Summary Information
William Massie Papers
1749-1931
- Massie, William, 1741-1862
Mss 152
3.2 c.f. (8 archives boxes)
Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)
Photostat copies of papers (primarily dating 1847-1862) of William Massie and his father, Major Thomas Massie, both Nelson County, Virginia planters, consisting of correspondence, diary extracts, plantation and slave records, and legal records for Nelson County, Virginia. The collection includes photostatic copies of estate inventories and maps for the Massie's Pharsalia plantation, recollections of the major's service in the Continental Army of Virginia, 1775-1781, containing an account of the Battle of Monmouth, and maps and account books for a plantation. The originals of these papers are at the University of Texas.
English
http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-mss00152 ↑ Bookmark this ↑
Biography/History
The progenitors of the Massie family immigrated to Virginia about 1690. The two most important members of the family were Major Thomas and his son Captain William Massie. Major Thomas served during the Revolutionary War, and after the end of the war removed his family to the wilderness in Nelson County, Virginia. Through the use of efficient business practices, he established a number of large and prosperous plantations, Level Green, Pharsalia, Montebello, and Tyro, from an initial investment in a mill at Massie's Mill. Around 1812 Major Massie presented Pharsalia plantation to his son William, also a man of acute managerial judgment. After Thomas' death in 1834 and the death of a brother, William consolidated his holdings to a maximum of 7725 acres in 1859. After the Civil War the records of the family became dispersed and most of the landholdings seem to have passed from the family's possession.
Provenance
The originals of the William Massie Papers collected here were acquired by Herbert A. Kellar, Director of the McCormick Historical Association in Chicago, during a research trip to Virginia in 1927 with Ulrich B. Phillips, historian of the American South. In Kellar's search for manuscripts relating to the McCormick family and nineteenth-century Virginiana to be added to the McCormick Collections, he was alerted to the Massies, who had been friends of Robert and Cyrus McCormick and who shared a business interest with them in the Tye River Turnpike Company. Of the Massie material he collected, Kellar retained the original only of an account book, 1823-1838, of the Tye River Company. It is now part at the McCormick Collection of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, The rest of the original Massie documents in his possession were sold by Kellar to the University of Texas. The photostatic copies returned to him from the university comprise this collection of William Massie Papers. The bulk of the Massie correspondence is held by the Virginia Historical Society, Duke University, and the University of Texas, and is indexed in The Massies of Virginia, a University of Texas Ph.D. dissertation by Oliver Refsell.
Scope and Content Note
This collection consists of photostatic copies of correspondence, accounts, legal documents, records of crops and slaves, diary extracts, an estate inventory, and maps for William Massie's Pharsalia plantation and other large landholdings, chiefly between 1820 and 1862. There are also copies of correspondence, a will, and plantation accounts of Thomas Massie. These include the Major's recollections, dictated to a Justice of the Peace in 1833, of details of his service in the Continental Army of Virginia, 1775-1781, from the incursions of Lord Dunmore through the Battle of Yorktown, and containing his account of carrying a message from General Washington to General Charles Lee at the Battle of Monmount. The Papers may be considered those of Thomas Massie from 1780-1820 and those of William Massie from 1820-1862, with the major portion dated between 1847 and 1862.
In addition to correspondence, there are extensive legal records for Nelson County, Virginia, 1820-1823, and several unbound volumes relating to the operation of a plantation. The latter volumes include crop memoranda books, orchard records, field maps and plats, architect's plans, weather memoranda, account books, and records of household expenses. A register of slaves covers the period 1836-1866, and an estate inventory, 1862, gives detailed information on the household.
The scrupulously detailed records of their holdings and business operations, kept by the Massies over so extensive a period, make these papers unique, and their interest to the student of ante-bellum plantation economy may lie in the Massie's planter class typicality and the representative nature of the operation of their holdings.
Administrative/Restriction Information
Presented by Herbert A. Kellar, Madison, Wisconsin, circa 1952. Transferred from the McCormick Collection, February 22, 1971.
Processed by CM and Joanne Hohler, February 23, 1971.
Contents List
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Correspondence
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Box
1
Folder
1-34
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1749-1832
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Box
2
Folder
1-23
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1833-1867
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Box
3
Folder
1-22
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1868-1931
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Box
4
Volume
1
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Account and Memorandum Book of Thomas Massie, 1796-1805
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Box
4
Volume
2
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Orchard Record Book
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Box
4
Volume
3
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Agricultural Diary, Extracts, 1831
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Box
4
Volume
4
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Account Book, Pharsalia Plantation, 1831-1834
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Box
4
Volume
5
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Medical Supply Book, Pharsalia Plantation, 1836-1866
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Box
4
Volume
6
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Register of Negroes, Pharsalia Plantation, 1836-1866
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Box
4
Volume
7
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Inventory of William Massie Estate, circa 1862, Sept.
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Box
4
Volume
8
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Household Cash Memorandum Book, Pharsalia Plantation, 1864-1867
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Box
5
Volume
9
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Crop Book, Pharsalia Plantation, 1845-1861
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Box
6
Volume
10
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Cash Book, Pharsalia Plantation, 1846-1862
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Box
7
Volume
10
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Cash Book, Pharsalia Plantation, 1846-1862, continued
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Box
8
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Plat Maps, 1822-1850; Deeds, , 1770(?)-1800; Architect's Drawings, , 1851-1854; Rotation Plans, , 1847
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