The Barrere boys in the newspaper business, Part 4
Lead Summary
By
Steve Roush-
Ladies and gentlemen, the Barrere family owned and operated a local newspaper in Hillsboro for about seven decades. We had talked about brothers Bebee and John Mills Barrere, who worked at the News-Herald, but both sadly passed away in their 20s in the late 1800s.
Now let’s chat a bit about their father, Col. George Washington Barrere, the grandson of the Highland County pioneer by the same name who came to this area in the early 1800s.
George Washington Barrere was born Dec. 21, 1831 and grew up in the New Market area. By the way, New Market was the county seat of Highland County before Hillsboro, which was called Hillsborough back in the day.
As we talked about earlier this year, newspapers in Highland County date back to 1818. In 1837, when Col. George Washington Barrere was just 5 years old, James Brown established what was to become the Highland Weekly News at Hillsboro as the Ohio News with a goal to “promote the interests of the Whigs” and provide a much sought-after alternative to the Democratic Hillsboro Gazette, for which there had been no rival publication since its establishment in 1818 as the Hillsborough Gazette, and Highland Advertiser.
On New Year’s Day of 1852, James Brown sold the publication to Joseph L. Boardman and J.C.D. Hanna, and after one year, Hanna sold his interest in the newspaper to his partner, Boardman.
According to the Library of Congress and the Ohio Historical Society, shortly after Boardman became the newspaper’s proprietor, the paper began to support the newly formed Republican Party and considered itself to be a “fearless defender of every principle of moral reform in the interest of religion and good government.”
Boardman was the sole proprietor and editor of the Highland Weekly News until 1878 when his son, Edward L. Boardman, took over the paper. Under the Boardman family’s leadership, the News reached strong circulation numbers; by 1880, there were 1,500 subscribers throughout southern Ohio.
The “family journal devoted to News, Politics, Literature, Agriculture, etc.” printed local, state, regional, national and international news. In addition to offering poetry, a youth section of Enigma (puzzles), and, during the Civil War, correspondence from the battlefront, the paper included a special temperance column that was edited by the Women’s Christian Temperance Union of Hillsboro.
Speaking of the Civil War, Col. George Washington Barrere served in the 60th Ohio Volunteer Infantry and the Ohio 168th Ohio Volunteer Infantry and made it through the war in a lot better shape than his father, John Mills Barrere, and three of his brothers.
John Mills Barrere was 62 years old when the Civil War broke out, and according to historic accounts, he helped to organize the 60th Ohio Volunteer Regiment, and went to war with the regiment as adjutant.
The regiment went to fight in the Shenandoah Valley, and was forced to surrender at Harpers Ferry, when it was surrounded by Stonewall Jackson in September 1862. During this battle, John Mills Barrere was gathering horses during an artillery barrage, when a piece of shell went through a tree and tore into his arm. He had to have his left arm amputated, and he and his regiment were taken prisoner by the Confederate forces. He was subsequently released on parole by the Confederates, and returned home to Highland County.
John Mills Barrere had five sons who served in the Civil War – three of whom didn’t return.
The first was Thomas Jefferson Barrere, who joined the 89th O.V.I. and went off to join General John C. Fremont, and fought in several engagements. His entire regiment was captured during the Battle of Chickamauga, which was fought Sept. 19-20, 1863, and he subsequently was taken to the notorious Andersonville Prison in Georgia, where the U.S. sergeant died nearly a year later on Aug. 24, 1864 of scurvy at around the age of 30. He is interred in the cemetery at Andersonville National Park.
Another Barrere brother, William Barrere, was a second lieutenant of Company G of the 175th O.V.I. and was also held prisoner for several months but he survived – only to be placed on the ill-fated steamship Sultana, which exploded on the Mississippi River on April 27, 1865. He perished in that tragedy, the worst maritime disaster in U.S. history. He was also about 30 years old when he died.
The last and youngest brother to die during the war, Bebee Barrere, joined the 1st Ohio Cavalry at age 19, and he died in a hospital in Kentucky on Oct. 23, 1862 of disease.
John Mills Barrere’s gravesite monument stands in the Hillsboro Cemetery, with tribute paid to Thomas, William and Bebee.
Let’s pause for now, and we’ll continue next week with more on the Barreres in the newspaper business in Hillsboro.
Steve Roush is a vice president of an international media company, is vice chairman of the Highland County Historical Society Board of Trustees and is a columnist and contributing writer for The Highland County Press. He can be reached by email at roush_steve@msn.com.
Now let’s chat a bit about their father, Col. George Washington Barrere, the grandson of the Highland County pioneer by the same name who came to this area in the early 1800s.
George Washington Barrere was born Dec. 21, 1831 and grew up in the New Market area. By the way, New Market was the county seat of Highland County before Hillsboro, which was called Hillsborough back in the day.
As we talked about earlier this year, newspapers in Highland County date back to 1818. In 1837, when Col. George Washington Barrere was just 5 years old, James Brown established what was to become the Highland Weekly News at Hillsboro as the Ohio News with a goal to “promote the interests of the Whigs” and provide a much sought-after alternative to the Democratic Hillsboro Gazette, for which there had been no rival publication since its establishment in 1818 as the Hillsborough Gazette, and Highland Advertiser.
On New Year’s Day of 1852, James Brown sold the publication to Joseph L. Boardman and J.C.D. Hanna, and after one year, Hanna sold his interest in the newspaper to his partner, Boardman.
According to the Library of Congress and the Ohio Historical Society, shortly after Boardman became the newspaper’s proprietor, the paper began to support the newly formed Republican Party and considered itself to be a “fearless defender of every principle of moral reform in the interest of religion and good government.”
Boardman was the sole proprietor and editor of the Highland Weekly News until 1878 when his son, Edward L. Boardman, took over the paper. Under the Boardman family’s leadership, the News reached strong circulation numbers; by 1880, there were 1,500 subscribers throughout southern Ohio.
The “family journal devoted to News, Politics, Literature, Agriculture, etc.” printed local, state, regional, national and international news. In addition to offering poetry, a youth section of Enigma (puzzles), and, during the Civil War, correspondence from the battlefront, the paper included a special temperance column that was edited by the Women’s Christian Temperance Union of Hillsboro.
Speaking of the Civil War, Col. George Washington Barrere served in the 60th Ohio Volunteer Infantry and the Ohio 168th Ohio Volunteer Infantry and made it through the war in a lot better shape than his father, John Mills Barrere, and three of his brothers.
John Mills Barrere was 62 years old when the Civil War broke out, and according to historic accounts, he helped to organize the 60th Ohio Volunteer Regiment, and went to war with the regiment as adjutant.
The regiment went to fight in the Shenandoah Valley, and was forced to surrender at Harpers Ferry, when it was surrounded by Stonewall Jackson in September 1862. During this battle, John Mills Barrere was gathering horses during an artillery barrage, when a piece of shell went through a tree and tore into his arm. He had to have his left arm amputated, and he and his regiment were taken prisoner by the Confederate forces. He was subsequently released on parole by the Confederates, and returned home to Highland County.
John Mills Barrere had five sons who served in the Civil War – three of whom didn’t return.
The first was Thomas Jefferson Barrere, who joined the 89th O.V.I. and went off to join General John C. Fremont, and fought in several engagements. His entire regiment was captured during the Battle of Chickamauga, which was fought Sept. 19-20, 1863, and he subsequently was taken to the notorious Andersonville Prison in Georgia, where the U.S. sergeant died nearly a year later on Aug. 24, 1864 of scurvy at around the age of 30. He is interred in the cemetery at Andersonville National Park.
Another Barrere brother, William Barrere, was a second lieutenant of Company G of the 175th O.V.I. and was also held prisoner for several months but he survived – only to be placed on the ill-fated steamship Sultana, which exploded on the Mississippi River on April 27, 1865. He perished in that tragedy, the worst maritime disaster in U.S. history. He was also about 30 years old when he died.
The last and youngest brother to die during the war, Bebee Barrere, joined the 1st Ohio Cavalry at age 19, and he died in a hospital in Kentucky on Oct. 23, 1862 of disease.
John Mills Barrere’s gravesite monument stands in the Hillsboro Cemetery, with tribute paid to Thomas, William and Bebee.
Let’s pause for now, and we’ll continue next week with more on the Barreres in the newspaper business in Hillsboro.
Steve Roush is a vice president of an international media company, is vice chairman of the Highland County Historical Society Board of Trustees and is a columnist and contributing writer for The Highland County Press. He can be reached by email at roush_steve@msn.com.