How to delete all iPhone text messages

I have been searching around the internet for several days and cannot come up with a solution. Forgive me if this has been answered in this group and I just didn't find it.

I have an iPhone 4S updated to iOS6. I got it in February 2012. I rarely delete text messages and now have Thousands from different senders that I have to delete. I tried the usual methods like Swiping and the Edit button. It took me an hour to delete February's messages. I don't have time to go month by month and do this. Is there a better way? Is there any PC software that will let me copy the messages to my PC, DELETE the ones I don't want and then copy them back? If I must, I can delete all my messages and start over, but this is not ideal. Having all of these messages is slowing down my iMessage when I try to send a text and I need to get rid of them.