The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1866-11-29
Historical Sketches of
Highland County.
BY THE EDITOR.
NUMBER I.


natives of Pennsylvania, Maryland
Virginia and North Carolina, came
direct from those States to Ohio. They |
arst settled in Kentucky, while those who
came from the old States, some ten or
twelve years later, settled at Chillicothe.-
OF these latter, one William Craig, an emf |
grant, with his family, travelling to Chilli |
cothe by wagon, struck upon "Zane's
trace" marked the fall before, (l796) from
Wheeling to Maysville. This was merely
blazed route through the woods. 1t,
however, was guide to Chillicothe, and
Craig determined to follow it, and he did
so for distance of 20 miles, by cutting
way for his wagon. This was a most tedi-
Gus undertaking for one man, encumbered
with wagon, team and family, but he
persevered and had in the end the satis-
faction of landing safely at the encamp-
ment called Chillicothe."
To give an idea of the difficulties encoun-
tered by emigrants from the old States,
about 8 years later, we copy the following
extract from a narrative written by the
earliest settlers of the county, and passed
nearly the whole remainder of his long
and useful life in Hillsboro, honored and
respected by all his fellow-citizens. He
died a few years since at the residence oi
one of his sons, in Indiana, at the advanced
l-age of 81 years. His account ofthe journey
of himself and family from Virginia would
answer, with little variation, for the expert.
ence of many of the other old settlers of the
county. He says:
at seems to me, that in order tn have q
correct idea of the labors and extreme dan
ger we had to encounter in settling High
land county and other parts of the State
we ought TO take into account the trouble
toll and fatigue we had to undergo in
moving to it. When we take into consid-
Grafton the then state and condition of the
. roads over the mountains and hills, the
great want of bridges and ferries over wa.
ter-courses, we can have some conception
: of the extreme difficulty of travelling ovel
the almost impossible route from the old
settlements to Ohio at that early day
Turnpikes, railroads and steambo boats were
not then in existence; and the roads oveI
the mountains were the most difficult wag
on ways conceivable-without grading
ruts, gutters mud-holes and other obsta
Icles-never mended, and being hilly, bro
e ken and uneven mountainous country
made it toilsome in the extreme.
N can intelligent lady, being requested by
a friend to furnish her with a receipt fol
the best method to dress a hare for the
table, complied, and commenced her re
ceipt by saying, the first thing to be done
in the matter was 'tO catch the hare i
seems to me equally necessary, in order tc
give our successors and posterity an ade
quate idea of the extreme labor in settling
Ohio, we ought to recapitulate the toll, ia
tigue and drudgery of travelling to ou
wildwoods home in the West. The LADY
above alluded to seemed to have clea
view of her undertaking. She knew tn
persons who would be engaged il
teasting on the delicate and well-dresset
morsel, when on the table, would neve
think of the labor and trouble of catchin
it. So the descendants of the early settlers
and the present occupants of our well-im
proved farms, our beautiful towns, ou
h' connections churches, school-hOuses, couI
house, excellent Touring mills, &c, vii
lie hardly turn a thought in the direction c
h. the toll, drudgery and hardships of thos
laborious men who leveled the forests an
= opened up the farms. l will therefore Civ
"a short sketch of the trials of our compan
ONSt LliS nioulltdltlS, DeIleNlnR correct az
- count of our own travels will equally we
describe the hardships of many others.
u ave took our journey from the valley
~ the Old Dominion, in September A.
- 1905, with a strong team, large wagon an
y u heavy load. We proceeded on our wa
-, over the Allegheny Mountains, Greenbri'
!" hills, Sewell and Gauley mountain
a. a Kanawha river and back-water creek
y. often impossible by the rising of the rive
- and arrived at Point Pleasant, where v
crossed the Ohio and left most of our tro
bles behind us. Our company consisted
two family connections, each OF whiC
were subdivided into one or two small
a; families; and to give promise of a fair b
- ginning, each of them had an infant spec
,,o men Of Young America to carry on d
~ knee, aid numbering twenty-three perso
-, in all, eight of whom were full grown me
- We often had to exert all our unit
strength and skill to prevent our WACO
on from upsetting, and had often TO dout
IL teams in order to ascend the steep mou
|, 7 tain-sides. None of our company N
with any accident, but not so with all {
emigrants who preceded us on the saI
route. We sometimes passed the fra
to- ments- OF broken wagon beds, broken fl
dy niture, and remnants of broken boxes al
in other marks of damage by upsetting
the mountain-side, where the wage
er- team and all had rolled over and ov
down the steep declivity, for some roc
an until stopped by the Intervention of sol
Zly trees too stout 10 be prostrated by the ms
'e's of broken fragments. BY doubling teal
J in we could reach the mountain top, but
get safely down again called for other &C
trivances. One expedient frequently tri
,er, was to faster a pretty stout pine tree TO
IRE, hind axle-tree of the wagons with chai
'ou so as 10 retard the downward course up
7ed the horses. At the foot of such hills a
ym mountains could be seen sundry such tire
uld that had been dragged down for the p,
ing pose above named We arrived at {
"" Highland home in about eight weeks, c.
18th stant travel, Sundays excepted"
md Such is graphic description OF
cen dangers and difficulties encountered
ler- the early settlers of Southern Ohio, "
'"' made their way through the wilderness
the.land of hope and promise. At the ii
Yp Col. Keys and his family emigrated, tn
Jaw was peace between the Indians and whit
oes so that the danger of being attacked by
un savages was much diminished; but tn
zoe who came out twelve or fifteen years