CHAPTER I.

CREATION AND ORGANIZATION.
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     THE County of Highland, in the State of Ohio, was created and organized in pursuance of the act of the General Assembly of the State, passed Feb. 18th, 1806.  And its permanent boundaries were fixed and settled by said act, and also by subsequent parts of the acts of the said General Assembly, creating the counties of Fayette and Clinton, passed Feb. 19th, 1810; and also, by an act of said General Assembly, passed February, 1813.

AN ACT
Erecting a part of the counties of Ross, Adams and Clermont, into a separate county, by the name of Highland.

     SECTION 1.  Be it enacted by General Assembly of the State of Ohio; That all that part of the counties of Ross, Adams and Clermont, within the following boundaries, be and the same is hereby laid off and erected into a separate county, which shall be known by the name of Highland:  beginning at the twenty mile tree, in the line between Adams and Clermont counties, which is run north from the mouth of Eagle creek on the Ohio river, and running thence east twelve miles; thence north-eastwardly until it intersects the line which was run between the counties of Ross, Scioto and Adams, at the eighteen mile tree from the Scioto river; thence northwardly to the mouth of the Rocky fork of Paint creek; thence up main Paint creek, by the bed thereof, including John Watt's survey of one thousand acres, on which the town of Greenfield is situate, to the south line of Franklin county; thence with said line south, to the south-east corner of said county; thence with the south line thereof west, to the north

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    NOTE. - Highland was the 21st county, in order of time, organized in the State of Ohio.

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east corner of Clermont county, and from the beginning west, to the north fork of White Oak creek; thence north to the south line of Warren county; thence with said line east to the corner between Clermont and Warren counties.
     SEC. 2.  That from and after the first day of May next, said county shall be vested with all the powers, privileges and immunities of a separate and distinct county:  Provided, that it shall be lawful for the coroners, sheriffs, constables and collectors for the counties of Ross, Adams and Clermont, to do and perform all the duties which they are or may be required to do in their respective counties, within the bounds of said county of Highland, before the said division shall take place; and all suits and actions, which are or may be pending therein at the time of said division, shall be tried and determined in the same manner as though a division had not taken place,

     SEC. 3.  That all that part of the county of Highland, which shall lie south of an east line drawn from the forty-four mile tree, in the line which divides the counties Adams, Clermont, Ross and Warren, to Paint creek, shall be a district, within which and within four miles of the common center thereof, the commissioners who may be appointed, agreeably to an act, entitled "an act establishing seats of justice," shall fix the permanent seat of justice for the said county of Highland.

     SEC. 4.   That all the inhabitants within the said county of Highland, who do now, or may hereafter reside north of the east and west line mentioned in the third section of this act, shall be exempted from paying any county rates or levies, for the purpose of erecting public buildings therein.

     SEC. 5.  That the courts to be held in the said county of Highland, shall be holden in the town of New Market, until a permanent seat of justice shall be established in said county. [Passed Feb. 18, 1805.]

AN ACT establishing the county of Fayette.

     SECTION 1.  Be it enacted by the General Assemblly of the State of Ohio: That all those parts of Ross and Highland counties, included in the following boundaries, be and the same are hereby laid off and erected into a separate and distinct county, which shall be called and known by the name of Fayette, to-wit: beginning at the south-west corner of the county of Pickaway; thence north with the line of said county, to the corner of Madison; thence west with the line of said Madison county, to the line of Greene county; thence south with the line of Greene county, to the south-east corner thereof; thence east five miles; thence south to the line of Highland county; thence east with said line, to Paint creek; thence a straight line to place of beginning. [Passed February 19, 1810.]

AN ACT establishing the county of Clinton.

     SECTION 1.   Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Ohio:  That all those parts of the counties of Warren and Highland, into a separate county, to be known by the name of Clinton; beginning at the south-east corner of Greene county, running east five miles; thence south to Highland county line; thence west with said

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line, within four miles of the eastern line of Warren county; thence southwardly so far as to intersect a line one mile east from the southeast corner of Warren county; thence west from the beginning west, so far that a line south will leave Warren county a constitutional boundary.  [Passsed February 19, 1810.]

AN ACT to attach part of Highland county to the county of Clinton.

     SECTION 1.  Be it enacted by the General Asssembly of the State of Ohio:  That all that part of Highland county, within the following boundaries, be and the same is hereby attached to, and shall remain in the county of Clinton: beginning at the south-east corner of Clinton county, adjoining Fayette county; thence running a line on a southwesterly direction to strike the line of Clinton county, at such point as to include four hundred square miles in the said county of Clinton.

     SEC. 2.   That the county surveyor of the county of Ross, shall, within thirty days after being duly notified by the commissioners of Clinton county, proceed to survey said county of Clinton, and annex thereto so much of the county of Highland as shall make said county of Clinton contain four hundred square miles, agreeably to the provisions of the first section of this act, and said surveyor shall take to his assistance, chain-men and ax-men, who are not inhabitants either of the counties of Clinton, Warren or Highland, and who have no interest therein, who shall be duly sworn as the law directs; and said surveyor shall make out two accurate surveys, or plats thereof, one of which he shall return to the clerk of the court of common pleas for said county of Clinton, who shall record the same in the records of the court of said county, and the other he shall deposit in the office of the secretary of state, who shall preserve the same with this act, which surey, when so made and recorded, shall be the perpetual boundaries of said county of Clinton; and said surveyor shall receive two dollars per day, and said chain-men and ax-men shall each receive one dollar per day, for all the time they are respectively employed in such service, to be paid out of the treasury of the county of Clinton.  [Passed February 4, 1813.]

     Under these acts of the General Assembly, and the execution of them by the proper legal authorities, the boundaries of Highland county were ascertained and fixed, A. D. 1813, and have so remained ever since, except that slight variations of the compass in the running of county lines, have, in a very few instances, changed the residences of a small number of inhabitants from one county to another, possibly not in a half-dozen instances:
     Within the indisputable boundary lines, it is estimated, and has been as accurately ascertained as can be, without a precise survey of each farm, that there are included five hundred and forty-one square miles of territory, making 

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three hundred and forty-six thousand, three hundred and seven acres of land, comprehended in six hundred and thirty-two original surveys of the Virginia Military District.  This territory is now divided into seventeen townships, of unequal quantities of land, and of varied boundaries, springing out of the original irregularities of the surveys in the Virginia Military District.  The names of all the townships and the dates of their creation and organization, are given so far as they can be ascertained.
     At a meeting of the county commissioners, April 14th, 1825, the following orders were made:
     "Boundary lines of the several townships of Highland
     "county, as recorded on the books in which the acts and
     "proceedings of the commissioners of said county have
     "been recorded from its first organization, collected into
     "one view, by order of the commissioners, April 145h,
     "1825.
          "At the first organization of Highland county, it appears
     "from the records of the commissioners, that the whole
     "county was divided into four townships, viz: Liberty,
     "New Market, Fairfield and Brush Creek."
       And then in the same order, the boundary lines of the four preceding townships, and of Paint, Union, Madison and Concord, are all recorded as existing at that time; but there are no dates given as to the time of the creation and organization of these eight townships, and there are no records or journals in the auditor's office, clerk's office, or recorder's office, of Adams, Ross, Clermont, or Highland counties, (which have been diligently searched,) from which such dates can be obtained; nor by what authority the first four original townships were created and organized.  The county commissioners were, for the first time, exclusively authorized to organize and create new townhsips, by the act of the General Assembly, of February 19th, 1810; and previous to that time, the justices of the court of Quarter session, prior to the state constitution of 1802; and the commissioners

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of each county, and the associate judges of the court of common pleas of each county, after the adoption of that constitution, had concurrently exercised the power, by law, of organizing new townships, until 1810.
     The first record book of the proceedings of the county commissioners that can be found in the auditor's office, is that of A. D. 1811; and it has been reported to the writer, and such report is sustained by considerations presently mentioned, that after making the above orders (in 1825) as to the eight townships mentioned, the commissioners, before the present court hosue was erected, burned up as useless papers, those loose and irregular proceedings of their board, prior to 1811, which contained the dates of the organization of the townships mentioned above.  This tradition is confirmed by the fact that the journals from 1811 (leather bound,) exist, and that in 1825 several other townships besides those mentioned, had been created prior thereto; and no description of the boundaries of the first eight townships are given at all, and cannot be found in these leather bound jornals.
     How the fact may be, is not a matter of much public imporance, as the eight townships and their boundaries as fixed and defined by the journal of 1825, and the several changes thereof, by the creation of other subsequent townships, are all matters of record, and no dispute can arise as to the boundaries, if the records existing are preserved.
     The following are the dates of the organization of those townships which are found on the journals, and the territory out of which they were formed:

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     With some hesitancy the boundaries of the townships are omitted, for the reason that their several descriptions would make this sketch too voluminous.  And for the further reason that such boundaries can be and ought to be obtained by each board of township trustees, and preserved, to guard against the accident of the destruction of the court house and the county records by fire.

     The quantity of land in each township is as follows:

     The land in the townships is less than the auditor's duplicates show for the whole county, by 2,540 acres, which arises from the fact that subsequent surveys of the original larger tracts into lesser ones increases the quantity, because all the original surveys and original subdivisions contained a surplus.
     The orchards of the county, in the aggregate, according to the report of the secretary of state of 1875, contained 5,116 acres.

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     *NOTE - There was a township called Richland, which comprehended the territory embraced in the act attaching part of Highland to Clinton county.  But of its organization or boundaries, the record can not be found.

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FOR 1874.

     Apples, bu., 160,460; peaches, bu., 36,094; pears, bu., 2,619; grapes, lbs., 83,925; wine, gal., 6,705.

OTHER PRODUCTS FOR 1874.

     Butter, lbs., 471,743; cheese, lbs., 6,401; maple sugar, lbs., 3,217; maple syrup, gal., 4,035.  Sorghum: acres, 244; sugar, 233; syrup, gal., 9,076.

LIVE STOCK STATEMENT FOR 1874.

COUNTY AUDITOR'S REPORT
Of the foregoing agricultural and horticultural products, etc.,
for the year 1876:

     The orchards in the county, in the aggregate, according to the report of the county auditor for 1876, contain 5,445 acres.  Apples, 460,430 bu.;' peaches, 868 bu.; pears, 147 bu.; grapes, 1,760 lbs.; wine, 340 gal.; cheese, 247 lbs.; butter, 452,451 lbs.; maple sugar, 4,265 lbs.; maple syrup, 3,832 gal.; Sorghum; 325 acres; sugar, 930 lbs.; syrup, 24,299 gal.

OTHER PRODUCTS

LIVE STOCK.

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     The foregoing statistics are supposed to approximate very near to accuracy, as to the live stock statement; but as to the agricultural and horticultural products, they are very vague, because there is no law which compels a tax payer on his oath to render a true account of the products of his lands, and all such returns are made by loose conjecture; and the author would add, from his personal knowledge of the careless made in which such estimates are made by the tax payers and the assessors, that, as a general rule, the quantity and value of the agricultural and horticultural products are reported at twenty-five per cent. below the maximum value.  And he would say, for the information of parties, that so variable are the annual agricultural and horticultural products of the county, that in one year, in many products, they will exceed that of the last year preceding, by twenty per cent., or more.
     And, besides, the acreage which is sown and planted, and the failure of crops from year to year, as appears from the comparison of the auditor's reports in 1874 and 1876, above mentioned, are so greatly different; and excess of yield of crops on the same acreage on account of seasons is so great in one year over another, that it is impossible to present any other than the foregoing approximate quantities of the products of the county.

VALUE OF PROPERTY.

Assessed for taxation during 1875:

     The foregoing tables exhibit the precise status of the property interests of the county; and next in order, the

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progress of population should be presented; and, as further back than 1810, no enumeration of any census returns can be found, (because our organization commenced in 1805); therefore, from the period of 1810 the census returns can only be found, and are as follows:

POPULATION OF THE COUNTY.

POPULATION OF TOWNS AND TOWNSHIPS IN 1870.

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POPULATION OF TOWNS AND TOWNSHIPS IN 1870.
- Continued

     a  Of Fairfax: 250 in Concord and 294 in Jackson.
     b  In 1852 Penn from Fairfield and Liberty.
      NOTE. - The population of Hillsboro, according to the enumeration taken for school purposes in 1876, is 3,096.

CHURCHES, MILLS, MANUFACTORIES, AND HOTELS.

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SCHOOLS AND SCHOOL-HOUSES - 1875

ABSTRACT OF VOTES FOR PRESIDENT IN 1876.

ABSTRACT OF VOTES FOR GOVERNOR.

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BANKS.

HILLSBORO MARKETS.

Corrected weekly by MILLER & QUINN, Wholesale and Retail Grocers, High Street.

BUYING PRICES FOR COUNTRY PRODUCE

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     The foregoing statistical tables, and the occasional explanations attached to each, are believed in the main to present an accurate statement of the subject matter contained in each table, and an accurate outline of the relative condition of the county, as to each one of such subject matters.
     In the next chapter will be found a statement under separate heads, of the contributions of Highland county to the civil and military service of the United States, and the civil service of the State of Ohio, etc., etc.

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