The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1894-06-28

doubt had been used as sleeping rooms
for guests. The porch to the north of
the west room extended along it and the
south end of the hall. The west room
had the large single stone chimney and
over it an old fashioned wooden mantel
Of walnut, carved and figured, which,
W hen the home was built, was the pride
OF the proprietor and the envy Of his
eighbors. The spaces between the out.
er weather boarding and the inner cell
ing of the walls had been filed with
mortar. The floor boards though very
wide were tongued and grooved an the
weather boards were put on pointed in
stead of overlapped. 1t is probable there
had been additions to the house, but
they were gone when we visited it. The
grounds about the house were at one
time tastefully laid out, and traces of
the vanished beauty were still apparent.
Two locust trees, the largest the writer
ever saw, stand in front of the house to
the south. They are each at least ten
feet in circumference and not less than
100 years old. Between them had stood
monster cherry, but it's trunk, Prone
ON the earth, spoke Of its grandeur, when
alive. AT the northwest of the house
about ten yards distant, stands living
black heart cherry tree which measures
thirteen feet, six inches in girth. Its
spreading limbs, projecting horizontally,
are as large as ordinary trees of its kind.
Between the house and this tree is an
old. fashioned cave cellar covered by q
small house. While this house over.
looks the one great highway, the Ohio
river, and the other great highway, the
Chesapeake & Ohio railroad, with all
boats and trains in view for miles, it is
now one of the most inaccessible spots
in the State. The hills in front descend
sheer into the Ohio river without any
shelf or bottom land within nearly a
mile on either side OF the property. 1t
is only approachable by road coming
through farms from Gift ridge in the
rear, and it is two miles from the station
over the toughest and most primitive of
roads, over stones and up and down hills
to the nearest turnpike, or public high.
way. In early days when roads were Of
no consequence it had direct road to
and from Manchester. The fact that the
home is so out of the way has preserved
it. Had it been upon public highway
it would have been destroyed by fire, or
torn down years ago. There are seven
fine springs flowing from the hillsides
near the residence.
In military point of view it is strate.
get. A fort on this property would com.
mand the Ohio valley up and down for
miles, would command the Kentucky
hills to the south and the Ohio hills to
the north. Fort Thomas, near Newport,
KY, should have been located here, and
whenever it becomes necessary to have
forts along the Ohio border there will
be one here.
At this place General Massie dwelt oc.
casionally for the five years, from 1897
till 1902, but the shades of oblivion are
80 fast darkening the history of this
hardy pioneer that little can be learned
of his residence at this point. General
Massie's wife was Susan Meade, of near
Chaumerie, KY, formerly of Maycox,
Prince George county, Va. Her sister
Sarah married Charles Willing Byrd,
United States district judge for Ohio
from March 3, 1903, until August IL,
1923. Judge Byrd bought this property,
900 acres, in 1907 of his brother.in.law,
Gen. Massie, for $3, 100, and moved there
in June, 1867. He was then thirty y.seven
and his wife was thirty.two, and his
children were Mary, aged nine; Powell,
aged six !; Kidder Meade, aged five !;
William Silonwee, aged two, and his
daughter, Evelyn, was born there in
August, 1907. Judge Byrd had been
born and reared at the princely estate of
Westover, seven miles from Williams.
burg, Va, and his wife on the large
estate of her father, Col. David Meade,
at Maycox, right opposite Westover.
Both had been reared in all the luxury
that the times of their childhood knew.
From 1899 to 1907 they had resided in
Cincinnati, then an Insignificant village,
and why Judge Byrd wanted to bring
his young wife and babies to this wilder.
ness no one can now conjecture. Here
he and his family saw the first steam
boat descend the Ohio in 1914, and here
his patient wife went to her everlasting
rest on the 2lst day Of February, 1915,
and was buried Iunder walnut tree
some 200 yards from the house. Her
grave is shown to this day.
That must have been mournful pro.
cession of the judge and his family, he
then forty. five, Mary seventeen, Powell
sixteen, Kidder twelve, William ten,
and Evelyn eight, accompanied by his
neighbors, bearing the fair daughter of
Viroinia who had oracod its host aoc;oty