The Old Pike: A History of the National Road, with Incidents, Accidents, and Anecdotes ThereonSearight, Thomas B. (Thomas Brownfield)
History
The Old Pike: A History of the National Road, with Incidents, Accidents, and Anecdotes Thereon
Searight, Thomas B. (Thomas Brownfield)
Cumberland Road; Pennsylvania -- Biography
Three miles west from Beallsville the traveler reaches the village of
Hillsboro. This little town is another outgrowth of the National Road,
and as at Beallsville and Centreville, the road forms its main street.
The grade from Beallsville to Hillsboro is for the most part ascending,
the hill going out west from Beallsville being one of the longest on the
road, and Hillsboro is situate on a lofty eminence overlooking a wide
range of hills, and many fertile slopes and valleys. On the summit above
Hillsboro, the traveler coming east, gets the first glimpses of Laurel
Hill, thirty miles distant in the mountains. Crumrine's history of
Washington county, before quoted, informs us that Hillsboro was laid out
in the year 1819, a date coincident with the completion of the road. The
proprietors of the town were Stephen Hill and Thomas McGiffin, and
Crumrine's history contains the following notice of the first public
sale of lots:
"The public are informed that a town has been laid off, to be
called Hillsboro, adjoining Hill's stone tavern, about equal
distance from Washington to Brownsville, and that lots will be sold
on the premises on Monday, the 19th day of August, at public
auction. Sale to commence at 10 o'clock A. M.
July 19, 1819. STEPHEN HILL,
THOMAS MCGIFFIN,
Proprietors."
[Illustration: BILLY ROBINSON.]
Accompanying the plat of the town as recorded, says Crumrine, were these
remarks: "The above is a plan of the town of Hillsboro, nearly
equi-distant between Brownsville and Washington, Pennsylvania, on the
United States road." Signed by the proprietors. Stephen Hill belonged to
an old family of that name, which was among the early settlers of the
region, and Thomas McGiffin was an old and prominent lawyer of
Washington, and a contractor on the original construction of the road,
father of Col. Norton McGiffin, a soldier of two wars, and Sheriff and
member of the Legislature for Washington county. Hill's stone tavern
was in existence as early as 1794. In the early history of the National
Road, and for a number of years, it was the leading tavern of Hillsboro,
kept by Thomas Hill, who was not a son, but a near relative, probably a
nephew, of Stephen Hill, the old proprietor. Samuel Youman kept this
house fifty years ago, after the retirement of Hill. Youman was a stage
driver as well as a tavern keeper, and next to "Old Mount," as before
stated, the biggest man on the road. One of the stage lines, that on
which Youman was a driver, stopped at this house, and it was the only
stage house on the road that was largely patronized by old wagoners, and
their favor was obtained probably by reason of the spacious and
commodious wagon yard in front of the house. John Hampson, John Gibson,
William Dawson and Oliver Lacock each in turn kept this house since
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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