Historical Society celebrates 50th year of Highland House Museum

By Pamela Nickell
H.C. Historical Society

This is the eighth article in a series from the Highland County Historical Society featuring members of the HCHS Hall of Fame and in recognition of the Highland House Museum’s 50th Anniversary.

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Roy Asa Haynes
1881-1940

Roy Asa Haynes was the publisher of the Hillsboro Dispatch, a temperance crusader, and served as United States Commissioner for Prohibition under Presidents Harding and Coolidge.

Haynes and his father, Charles Haynes, purchased the Hillsboro Dispatch in 1912.

The newspaper office was located in the Masonic Temple. Roy left the paper in 1920 when he was appointed National Prohibition Commissioner.*

During his difficult tenure as commissioner, Haynes honored Mother Thompson at a Washington, D.C. flower show by naming a new Chrysanthemum “The Mother Thompson.”

In 1923, he appeared on the cover of TIME magazine in a cover story that described the difficulty of his highly unpopular job.

Haynes was the author of Prohibition Inside Out (1923) and acted in Highland County and nationally as a temperance crusader.”

*Actually, within his title of United States Assistant Secretary of the Treasury.