LIBRARY NOW OPEN!
We have expanded our library and it is now located in the Museum room. Please stop by and see the many (over 100) new items available for check-out. Many biographies have been added as well as many years of GREEN PRINTS magazine. Library has been completely reorganized to suit a church library needs.
You may access our files of library books below, along with a description of books contained in each category.
You may access our files of library books below, along with a description of books contained in each category.
Library Catalog by Title
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Library Catalog by Category
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With the addition of more space, we have been able to convert a room in our 1907 building to a small museum and library. St. Mary's is fortunate that the founders and early Vestry members saw the value in keeping original records of the church. We have the service books brought to us by Thomas Cummings of New York City, a friend of one of our founders. In our museum is found a rotating display of these items, plus in depth looks at some of our past members and priests. Where did they come from? Where did they go after leaving this area? This area also houses a small library featuring books of many subjects, both religious and secular.
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The beginnings of Hillsborough….. The Rev. Edward Bradley, Rector of St. Mary's from 1884 to 1888, recorded in the Parish Register the following "Outline History of Hillsborough, Liberty Township, Highland County, Ohio."
The first surveys of land in the township were made A.D. 1795. The first white man known to have visited this spot was James Trimble, a youthful scout in Gov. Dunmore's expedition against the Indians in 1774. The same man, Capt. James Trimble of Kentucky, then 48 years of age, made his second visit to this region A.D. 1801, and purchased a tract of land on which his family settled after his death, which occurred in 1804.
The first settlements in this township were made in 1799 on Clear Creek by Hugh Evans and his four sons, Richard, Samuel, Daniel and Amos. The township and the county were organized in the year 1805. Two hundred acres of land, on the highest point in the county, were purchased from Benjamin Ellicott for one hundred dollars, and a deed given on the 7th September, 1807. On this plat of ground the town was located, named Hillsborough by the court, and made the seat of justice for Highland County.
A public sale of town lots was made 1st October, 1807, and the purchasers were from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia and Kentucky. The town of Hillsborough was incorporated as a village on the 7th February 1814. A second and amended act of incorporation bears the date 18th February 1848.
The Hillsborough Public Library and Reading Room was first opened for use on the 12th July 1877.
(Compiled from the "History of Ross and Highland Counties," published by Williams Brothers in 1880 - E. Bradley)
The area we now call Highland County was part of the Virginia Military District and, as such, was settled by those receiving land following service to their country. In February of 1807, in order to create a permanent seat of justice, an entry in the journal reads, “Agreeably to an act of the last legislature, entitled an act establishing the permanent seat of justice in the county of Highland, the court have elected David Hays director.” In September of that year, Mr. Hays received a deed for 200 acres from Benjamin Ellicott through his attorney, Phineas Hunt, at a cost of $100.00. This land, situated on the dividing ridge between the Miami and Scioto Rivers, was that upon which he laid out the town of Hillsborough. Regarding the name, some say that it was given by the court by reason of being situated on the highest land in the county. Others claim it was in honor of William Hill, “Uncle Billy Hill.” Still others say that Hays just chose the name.
John Campton, a tanner from New Market, was one of the early purchasers of a lot. He then put up a shanty and was living in it within ten days after the sale. The second building was a log cabin erected by Joseph Knox on the lot where the Parker House currently stands. This was Knox Tavern.
The foundation for a court house was begun early August of 1808. It was replaced by a second court house in 1834. It was in this second structure that early services of St. Mary’s Protestant Episcopal Church were held.
THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH COMES TO HIGHLAND COUNTY
The first evidence of an Episcopal clergyman's presence in Highland County is found in a letter from the Rev. Philander Chase to his son George, then staying with his uncle Dudley in Vermont. The letter is dated Worthington, July 10, 1817, about a year before the Diocese of Ohio was organized and Chase elected first Bishop of Ohio in 1818, and just a few months after James Monroe took office as the fifth President of the United States. Chase wrote: "While at Columbus, before my visit to Cincinnati, I addressed your mother, supposing her at Clarence, near Buf-falo. My letter was dated the 12th of May, and just said, 'Send the goods to Sandusky--be yourself at Cleveland in about a month from this,' This done, I went on my journey by the way of Dayton, Lebanon, Cincinnati, Williamsburg, Newmarket (sic), Chillicothe, Circleville, Lancaster, and thence to Columbus again, as I believe I told you." (Vol. I, "Bishop Chase's Reminiscences," p, 133)
In order to find the first record of an Episcopal clergyman's leading worship in Highland County, we have to move forward about eight years. The year was 1825 and John Quincy Adams was President of the United States, then a new nation in its 50th year. Jeremiah Morrow was Governor of the state of Ohio, a state for only 22 years. The state capital had been moved from Chillicothe to Columbus only nine years earlier in 1816.
The Episcopal Diocese of Ohio, the first diocese not in a state on the eastern seaboard, was seven years old, having been organized at Worthington in 1818 when Philander Chase was elected first Bishop of Ohio. At the eighth annual Diocesan Convention held in Zanesville June 1, 2 and 3, 1825, Bishop Chase presided and there were six priests present, including the Rev. Samuel Johnston, who had been minister of Christ Church, Cincinnati, since 1818. Samuel Johnston had preached the sermon at the first annual Diocesan Convention in Worthington June 3, 4 and 5, 1818, and served as Secretary of convention from 1819 until 1825, declining re-election in 1826. In his report to the Bishop at the 1825 convention, Johnston said, "Mr. Johnston has neglected no opportunity presented unto him, whether visiting his parish, the sick, or those in prison, to advise and to premonish, and to preach the comfortable Gospel of Jesus Christ our Lord. Besides thus discharging faithfully his duties in his parish, he has performed divine service and preached at Hamilton once, Chillicothe twice, and also at Greenfield and Lancaster.” (Diocesan Convention Journal, 1825, p. 124)
As far as can be determined from existing records, this "performing divine service and preaching...also at Greenfield" in late 1824 or early 1825 was the first worship service to be led by an Episcopal priest in Highland County. The following paragraph is from Samuel Johnston's report to Bishop Chase at Diocesan Convention June 6 and 7, 1821 in Worthington:
"On my way to the convention, I officiated twice in Wilmington; and though the members of our communion there had never before been visited by a clergyman of the Church, yet such was the solemn attention to the service and attachment to the primitive faith, that it will amply justify exertions for missionary aid in their behalf. It is needless for me to state to the Bishop, that at least two missionaries might be usefully employed in the Miami country. The Lord has indeed been gracious unto us; and we cannot doubt but our own exertions, accompanied with those of missionaries from the East, will cause the Episcopal Church in this region to rise, increase and flourish, as a vine which the right hand of the Lord hath planted."
"O, that such of our young men in the Atlantic states as are now entering into the fold, were within the sound of the bleating of the sheep in the West, that they might hasten, in obedience to the call of the Chief Shepherd and Bishop of our souls, and feed them with the bread of life, and give them to drink of the waters of salvation." (Diocesan Convention Journal, 1821, p. 56)
The next report of ministrations by Episcopal clergy in Highland County comes in the report to Bishop Chase by the Rev. John P. Bausman, of St. Paul's, Chillicothe, at the Diocesan Convention held in Mt. Vernon and Gambier, September 5 and 6, 1827. The 1827 convention met briefly in Gambier to view first hand the progress in construction of Kenyon College's first building, now known as "Old Kenyon," the cornerstone of which was laid June 9, 1827. Mr. Bausman had only been in Chillicothe since Whitsunday, June 3, 1827, but he reports that "Mr. Bausman was lately much gratified in visiting Mr. Thomas White, residing near Greenfield. He preached in his house to a respectable and a very attentive congregation. The occasion was rendered highly interesting by the baptism of six adults and two children." Consultation with the Rector of St. Paul's, Chillicothe in the early 1990s indicated that there was no record in the parish register of the date of these baptisms or the names of the eight persons baptized. Survey records in the office of the County Recorder of Highland County show that on October 8, 1818, land on College Township Rd. west of Greenfield was deeded to Thomas White, Sr.
A history of Highland County states that, "The College Township Road already built to Chillicothe, passed through Greenfield, Leesburg, New Lexington (now Highland), Van Mater's station (now Snow Hill) to Lebanon in Warren County. The road was constructed by orders of the commissioners of Ross County to secure a direct communication between Chillicothe and the rich bottom lands of the Miami Valley. The road from Athens to Chillicothe was cut out when McArthur made his survey. (1797)
"After Ohio became a state, the College Township Road was re-surveyed, widened and finally designated as a state road. It led to the township land to be used as revenue for educational purposes. The township formed was given the name Oxford. When Miami University was established, the town that grew up around the college was also called Oxford. The first university in Ohio was established at Athens in 1804 and was known as Ohio University. The second college at the other end of the road was Miami University, established in 1809." (Hills of Highland, Elsie J. Ayres, p. 80)
At the time of the Rev. Mr. Bausman's visit to Greenfield in 1827, Allen Trimble of Highland County was governor of Ohio. Governor Trimble was father of Col. William Trimble, one of the founders of St. Mary's. The governor is described as "a great statesman (who) labored unceasingly for the development of his town (Hillsboro), county, state and nation." Mrs. Ayres notes that among the people who were guests at Allen Trimble's home were General Duncan McArthur, Henry Clay, William Henry Harrison and Rutherford B. Hayes. (Hills of Highland, Elsie J. Ayres, p. 69)
First mention of Episcopal Church beginnings in Hillsboro is in the report made by the Rev. E. W. Peet, Rector of St. Paul's, Chillicothe, to the Diocesan Convention at Zanesville October 4, 5 and 6, 1838, presided over by Bishop Charles P. McIlvaine, second Bishop of Ohio (who consecrated St. Mary's building in 1855). The Zanesville convention was during the presidency of Martin Van Buren. Mr. Peet mentions being "engaged the last of this month (October 1838) in Hillsborough (where are several Episcopalians anxious for the promotion of a church)." The frustrating and tantalizing thing about this note is that there is no record in Peet's subsequent reports to Diocesan Conventions in 1839 and 1840 of his actually visiting Hillsboro, and he resigned as Rector of Chillicothe at Easter of 1841.
The next reference to Hillsboro in diocesan records is in the convention minutes of 1844, during the presidency of John Tyler, who ran for vice president with William Henry Harrison under the slogan, "Tippecanoe and Tyler Too." Harrison died a month after his inauguration in 1841, the first American president to die in office, and Tyler succeeded him as president. In 1844 the Rev. James B. Britton, Rector of St. Paul's, Chillicothe, re-ported to Bishop Mcilvaine that "missionary services have been performed at Lancaster several times, at Kingston, Bourneville and Hillsboro each once. (Our entire church debt has been assumed by the Senior Warden and now amounts to about $400.)" (Convention Journal)
In the 1850 Diocesan Convention was held at Christ Church, Dayton, September 25-27, just three months after Vice President Millard Fillmore had succeeded to the presidency after the death of President Zachary Taylor. The Rev. L. N. Freeman had been Rector of St. Paul's, Chillicothe less than a year, and in his report to Bishop Mcllvaine, Freeman stated, "I have also officiated twice at Hillsboro and once in Bainbridge." (Convention Journal)
Parish records of St. Mary's note that in 1851 the Rev. Richard Gray of Cincinnati held services in the Highland County Court House, and this marks the beginning of the process that led to the organizing of St. Mary's Church on December 9, 1853.
The person whose enthusiasm and persistence were responsible for the first steps toward organizing an Episcopal congregation in Hillsboro was William H. Bayard. Of Bayard the Rev. George B. Beecher said, "The earliest movement towards the establishment of this church had its origin with this man." In his address on Easter Day, April 21, 1889, Beecher continued, "In the winter of 1851 or 1852 Mr. Bayard began, so far as I know, the first Episcopal services ever held in this region, conducting them in his own parlor and himself reading the prayers and lessons." George Beecher also stated that William Bayard was joined by J. Milton Boyd in his efforts to bring the Episcopal Church to Hillsboro: "Very soon after this, Mr. Boyd removed from the country to Hillsboro and, at the solicitation of Mr. Bayard, united with him in starting the movement which resulted in the establishment of this church (St. Mary's)." Unfortunately very little is known of William H. Bayard and his family, except that Mrs. Bayard was named Rachel, and their son, Pierre Cummings Bayard was baptized on the same day St. Mary's building was consecrated, October 25, 1855. We know the Bayards lived in Liberty Township and farmed, but we don’t know why they came to Hillsboro, or why they left (the lists of parishioners and communicants in the original Parish Register indicate only that the Bayards' removed in October 1855). Did they perhaps stay through the consecration of St. Mary’s and then travel back east with their friend, Thomas Cummings? What we have discovered is that the Bayards removed to Cornwall, New York after leaving Hillsboro, appearing on the 1860 Federal Census.
In his reminiscences dated January 21, 1876, Professor Isaac Sams, first Senior Warden of St. Mary's, begins with the introduction of William H. Bayard. Sams writes, "The person most instrumental in bringing the Church to Hillsboro was William H. Bayard, son of Rev. Lewis Pintard Bayard of New York City, who died in the Holy Land (further research has shown his death to be recorded as occurring in Malta) while traveling for his health. His son, who with his young wife had settled in the vicinity of Hillsborough about 1850, was a very strong church-man, and sorely troubled at the lack of church privileges. Bayard sent for the Rev. William Freeman from Chillicothe to come and baptize his first child, and when the second was born, invited the Rev. Richard Gray from Cincinnati. To both these gentlemen he poured forth his griefs and induced the latter to come and hold occasional services in Hillsborough."
Although no dates are given for the "occasional services" led by the Rev. Mr. Gray of Cincinnati, early records of St. Mary's indicate that these services began in 1851 and were held in the Highland County Court House. In his report to Bishop McIlvaine at Diocesan Convention of 1853, Mr. Gray reports that he had been appointed City Missionary connected with Christ Church, Cincinnati. Gray notes, "When I was not required to assist the Rev. D. A. Tyng in Christ Church on the Lord's day, I have preached in Hillsboro in Highland County, Milford, Clermont County, and Hamilton, Butler County. In the former place a subscription has been raised amounting to nearly $300 for the services of a clergyman." It is interesting to note that in 1851, the year which marks the beginning of the movement to found an Episcopal parish in Hillsboro, Bishop Philander Chase, first Bishop of Ohio, and in 1851, first Bishop of Illinois, was the senior Bishop of the Episcopal Church in the U.S.A. and hence served as Presiding Bishop. In 1850 the General Convention of the Episcopal Church met in Cincinnati, and was presided over by Bishop Chase. So it was that within the lifetime of Ohio's first pioneer Bishop, St. Mary's, Hillsboro was established.
As has been the case in many places, it was the efforts of a lay person, newly arrived in a new home and dissatisfied with the status quo, which led to the founding of a new Episcopal congregation. George Franklin Smythe in his definitive A History of the Diocese of Ohio until the Year 1918, writes in a paragraph on the Virginia Military Lands, "In this great triangle, of which, roughly speaking, the Ohio River between Portsmouth and Cincinnati is the base, and Kenton the apex, the Episcopal Church had nothing to show in 1834; and twenty-five years later it could claim but a single parish, St. Mary's, Hillsboro, with thirty-six communicants." (Smythe, op cit, p. 307)
For a complete history of St. Mary's Episcopal Church, read The Story of St. Mary's Episcopal Church, by John G. Carson and John M. Glaze
The first surveys of land in the township were made A.D. 1795. The first white man known to have visited this spot was James Trimble, a youthful scout in Gov. Dunmore's expedition against the Indians in 1774. The same man, Capt. James Trimble of Kentucky, then 48 years of age, made his second visit to this region A.D. 1801, and purchased a tract of land on which his family settled after his death, which occurred in 1804.
The first settlements in this township were made in 1799 on Clear Creek by Hugh Evans and his four sons, Richard, Samuel, Daniel and Amos. The township and the county were organized in the year 1805. Two hundred acres of land, on the highest point in the county, were purchased from Benjamin Ellicott for one hundred dollars, and a deed given on the 7th September, 1807. On this plat of ground the town was located, named Hillsborough by the court, and made the seat of justice for Highland County.
A public sale of town lots was made 1st October, 1807, and the purchasers were from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia and Kentucky. The town of Hillsborough was incorporated as a village on the 7th February 1814. A second and amended act of incorporation bears the date 18th February 1848.
The Hillsborough Public Library and Reading Room was first opened for use on the 12th July 1877.
(Compiled from the "History of Ross and Highland Counties," published by Williams Brothers in 1880 - E. Bradley)
The area we now call Highland County was part of the Virginia Military District and, as such, was settled by those receiving land following service to their country. In February of 1807, in order to create a permanent seat of justice, an entry in the journal reads, “Agreeably to an act of the last legislature, entitled an act establishing the permanent seat of justice in the county of Highland, the court have elected David Hays director.” In September of that year, Mr. Hays received a deed for 200 acres from Benjamin Ellicott through his attorney, Phineas Hunt, at a cost of $100.00. This land, situated on the dividing ridge between the Miami and Scioto Rivers, was that upon which he laid out the town of Hillsborough. Regarding the name, some say that it was given by the court by reason of being situated on the highest land in the county. Others claim it was in honor of William Hill, “Uncle Billy Hill.” Still others say that Hays just chose the name.
John Campton, a tanner from New Market, was one of the early purchasers of a lot. He then put up a shanty and was living in it within ten days after the sale. The second building was a log cabin erected by Joseph Knox on the lot where the Parker House currently stands. This was Knox Tavern.
The foundation for a court house was begun early August of 1808. It was replaced by a second court house in 1834. It was in this second structure that early services of St. Mary’s Protestant Episcopal Church were held.
THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH COMES TO HIGHLAND COUNTY
The first evidence of an Episcopal clergyman's presence in Highland County is found in a letter from the Rev. Philander Chase to his son George, then staying with his uncle Dudley in Vermont. The letter is dated Worthington, July 10, 1817, about a year before the Diocese of Ohio was organized and Chase elected first Bishop of Ohio in 1818, and just a few months after James Monroe took office as the fifth President of the United States. Chase wrote: "While at Columbus, before my visit to Cincinnati, I addressed your mother, supposing her at Clarence, near Buf-falo. My letter was dated the 12th of May, and just said, 'Send the goods to Sandusky--be yourself at Cleveland in about a month from this,' This done, I went on my journey by the way of Dayton, Lebanon, Cincinnati, Williamsburg, Newmarket (sic), Chillicothe, Circleville, Lancaster, and thence to Columbus again, as I believe I told you." (Vol. I, "Bishop Chase's Reminiscences," p, 133)
In order to find the first record of an Episcopal clergyman's leading worship in Highland County, we have to move forward about eight years. The year was 1825 and John Quincy Adams was President of the United States, then a new nation in its 50th year. Jeremiah Morrow was Governor of the state of Ohio, a state for only 22 years. The state capital had been moved from Chillicothe to Columbus only nine years earlier in 1816.
The Episcopal Diocese of Ohio, the first diocese not in a state on the eastern seaboard, was seven years old, having been organized at Worthington in 1818 when Philander Chase was elected first Bishop of Ohio. At the eighth annual Diocesan Convention held in Zanesville June 1, 2 and 3, 1825, Bishop Chase presided and there were six priests present, including the Rev. Samuel Johnston, who had been minister of Christ Church, Cincinnati, since 1818. Samuel Johnston had preached the sermon at the first annual Diocesan Convention in Worthington June 3, 4 and 5, 1818, and served as Secretary of convention from 1819 until 1825, declining re-election in 1826. In his report to the Bishop at the 1825 convention, Johnston said, "Mr. Johnston has neglected no opportunity presented unto him, whether visiting his parish, the sick, or those in prison, to advise and to premonish, and to preach the comfortable Gospel of Jesus Christ our Lord. Besides thus discharging faithfully his duties in his parish, he has performed divine service and preached at Hamilton once, Chillicothe twice, and also at Greenfield and Lancaster.” (Diocesan Convention Journal, 1825, p. 124)
As far as can be determined from existing records, this "performing divine service and preaching...also at Greenfield" in late 1824 or early 1825 was the first worship service to be led by an Episcopal priest in Highland County. The following paragraph is from Samuel Johnston's report to Bishop Chase at Diocesan Convention June 6 and 7, 1821 in Worthington:
"On my way to the convention, I officiated twice in Wilmington; and though the members of our communion there had never before been visited by a clergyman of the Church, yet such was the solemn attention to the service and attachment to the primitive faith, that it will amply justify exertions for missionary aid in their behalf. It is needless for me to state to the Bishop, that at least two missionaries might be usefully employed in the Miami country. The Lord has indeed been gracious unto us; and we cannot doubt but our own exertions, accompanied with those of missionaries from the East, will cause the Episcopal Church in this region to rise, increase and flourish, as a vine which the right hand of the Lord hath planted."
"O, that such of our young men in the Atlantic states as are now entering into the fold, were within the sound of the bleating of the sheep in the West, that they might hasten, in obedience to the call of the Chief Shepherd and Bishop of our souls, and feed them with the bread of life, and give them to drink of the waters of salvation." (Diocesan Convention Journal, 1821, p. 56)
The next report of ministrations by Episcopal clergy in Highland County comes in the report to Bishop Chase by the Rev. John P. Bausman, of St. Paul's, Chillicothe, at the Diocesan Convention held in Mt. Vernon and Gambier, September 5 and 6, 1827. The 1827 convention met briefly in Gambier to view first hand the progress in construction of Kenyon College's first building, now known as "Old Kenyon," the cornerstone of which was laid June 9, 1827. Mr. Bausman had only been in Chillicothe since Whitsunday, June 3, 1827, but he reports that "Mr. Bausman was lately much gratified in visiting Mr. Thomas White, residing near Greenfield. He preached in his house to a respectable and a very attentive congregation. The occasion was rendered highly interesting by the baptism of six adults and two children." Consultation with the Rector of St. Paul's, Chillicothe in the early 1990s indicated that there was no record in the parish register of the date of these baptisms or the names of the eight persons baptized. Survey records in the office of the County Recorder of Highland County show that on October 8, 1818, land on College Township Rd. west of Greenfield was deeded to Thomas White, Sr.
A history of Highland County states that, "The College Township Road already built to Chillicothe, passed through Greenfield, Leesburg, New Lexington (now Highland), Van Mater's station (now Snow Hill) to Lebanon in Warren County. The road was constructed by orders of the commissioners of Ross County to secure a direct communication between Chillicothe and the rich bottom lands of the Miami Valley. The road from Athens to Chillicothe was cut out when McArthur made his survey. (1797)
"After Ohio became a state, the College Township Road was re-surveyed, widened and finally designated as a state road. It led to the township land to be used as revenue for educational purposes. The township formed was given the name Oxford. When Miami University was established, the town that grew up around the college was also called Oxford. The first university in Ohio was established at Athens in 1804 and was known as Ohio University. The second college at the other end of the road was Miami University, established in 1809." (Hills of Highland, Elsie J. Ayres, p. 80)
At the time of the Rev. Mr. Bausman's visit to Greenfield in 1827, Allen Trimble of Highland County was governor of Ohio. Governor Trimble was father of Col. William Trimble, one of the founders of St. Mary's. The governor is described as "a great statesman (who) labored unceasingly for the development of his town (Hillsboro), county, state and nation." Mrs. Ayres notes that among the people who were guests at Allen Trimble's home were General Duncan McArthur, Henry Clay, William Henry Harrison and Rutherford B. Hayes. (Hills of Highland, Elsie J. Ayres, p. 69)
First mention of Episcopal Church beginnings in Hillsboro is in the report made by the Rev. E. W. Peet, Rector of St. Paul's, Chillicothe, to the Diocesan Convention at Zanesville October 4, 5 and 6, 1838, presided over by Bishop Charles P. McIlvaine, second Bishop of Ohio (who consecrated St. Mary's building in 1855). The Zanesville convention was during the presidency of Martin Van Buren. Mr. Peet mentions being "engaged the last of this month (October 1838) in Hillsborough (where are several Episcopalians anxious for the promotion of a church)." The frustrating and tantalizing thing about this note is that there is no record in Peet's subsequent reports to Diocesan Conventions in 1839 and 1840 of his actually visiting Hillsboro, and he resigned as Rector of Chillicothe at Easter of 1841.
The next reference to Hillsboro in diocesan records is in the convention minutes of 1844, during the presidency of John Tyler, who ran for vice president with William Henry Harrison under the slogan, "Tippecanoe and Tyler Too." Harrison died a month after his inauguration in 1841, the first American president to die in office, and Tyler succeeded him as president. In 1844 the Rev. James B. Britton, Rector of St. Paul's, Chillicothe, re-ported to Bishop Mcilvaine that "missionary services have been performed at Lancaster several times, at Kingston, Bourneville and Hillsboro each once. (Our entire church debt has been assumed by the Senior Warden and now amounts to about $400.)" (Convention Journal)
In the 1850 Diocesan Convention was held at Christ Church, Dayton, September 25-27, just three months after Vice President Millard Fillmore had succeeded to the presidency after the death of President Zachary Taylor. The Rev. L. N. Freeman had been Rector of St. Paul's, Chillicothe less than a year, and in his report to Bishop Mcllvaine, Freeman stated, "I have also officiated twice at Hillsboro and once in Bainbridge." (Convention Journal)
Parish records of St. Mary's note that in 1851 the Rev. Richard Gray of Cincinnati held services in the Highland County Court House, and this marks the beginning of the process that led to the organizing of St. Mary's Church on December 9, 1853.
The person whose enthusiasm and persistence were responsible for the first steps toward organizing an Episcopal congregation in Hillsboro was William H. Bayard. Of Bayard the Rev. George B. Beecher said, "The earliest movement towards the establishment of this church had its origin with this man." In his address on Easter Day, April 21, 1889, Beecher continued, "In the winter of 1851 or 1852 Mr. Bayard began, so far as I know, the first Episcopal services ever held in this region, conducting them in his own parlor and himself reading the prayers and lessons." George Beecher also stated that William Bayard was joined by J. Milton Boyd in his efforts to bring the Episcopal Church to Hillsboro: "Very soon after this, Mr. Boyd removed from the country to Hillsboro and, at the solicitation of Mr. Bayard, united with him in starting the movement which resulted in the establishment of this church (St. Mary's)." Unfortunately very little is known of William H. Bayard and his family, except that Mrs. Bayard was named Rachel, and their son, Pierre Cummings Bayard was baptized on the same day St. Mary's building was consecrated, October 25, 1855. We know the Bayards lived in Liberty Township and farmed, but we don’t know why they came to Hillsboro, or why they left (the lists of parishioners and communicants in the original Parish Register indicate only that the Bayards' removed in October 1855). Did they perhaps stay through the consecration of St. Mary’s and then travel back east with their friend, Thomas Cummings? What we have discovered is that the Bayards removed to Cornwall, New York after leaving Hillsboro, appearing on the 1860 Federal Census.
In his reminiscences dated January 21, 1876, Professor Isaac Sams, first Senior Warden of St. Mary's, begins with the introduction of William H. Bayard. Sams writes, "The person most instrumental in bringing the Church to Hillsboro was William H. Bayard, son of Rev. Lewis Pintard Bayard of New York City, who died in the Holy Land (further research has shown his death to be recorded as occurring in Malta) while traveling for his health. His son, who with his young wife had settled in the vicinity of Hillsborough about 1850, was a very strong church-man, and sorely troubled at the lack of church privileges. Bayard sent for the Rev. William Freeman from Chillicothe to come and baptize his first child, and when the second was born, invited the Rev. Richard Gray from Cincinnati. To both these gentlemen he poured forth his griefs and induced the latter to come and hold occasional services in Hillsborough."
Although no dates are given for the "occasional services" led by the Rev. Mr. Gray of Cincinnati, early records of St. Mary's indicate that these services began in 1851 and were held in the Highland County Court House. In his report to Bishop McIlvaine at Diocesan Convention of 1853, Mr. Gray reports that he had been appointed City Missionary connected with Christ Church, Cincinnati. Gray notes, "When I was not required to assist the Rev. D. A. Tyng in Christ Church on the Lord's day, I have preached in Hillsboro in Highland County, Milford, Clermont County, and Hamilton, Butler County. In the former place a subscription has been raised amounting to nearly $300 for the services of a clergyman." It is interesting to note that in 1851, the year which marks the beginning of the movement to found an Episcopal parish in Hillsboro, Bishop Philander Chase, first Bishop of Ohio, and in 1851, first Bishop of Illinois, was the senior Bishop of the Episcopal Church in the U.S.A. and hence served as Presiding Bishop. In 1850 the General Convention of the Episcopal Church met in Cincinnati, and was presided over by Bishop Chase. So it was that within the lifetime of Ohio's first pioneer Bishop, St. Mary's, Hillsboro was established.
As has been the case in many places, it was the efforts of a lay person, newly arrived in a new home and dissatisfied with the status quo, which led to the founding of a new Episcopal congregation. George Franklin Smythe in his definitive A History of the Diocese of Ohio until the Year 1918, writes in a paragraph on the Virginia Military Lands, "In this great triangle, of which, roughly speaking, the Ohio River between Portsmouth and Cincinnati is the base, and Kenton the apex, the Episcopal Church had nothing to show in 1834; and twenty-five years later it could claim but a single parish, St. Mary's, Hillsboro, with thirty-six communicants." (Smythe, op cit, p. 307)
For a complete history of St. Mary's Episcopal Church, read The Story of St. Mary's Episcopal Church, by John G. Carson and John M. Glaze