General Nathaniel Massi
General Nathaniel Massie, the founder of Manchester and the leader in the third settlement in Ohio, was born December 28, 1763, in Goochland County, Virginia His grandfather, Charles Massie, with two brothers, had emigrated to Virginia from Chester in England in 1680. His son, Nathaniel Massie, was married to Elizabeth Watkins in 1760 and our subject was their eldest child. He had two brothers and a sister. His brother Henry was the original proprietor and founder of the city of Portsmouth, Scioto County. When he was eleven years of age, his mother died, and two years later his father married again. Nathaniel Massie had a good education and learned the science of surveying. In 1780 and 1781, he served with the Virginia Militia in the War of the Revolution.
In 1783, at the close of the Revolutionary War. at the age of twenty, young Massie set out for Kentucky. He was a surveyor. His father had already located lands in Kentucky and he had excellent letters of introduction. He adapted himself to the conditions of life he found in Kentucky and made a most expert woodsman, hunter and Indian fighter. He had courage, endurance, and a happy temperament. He would endure any hardships incident to his life without complaint. He was a trader in salt in 1788 and made money in the business. He established a reputation as a land locator which brought him business and made him money. He was a tall and uncommonly fine looking young man. His form was slender and well made. He was muscular, very active, and his countenance expressed energy and good sense. During his residence in Kentucky, he made several expeditions into that part of the Northwest Territory now Ohio, and in 1700, formed the determination to establish a settlement at Manchester. He offered an inlot, an outlot and one hundred acres of land to the first twentv-five who would accompany him. His offers were accepted by nineteen persons, and a written contract entered into December 1, 1790. Of those who signed, the descendants of the Lindseys, Wades, Clarks Ellisons, Simerals, McCutcheons and Stouts are well known to the present generation.
In the winter of 1790, in pursuance of this agreement, a settlement was made at Manchester, composed of Virginians, the third in Ohio. A block house and stockade were built. While the first people of Manchester lived in daily dread of the Indians, and while two of their number were carried off by them, yet they enjoyed themselves more than the present inhabitants. Massie was not, however, content to remain at the Station at Manchester. He located the land on Gift Ridge in Monroe Township in order to give each of his settlers the one hundred acres of land he had promised and he located one thousand acres of the finest upland for himself, being the tract afterward known as Buckeye Station. This he sold to his brother-in-law, Judge Byrd, in 1807. Massie began his explorations of the Scioto country soon after his location at Manchester and explored Paint Valley. Here, two miles west of Bainbridge, he located one thousand acres of land on which he after ward made his home. It is today the finest body of land in Ohio, and the writer would rather own it than any tract of the same quantity in the state. Massie must have had a wonderful faculty of judging land in the virgin forest, for he never failed to select excellent land. In 1796, he located the city of Chillicothe. In 1799, he represented Adams County in the first Territorial Legislaure with Joseph Darlinton as his colleague.
In December, 1797, though a layman, he was a Common Pleas Judge of Adams County, and a Colonel of the Militia. He was married to Miss Susan Everad Meade, daughter of Colonel David Meade, of Chaumiere, Kentucky, in 1800. and thereby became the brother-in-law of Charles Willing Byrd, then Secretary of the Northwest Territory, and of William Creighton, the first Secretary of the State of Ohio. He was a member of the second Territorial Legislature from Ross County, where he had taken up his residence. He was a member of the first Constitutional Convention from that county. He was a member of the State Senate from Ross County at its first and second sessions.
On January 11, 1804, he was commissioned as Major General of the Second Division of the Ohio Militia, hiving been elected to that office by the Legislature. It is from this appointment he derived the title of General. At the same time his friend, David Bradford of Adams County, was commissioned as Quartermaster General of the same division. He was a member of the House from Ross County in 1806 and 1807, and a candidate for Governor in 1807 and received 4,757 votes to 6,050 votes for Return J. Meigs, who was declared ineligible to the office. Massie declined to take the office when Meigs was declared ineligible and it was filled by his friend. Thomas Kirker, Speaker of the Senate. To show how he was estimated among those who knew him best we give the vote for Governor in the following counties : Ross— Massie, 1032: Meigs, 62; Adams—Massie, 441; Meigs, 114; Franklin— Massie, 332; Meigs, 30.
On the question of the ineligibility of Meigs for the office of Governor, the vote of the General Assembly stood twenty-four in favor to twenty against. Thomas Kirker. the Senator from Adams and Scioto and Speaker, did not vote. Of the representatives from Adams and Scioto, Dr. Alexander Campbell, Andrew Ellison and Phillip Lewis, Jr., voted the ineligibility of Aleigs. That vote made Thomas Kirker Governor from December 8, 1807, for another year. Massie might have had the honor himself, but preferred that it should go to Thomas Kirker, who was Governor of the State almost two years without having been elected to the office, by filling two successive vacancies.
General Massie's activity in public affairs largely ceased after his race for Governor. He had a national reputation and was known as well in Kentucky and Virginia as in Ohio. He resided in the Virginia Military District and was better acquainted with it both as to the manner of locating lands and the lands in it that any man of his time. He was employed in locating warrants wherever he could or would accept employment. Of course he could not serve all and had to refuse many, but his friends were numerous and some he could not deny. Besides, he had a large private business of his own. The large tracts of real estate which he owned required most of his time. He made sales, subdivisions for purchasers, perfected titles, made deeds, paid taxes and made leases. He built saw and grist mills, paper mills, and, at the time of his death, was making ready to build an iron furnace.
He was full of the activities of this life, but his career was cut short. In the fall of 1813, he was attacked by pneumonia, the result of exposure. The doctors of that day believed in heroic treatment and the result was that he was bled profusely and the disease carried him off. He died November 3, 1813, at his pleasant home and was buried there in a field in front of the house, between it and Paint Creek, His wife survived him until 1837, when she died and was buried at his side. There their remains rested until June, 1870, when, by request of the citizens of Chillicothe, they were removed to the beautiful cemetery of Chillicothe and reinterred on a lot which overlooks the entire city.
General Massie was a lover of fine scenery. He enjoyed the view from Buckeye Station many times, in all its primitive wilderness. He enjoyed the view from his home in the picturesque Paint Valley, and in life he has stood on the spot where his ashes are laid and viewed the beautiful Scioto Valley, and could his spirit visit the scene of the last resting place of his body, it would no doubt be satisfied with the honor shown his memory by the people of Chillicothe.
His son, Nathaniel Massie. was for the greater part of his life a citizen of Adams County. He was born February 16, 1805. in Ross County. He married a daughter of the Rev. John Collins and reared a large family. He made his home in Adams County from 1854 until 1874, when his wife died. He removed to Hillsboro in 1880 and resided there until his death in March, 1894. He and his wife are interred in the old South Cemetery at West Union in a spot which has as fine an outlook as the spot where his distinguished father reposes.
We have refrained from giving a more extensive account of General Nathaniel Massie because his life has recently (1896) been published by his distinguished grandson, the Hon. David Meade Massie, of Chillicothe, Ohio, and we could only copy from that most interesting work. To all who desire to read up the founding of our State, we recommend the persual of this work. General Massie was the founder of Adams County and of its largest town, Manchester, and his memory should be held in affectionate remembrance by every citizen of the county.
NATHANIEL MASSIE, the Presiding Justice of this first court, was the founder of the town of Manchester in 1790. His influence with Governor St. Clair, with whom he was, at this time, in great esteem, had been such as to secure the erection of Adams County as a civil division of the Territory. He founded the town of Chillicothe in 1796, and four years later succeeded in having it made the capital of "The Territory Northwest of the river Ohio." In 1807 he was a candidate for Governor of Ohio but was defeated by a small majority by Return J. Meigs. Massie contested the election, and was declared by the Legislature the duly elected Governor. He refused, from his fine sense of honor, to accept the office, and Thomas Kirker, President of the Senate, became the Governor. He was a Presidential Elector in 1804 and cast his ballot for Thomas Jefferson.
From "History of Adams County, Ohio from its Earliest Settlement to the Present Time" - by Nelson W. Evans and Emmons B. Stivers - West Union, Ohio - Published by E. B. Stivers - 1900