NATHANIEL HARDIN MASSIE
In tracing the ancestry of present residents of Danville it is pleasant
to come upon names as familiar to the Virginian, as the name of the
loved Commonwealth itself. Nathaniel Hardin Massie was born at
Charlottsville, Virginia, October 9, 1861. He is a son of N. H. Massie,
lawyer and banker, eldest son of Nathaniel Massie of Albemarle
county, born on the border of Albemarle and Nelson counties, in
November, 1824, many years an honored resident of Charlottsville,
and died there in October, 1880. His first ancestor in this country was
Thomas Massie, who, in 1690, at the age of six years, came over with
his father from Chester, England, where one branch of the family still
resides. Thos Massie died in 1790, at the advanced age of 106
years.
N. H. Massie was in the Confederate States service for a time, on the
staff of General Beauregard, but was retired on account of defective
eyesight. At the outbreak of the war, Nathaniel Massie had seven
grown sons and two sons-in-law, who entered service. Both the latter
were killed in service. One son, John L. Massie, captain in Rockbridge
Battery, was killed on the field of battle, the rest, except the eldest,
were disabled by wounds and exposure, and all but three died either
during the war, or soon after, from diseases contracted in service.
The mother of Mr. Massie was Eliza Kinloch Nelson, daughter of
Thomas Nelson of Clarke county, Virginia, a lineal descendant of
Thomas Nelson, jr., signer of the Declaration of Independence on behalf of
Virginia, of whom a sketch is given elsewhere in this volume. She was
also lineally descended from Gov. Spotswood (see Volume 1, Virginia
and Virginians).
Mr. Massie went to school from 1873 to 1875 to Major H. W. Jones,
now of Hanover Academy, from 1875 to 1880 attended the Charlottsville
high school, from 1880 to 1883 the University of Virginia,
taught school from 1883 to 1885 at Brookville Academy, Maryland,
came to Danville September 28, 1885, and entered on the practice of
law, in which he still continues.
