His family was given land in Ohio, Kentucky and Covington, VA for services in the Revolutionary War. Alexander Brown states in The Cabells and Their Kin, that Thomas Massie selected the practice of physic for a profession; was bound apprentice to the celebrated Dr. McCaw, of Richmond; graduated in Philadelphia then went to Europe and spent four years in the schools of Edinburgh, London, and Paris; on his return to America settled, October, 1807, to practice his profession in Chillicothe, the then capital of Ohio, where his father and his relatives, Gen. Nathaniel and Henry Massie, owned large landed interests. He finally returned to Nelson County, Va". The people in Ohio were rather poor and could not pay in cash so they paid in livestock. At this rate he almost starved which prompted his return home. He married his first cousin and moved into "Level Green", his parent's home. His bother William called this a mistake but relations with his brother were not very good to begin with. He was a surgeon in the War of 1812. He built his own home called "Blue Rock" in present day Roseland on a portion of the Level Green property. The home is so called because of the blue rock which is prevalent in the area. The home stood until the 1890's when it burned. He and his second wife are buried there. This is the farm from which the future Gantt farm was carved. He was called "a most polished, literary, and interesting man."

The Virginia Historical Society has papers of Dr. Thomas Massie (1783-1864) include the doctor's correspondence, 1844-1855, primarily with his nephew Dr. Thomas Eugene Massie (1822-1863) while he served in the U.S. Army in Mexico; and a plat, 1842, and a deed, 1853, for land owned in Ross County, Ohio.
He was a veteran of the War of 1812 in which he served as a surgeon mostly in Richmond, VA