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.
