Highland Township

 According to the Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Muskingum County, Mathias Trace was Highland Township's first settler. Trace migrated from Washington County, Pennsylvania, possibly traveling along the first road in the area, constructed in 1806, that connected Cambridge and Dresden. Although he settled in the NE quarter of section 11 in 1808, there is no record of any land purchase by Trace before September 21, 1819. Little can be found on the internet regarding Mathias. The Dean Family Tree on Ancestry* includes a Mathias Trace who was born in Berks County, Pennsylvania in 1762 and who died in Highland Township after 1820. A Mathias R. Trace who died in 1839 is buried in Crooked Creek Cemetery in New Concord, Ohio, which is about 5 miles from Highland's only population center, Bloomfield.

The main building of McCorkle College

Between 1808 and 1814, settlers from Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia came to Highland Township in sufficient numbers that by April 1814, an election of the first township officers was held. Grist mills, saw mills, and planing mills grew up along the White Eyes and Wills Creeks. Substantial frame homes and stores were built in the township, giving a prosperous feel to the place. A distillery, a carding (textile) facility, and a tannery were built. 

The village of Bloomfield (Highland's only population center to this day) was platted in the early 1850's. The land on which the village developed was originally owned by David Rankin. Supposedly it was named for the orchards that were abundant in the area. The Sago Post Office was established in Bloomfield in 1857, and operated until 1902.

In 1862, the Rev. William Ballantine, a Presbyterian minister, established an educational institution for young men interested in the Presbyterian ministry. The institution was origially named Bloomfield High School, then renamed the Bloomfield Academy in 1868. By February 1873, the academy was renamed McCorkle and chartered as a degree-confering college. The Biographical and Historical Memoirs says that McCorkle "came to be popular and prosperous," enjoying a modest endowment, and able to erect a proper "college building." It doesn't mention what became of the institution. An internet search failed to turn up any more information that what's found in the Memoirs.

Bloomfield Presbyterian Church

*Family trees posted in the internet, for the most part, should never be considered "proof" of family data or connections. However, they may provide a family historian with some direction for serious research.