Nathaniel Massie

Nathaniel Massie (1763 – November 3, 1813) was a frontier surveyor in the Ohio Country who became a prominent land owner, politician, and soldier. He founded fifteen early towns in what became the State of Ohio, including its first capital, Chillicothe. In 1807, the Ohio General Assembly declared him the winner of the election for governor, but he refused the office.

sketch by Henry Howe

A native of the colony of Virginia, Massie served briefly in the Virginia militia during the American Revolutionary War. After becoming a surveyor, he established the first town in the Virginia Military District at what is now Manchester. He platted the town of Chillicothe on his own land. Massie was one of the largest landowners in early Ohio, and served as a major general in the Ohio militia.

He served as a Ross county delegate to the 1802 Ohio Constitutional Convention^[1] and was a leader of the Jeffersonian faction that supported statehood. He was a leader of the Chillicothe Junto, a group of Chillicothe Democratic-Republican politicians who brought about the admission of Ohio as a state in 1803 and largely controlled its politics for some years thereafter. Among his colleagues in the faction were Thomas Worthington and Edward Tiffin. He was a Presidential elector for Thomas Jefferson in 1804 and James Madison in 1808.^[2] He was a Trustee of Ohio University from 1804 to 1808.^[3] Massie served in the General Assembly and was the first president of the Ohio Senate.

Massie led troops in the War of 1812, but died of pneumonia in the late autumn of 1813 at the age of 50.

A monument to Massie stands along U.S. Route 50 just east of Bainbridge, another town he founded. It commemorates his life, as well as marking the approximate location of his home in the Paint Valley. The memorial was dedicated in September 1938.^[4] The Nathaniel Massie Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) in Chillicothe is named in the general's honor, as is Massie Township in Warren County, Ohio and the Clinton-Massie Local School District that serves the area.

References

1. ^ "First Constitutional Convention, Convened November 1, 1802". Ohio Archaeological and Historical Publications V: 131–132. 1896. http://publications.ohiohistory.org/ohstemplate.cfm?action=detail&Page=0005131.html&StartPage=80&EndPage=132&volume=5&newtitle=Volume%205%20Page%2080. 
2. ^ Taylor, William Alexander; Taylor, Aubrey Clarence (1899). Ohio statesmen and annals of progress: from the year 1788 to the year 1900 .... 1. State of Ohio. p. 64. http://books.google.com/books?id=ztegAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA64. 
3. ^ Walker, Charles M. (1869). History of Athens County, Ohio And Incidentally of the Ohio Land Company and the First Settlement of the State at Marietta etc.. Robert Clarke & Co.. pp. 346–348. http://books.google.com/books?id=o3YFAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA346. 
4. ^ Ohio Historical Society.

External sources

• Ohio History Central
• "Nathaniel Massie". Appleton's cyclopædia of American biography. 4. 1887. pp. 250. http://books.google.com/books?id=q54LAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA250.  Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography

Persondata
Name	Massie, Nathaniel
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1763
Place of birth
Date of death	November 3, 1813
Place of death

Ohio Senate
Preceded by new seat	Senator from Ross County 1803-1804 Served alongside: Abraham Claypool	Succeeded by Joseph Kerr Abraham Claypool
Ohio Senate
Preceded by new position	Speaker of the Senate 1803-1804	Succeeded by James Pritchard
Ohio House of Representatives
Preceded by David Shelby James Dunlap Abraham Williams Elias Langham	Representative from Ross County 1806-1807 Served alongside: David Shelby, James Dunlap, Elias Langham	Succeeded by Thomas Worthington Elias Langham Jeremiah McLene William Lewis
Ohio House of Representatives
Preceded by James Dunlap Jesup N. Couch Joseph Kerr David Shelby Samuel Monnett	Representative from Ross County 1809-1810 Served alongside: James Dunlap, Edward Tiffin, David Shelby, Joseph Gardner	Succeeded by Abraham Claypool, Edward Tiffin James Manary William Creighton, Jr. Henry Brush