Note 107 — Chapter XXI

General Nathaniel Massie, born in Virginia in 1763, served in the Revolution while a youth, and at its close emigrated to Kentucky. There he was soon employed in the movement which led to the Virginia Military Reserve settlement in Ohio. When Virginia ceded her Northwest claims to Congress (1784) she retained a large tract between the Scioto and Miami rivers for bounty lands for her soldiers. Massie began the survey thereof in 1788, and two years later led out the first colony on the site of Manchester, Ohio. At the close of the Indian wars Chillicothe was platted (1796), and became the first capital of the state of Ohio. Massie was an influential leader in early Ohio politics; he headed the opposition to General St. Clair, and persuaded Jefferson to remove him (1803). A strong Democrat in politics, his presence at the constitutional convention aided in giving a democratic cast to the new state constitution. For many years he acted as major-general of the Ohio militia, and one of his last public services was to reinforce Harrison at Fort Meigs. His death occurred in 1813.—Ed.