The earliest known Messer is James Messer born 1735 in Edgefield County, South Carolina. Edgefield is located just across the Savannah from Augusta, Georgia. Who James's parents were and how they got to America are currently unknown. The closest seaports are Charleston, South Carolina and Savannah, Georgia, but several travels and tenures show that James travelled over 200 miles up to Wythe County, Virginia, located in the highly traveled Shenandoah Valley. Records also suggest that James's father and relatives may have lived there by 1700, such that they could have immigrated from Jamestown, Virginia, or even Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The James Messer Family lived in and around Edgefield off and on for over seventy years, apparently frequently visiting or returning to Wythe County, Virginia, for unknown reasons ~ possibly relations to visit or the economy/work related, as is often the case for travel during hardship of the war - Revolutionary or for a depression/recession of the times.