Historical Rosters Database
James Polk Massie
Roster ID 869This is a summary. Contact the Archives for additional biographical information.
| First Name: | James |
| Middle Name: | Polk |
| Last Name: | Massie |
| Suffix: | |
| Affiliation: | Class of 1870 |
| Biography & Genealogy: | James Polk Massie, Class of 1870 (non-graduate). Genealogy: Born February 16, 1850, Amherst County, Virginia. Father- Charles H. Massie, born Amherst County, VA, a tobacco manufacturer in Lynchburg, VA. Mother- Mary Lindsey Coleman. Paternal grandparents- Charles Massie, a tobacco planter in Amherst Co., and Miss Dodd. Maternal grandparents- Capt. Lindsey Coleman, a tobacco planter in Amherst Co., and Miss Taliaferro. VMI Record: Entered VMI Feb. 1, 1865, while VMI was headquartered at the Alms House in Richmond, VA; was with the Corps in the Richmond trenches until the evacuation of the city at the end of the Civil War in April 1865; returned to VMI after it reopened, completing a total of 3 years two months, leaving in 1869 due to poor health; did not graduate. Marriage: To Anne Harper, daughter of Capt. William Lewis Harper, a cotton planter from Jefferson Co., Mississippi. Six children, four living in 1904: 1. James Victor, 2. Charles H., 3. Andrew, 4., Claudia; 2 other boys died before 1904. Career: Followed numerous pursuits and traveled widely before ending up in California. After leaving VMI was a prospector in Nevada for 3 years; in tobacco business in New Orleans; merchant in Ft. Worth Texas; organized a party to colonize Cozumel Island in the Caribbean; returned to U. S., operating several businesses in Mississippi and various areas of Texas; then returned to California. In 1904 he was living in San Francisco and listed his vocation as "handling country lands in large blocks for colonization." Death: January 31, 1917, San Francisco. |
