The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1867-12-05
Historical Sketches of
Highland County.
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We have already rcfrrrri to the election
N,r county oa1cerS, &C., held In October,
ISM Atthis election Bigger J. Head was
epc or the candidates Tor Commissioner,
and Wss only few votes behind Geo w.
Rsvyere, who NNs declsrcd elected. Mr.,
Head, having been informed that a num-
her ~ illegal votes had been polled for
Rarrcre iu New Market Tp., contested the
election, Nu, agcr going 70 considerable
trouble aud expense, he failed to establish
bis claim, and Barrcre retained the Office.
The first Pottery In the county was es-
tablished in 1906, by Richard niT, at what
Is now known as tho "Eagle Spring" a
milo southwest Of the Court House. Ihf
was nom Pennsylvania, and had located
on the Scloto, about two years before, but
removed 10 this county on account of the
came te his brother-in-law's, James Smith
on Rocky Fork, who had built little pole
min near where PatterSou's mill now
stands. After recovering his health, Uih'
''squatted" at the Eagle Spring, having
selected that point for its vicinity to a bed
Of good potter's clay. There he moulded
and burned The first brick made in the
county, lin the summer of 1907 With
these he built kiln to bake his crockery.
lie soon did a fourishing business, and
continued his Pottery at the spring until
Hillsboro was located and something of a
town of cabins built, when he moved to
town and established his Pottery on the
ground now occupied by the R. R. Depot.
The buildings and kiIns he erected there
remained until a few years before the rail-
road was opened, but they, as well as his
original improvements at the Spring, have
long since disappeared. Ilif is described
as tan odd-Iooking, though esteemed a
clever, worthy man, being six feet four
inches in his socks and as gauat and slen-
der as a fence rail"
Amarinh Gossett, who still carries onthe
business a few miles south of Hillsboro,
learned his trade with Tiff, whilst he car
. ried on at the Spring. Gossett had prev
iously followed the business Of saving
plank with ''whip-saw." This was the
first mode of saving lumber introduced
into the county, no saw-miIIs having as
paratively boy, but had assisted an
Irishman named McCauley, to saw the
plank for his fathers mill. Afterwards he !
and McCauley formed a partnership, and
went over the country with their whip
saw, saving lumber wherever their ser
vices were required. They were able bv |
hard and steady work, to cut about 400 |
feet day, for which they received 81 per
hundred. They sawed 1000 feet of cherry .
boards for Hector Murphy, on "Smoky .
Row." and about the same quantity for
David Jolly, on Rocky Fork. They also
sawed for Moses Patterson and Others
About this time they and some of the 9th
or settlers were erecting a better style Of
houses than the first rude cabins in which
they had lived.
Mr.. Scott thus describes these improved 1
dwellings, as he remembered them 80
years ago, when many of them were still
in good preservation, some Of which doubt
less still remain:
''The houses were built of heavy, we'll
hewed logs, notched down pretty close,
corners sawed OFF square and neat, chink-
cd with stone and daubed with pure white
lime inside and out. The exterior of one
OF these houses, after the logs had been
blackened with the weather, presented
quite pretty and novel appearance, as it
RtOod in all its great strength, promisin {
much comfort and good cheer, on the brow !
OF the hill, near the spring, half concealed
from the road by the graceful forms of
native sugar, elm and ash, with back
ground of young apple trees and rugged
fields, full Of stumps and dead timber
They -rsrs- ''underpinned" with stone,
pointed with lime neatly. The chimney
was also OF stone-generally stack
pointed with lime. The doors and win
dows were cased with cherry plank-floors
Of ash plank. laid down tight, and white
as snow. The upper floor was tightly
laid down on very neatly dressed joists,
beaded on the lower side. These joists
were generally made of cherry. The roof {
was Of lap shingles, and hearth Of flag Y
stones. 1he main house was two stories,
at the end of which and joined to it, was I
The kitchen, which was only one story. In I
this the cooking was done in a stone fire
place, eight feet long, three deep and five
feet high. The loom, which was a neces-
larv implement in every farmhouse,
,tood in one corner of this capacioUs kitch-
IN. The main building on the lower floor,
vas generally cut near the centre by
light plank partition, the back part of
which was again divided by another par
ition, making two bed rooms. A stair q
way led to the upper story, which was a
in one largeroom, and used for C
1uiltings, sleeping apartments for the
children, &c. These houses were very n
iurable, and in their day the best in the n
county" d
''William yannoy, with his widowed e
mother and her'children, moved up from
Adams county into Highland, and settled
IN Brush Creek in the spring of 1906. His i
ather, John Vannoy, moved out from !.
kentucky and settled in Adams county, in
sO4. !
'The first school taught in Liberty town :.
hip was in a little log school house on the :,
and Of Samuel Evans, in the winter Of a
so5-6, and John Mathews was the teach y
r." The school master seems TO have
,een "abroad" in Highland at very ,,
,arly day. q
CORRRCTION.-In the last number orl r
hese "Sketches," we stated that Noses -
'omlinson was at present living on the .:
,lacc where his father, Josiah Tomlinson. =
.rst settled, in Paint township. We have
ince learned that Mr.. Tomlinsou was
cad at the time we wrote, having depart st
d this life after brief illness, on the 18th ii