In today’s “What’s in a name?” we’ve got a special, Highland County double feature. We’re going to look at two towns: Samantha, Boston, and Dallas. You heard me. Two towns. Lemme explain.
Samantha
Usually, when a town is named after a particular person, it’s someone noteworthy. Many of our earlier settlers named the towns they created after themselves, or some other famous person – even if that fame was more local than anything else. Either way, there’s usually some kind of historical record telling us all about whoever that person was.
And then there’s Samantha, Ohio.
We know that Samantha was a person, but we’re not entirely sure who she was.
Or, where she lived. We’re pretty sure she lived somewhere in the area, but not too close by. Had she lived in or around town, people would have known exactly who she was and would have made some kind of reference somewhere. But, who she was and where she came from – all that remains a mystery.
In 1942, a man named David Kinzer purchased some land a bit north of Hillsboro, Ohio and began platting for a small village. Once that had gotten started, a man named Edward Beeson bought one of the corner lots and opened a general store. At first, they tried naming the town after him – “Beeson’s Crossing” but … seems not everyone was thrilled with that idea.
In July 1845, they were finally ready and able to file the incorporated papers, but nobody could agree on what to call the town. Time had run out and they needed a quick decision. Then someone came up with a brilliant idea: they would name the town after the next person to make a purchase at Beeson’s General Store.
Moments later, a girl rides into town on horseback and heads into Beeson’s. Her name was Samantha. Sadly, they didn’t bother to record anything else about her – like what her last name was, or who her father was, or how old she was … all that we know for sure is her name.
And the place has been known as “Samantha” ever since.
Boston (But Also Dallas)
From Samantha, if you travel about 5-6 miles to the south, you’ll be in Hillsboro. From there, travel 5-6 miles east on US Highway 50 and you’ll come to a place called Boston. Or, maybe Dallas. It’s kind of a weird situation.
On November 7, 1840, the town was platted by Robert Moore, Noah Glasscock, and Abraham Pennington, who promptly named it after Boston (the one in Massachusetts.) Except, there was one wee problem. Ohio already had one of those (a place named Boston) so the postal authority at the time had to let them know that they had to call their town something else.
The people of Highland County’s Boston didn’t seem to like the idea of having to change the name of their town, or maybe they just loved Boston (the one in Massachusetts) or hated Boston (the one in Summit County, Ohio now dubbed Helltown) so they kind of refused. If you can have two townships with the same name, why not two towns?
Like all good towns they wanted a post office, but the postal authority at the time said no. It would be too confusing. If a letter was addressed to someone in Boston, how would they know which town to send it to? No. If they wanted a post office, they’d have to name it something else.
In 1845, the post office in Boston finally opened, except they called it the Dallas Post Office, which kind of created a unique situation. I guess if you lived in this Boston, you had to tell people your address was in Dallas.
Semi-officially, the town has always been called Boston and if it was up to them, it would have always been called that. Yet, if you look at old maps, old cartographer’s data, old post office records and the occasional historical document, you might find something that says “Boston (Dallas)” …
So, yeah, that’s not confusing at all.
