Efforts have begun in Highland County Court of Common Pleas to determine the ownership and future preservation of the historic pioneer Black Cemetery that holds the graves of the founding family of the Hansborough Settlement. Located near Gist, off Wright and Kincaid Roads five miles northeast of Hillsboro, the Hansborough Settlement began in the 1830s and became a thriving, successful farming community.

As described in “Black History of Highland County” (available at the Highland County Historical Society in Hillsboro) and in newspaper accounts published at the time, the community was established by freed slaves and their descendants who made the tough journey from the William Hansborough plantation in Virginia (where they were freed in his will) to carve out farmland in a time when Ohio was a free state.

But it was also a time of struggle when Black Laws prevailed and racial riots were happening in places like Cincinnati. In addition to numerous log cabin homes, the settlement built a schoolhouse and a church – the Clear Creek Baptist Church – with its associated cemetery. The settlement disbanded in the early 1900s as residents moved away or into town to become part of the larger community. The closing of the Clear Creek Baptist Church at the Hansborough Settlement is credited with the beginning of the New Hope Baptist Church in Hillsboro.

Notably, Philip Hansborough, son of William Hansborough and beloved leader of the settlement, had secured fee simple deeds to his and his family’s lands. Key to the current court case, in 1858 he carved a small parcel out of his land and filed a separate deed for 80 poles (one-half acre) to the Clear Creek Church Trustees. The deed was intended to provide perpetual ownership and access to the graves of the family and descendants, to preserve and honor those buried there. This deed to the Church and Cemetery – still valid to this day – was somehow, possibly fraudulently, erased from the title chain in the 1940s, such that subsequent purchasers of the larger Hansborough parcel were apparently unaware that the separate Cemetery deed – and the actual Cemetery – existed.

Fast forward to today, modern-day descendants of the Philip Hansborough family, with the aid of new capabilities for family history research, have re-discovered the graves of their ancestors and their ancestors’ important role in Ohio history.

The Hansborough Cemetery is nestled in deep woods far from the road and has fallen into great disrepair. There are many living descendants of the Hansborough Settlement in Highland County and beyond. One descendant, Jim Stearns, from Colorado, is now engaged in legal efforts to settle the ownership question. Dr. Mitchell Ede’s Trust also claims ownership and has filed a complaint in court.

Mr Stearns has expressed interest to the Trust in purchasing the land to preserve the Cemetery, but the Trust appears thus far to want the courts to settle the matter. “My fourth great grandmother, Betty Packer, Philip’s mother and former enslaved “common-law wife” of William Hansborough, is buried on this half acre.

I recently discovered our family history was connected to these freed slaves and the heroic story of their journey from a Virginia plantation to Ohio and how they worked to succeed in building this community 22 years before the Civil War. Beyond my family connection, I believe this is an important piece of Ohio history. I wish to preserve and protect the Cemetery, which is now all that physically remains of the Hansborough Settlement, to honor these pioneers and their final resting place, so future generations may know their story. We’re hoping more Hansborough descendants will join and support this effort.

**James Stearns contact: James Stearns, 1519 Bradley Drive, Boulder CO, 80305 720-317-695 [email protected]

**Book reference: Black History of Highland County, Ohio, by Kati Burwinkel, Myra Cumberland Phillips and John Glaze, Highland County Historical Society

**Highland County Ohio Court of Common Please, Civil Division, Case Number 24 CV 0157; Judge Coss, Complaint to Quiet Title, filed 6-11-2024