Gist Settlement

Through the terms of his will, British absentee landowner Samuel Gist (c.1723-1815) freed his 350 Virginia slaves and provided funds for their relocation, the purchase of land and homes, and the establishment of schools and churches. Gist’s executors acquired over 2,000 acres of land in Ohio, including two large tracts in Scott and Eagle townships in Brown County in 1819. In 1831 and 1835, an agent of the Gist estate purchased 207 acres in Fairfield Township (now Penn Township), Highland County, and divided the acreage into thirty-one lots. The Gist Settlement in Highland County was the last to be purchased and settled. In 1857, the Ohio Legislature granted the Highland County Court of Common Pleas control over the freedmen’s trust monies. In 2003 descendants of the freed Gist slaves still inhabited part of the original settlement.

[Side B]: Original lot owners in the Fairfield Township settlement: Lot 1- Rosanna Good 11- Henry Turner 21 & 22 – Hester Day 2- Mary J. Good 12- Joel Mitchell 23- John Rollins 3- T.T. Lawson 13- Nancy Carey 24- Peter Rollins 4- Elizabeth Carey 14- John Carey 25- Alexander Hailstock 5- Ann Rollins 15- Hannibal Turner 26- Lucy Good 6- Bartley Lawrence (Rollins) 16- Henrietta Essex 27- David Rollins 7- Alexander Hailstock 17- Lucy Brooks 28- Bartley Lawrence 8- John Carey 18- Henry Turner 29- C.C. Lawson 9- Ann Eliza Lawson 19- Ann Rollins 30- Board of Education 10- Parmelia Buford 20- Rebecca Rollins 31- Cemetery