Individual Details

Note: Born in Ireland, where he spent his boyhood and attended school.When eighteen years of age he ran away from home and sailed onbroad Atlantic toward the United States to seek his fortune.
He first settled in Knox County, Tennessee, at the foot of the Cumberland Mountains, regarding whose picturesque inhabitants so much has been written, and in that locality he was married and made his home until the year 1832, when he made the tedious and somewhat hazardous overland trip to Greene county, Missouri,bringing his family in a primitive wagon, and thus the Masseys were among the earliest pioneers of this locality.He secured a tract of land just east of what is now the thrivingcity of Springfield, but which was at that time an encampment ofthe Kickapoo Indians.He set to work with a will, cleared, broke and fenced his land,erected a log cabin and by perseverance and hard work becamevery comfortably fixed in due course and time, and was a man of influence among the early frontiersmen, his neighbours being, however, very few and most of them some miles distant, untillmore Tennesseeans followed him, the Fulbrights (from NC), the Freemans and others.
Although he devoted the major portion of his life to farming, hewas a mechanic by trade and a skilled workman. He made the first separator, or "ground-hog" tresher, ever seen in this part ofthe country.During the war of 1812, he enlisted in defense of his adoptedcountry, gladly figting against the flag under which he wasborn, and for meritoruius conduct on the field of battle he was promoted from a private to a captain, and served withdistinction throughout the war.Politically he was first a Whig, then a Republican after thatparty was organized in the fifties.His death occured on his farm here in 1863.
His first wife was Faithful Strickland, she bore him 13 children. Among them Nathaniel J., William, Mrs. Mc Adams, Mrs.Rountree. William was a quarter master in the Union Army duringthe Civil War.His second wife, Martha Ellen Anderson, was a native ofTennessee, where she grew up and recieved a limited education.She lived to an advanced age, dying in Stone County, Missouri,in February 1899. To these parents nine children were born.
Greene County, Missouri, History Book, pages 1927-29

Married: 1st
Children
1 James H. MASSEY b: 1810
2 Mary Jane MASSEY b: BEF 1815
3 Ephraim M. MASSEY b: BEF 1815
4 Nathaniel J. MASSEY b: 5 APR 1818
5 Josephine MASSEY b: BEF 1820
6 Elizabeth MASSEY b: 1822
7 William D. MASSEY b: 19 MAR 1824
8 Nancy Margaret MASSEY b: 1826
9 Hervey A. MASSEY b: 1828

Marriage 2 Martha Ellen ANDERSON b: in Tennessee
Married: Her 1st, his 2nd
Children
1 Mary Ellen MASSEY b: 4 JAN 1841 in Greene Co., Missouri, USA
2 Marzavin V. MASSEY b: 1 JAN 1843 in Greene Co., Missouri, USA
3 Samuel C. MASSEY b: 1847 in Greene Co., Missouri, USA
4 Robert C. MASSEY b: 12 DEC 1849 in Greene Co., Missouri, USA
5 Clarinda Clementine MASSEY b: 4 JAN 1852 in Greene Co., Missouri, USA
6 Richard MASSEY b: 15 SEP 1857 in Knox County, Tennessee
7 Robert M. MASSEY b: ABT 1859 in Greene Co., Missouri, USA
8 Sarah Jane MASSEY b: 2 MAR 1860 in Greene Co., Missouri, USA
9 Emma MASSEY b: 1863 in Greene Co., Missouri, USA

Birth	Abt 1780	Ireland
Death	1 Mar 1864	Greene County, Missouri
Marriage		Faithful Strickland

Spouse	Faithful Strickland ( - 1837)
Child	Elizabeth Massey (1822 - )
Child	William Massey (1824 - )
Child	Margaret Massey (1826 - )