a considerable amount of its cotton, even for ultimate foreign export, to New York. He also built St. Clements Episcopal Church on Amity Street.
Quotes from others about the person
His appearance in his last years was described by Scoville as "grand, noble and venerable, " with a "towering form, very much resembling that of General Scott".
Servoss was married to Elizabeth Courtney at Philadelphia on October 31, 1807. She died there on March 3, 1817. He was married in New Orleans to Louisa H. , daughter of the prominent John Pintard of New York, on April 4, 1824. In addition to an infant son who died at Natchez, he had one son by his first marriage and a son and two daughters by his second.
