Highland County District Library

About The Highland County District Library:

There was a subscription library in Penn Township called the "Highland Club" from the 7th of January 1853 until at least 1862. Members paid an annual fee of $1.25 and by the 1860's they had a collection of between 300-400 volumes. There was, according to an article in the local paper, also a library at the Female College in 1862 and a Common School Library. They were, however, smaller and more limited than the "Highland Club" collection.

In 1876, two years prior to the opening of the Hillsboro Library, David Bailey of Penn Township opened his personal library to the public. This library, unfortunately, did not survive to become a part of the Highland County District Library. Mr. Bailey eventually left Highland County and became a professor at Ashland College in Ohio.

By 1902, both Greenfield and Hillsboro had public libraries and both libraries were started by proponents of the temperance movement.

The Hillsboro Library was established in 1878 in the old City Building (pictured to the left) with Mr. Robert Duffey as librarian. The library (below) was on the upper floor and below were the fire department and other city offices.
It was then thought that if a public reading room should be opened in the library room it would help on the temperance reformation then going on in the community.(From Sketches of Ohio Libraries by C.B. Galbreath, State Librarian, 1902)

The library was moved to the "Scott House" in 1947. Fortunately, most of the library materials had been moved prior to the fire at the City Building. (The Scott House is still standing and owned by the Hillsboro Board of Education.)

During the years at the Scott House, the library joined with the other libraries of the county to form the Highland County District Library.