Caretaker's Cabin (Roades-Hatfield)

George Washington Roades (1838 - 1890) settled in Salem Township in 1864 and built at 20 by 24 foot log house on what is now Baker Road off State Route 131 near Pricetown in Highland County southwest of Hillsboro, Ohio. The logs, hewn floor joists, and flooring are white oak which were taken from the surrounding groves.

George W. Roades' father Henry Valentine Roades (1815 - 1891) in the early part of his married life was a teacher of mathematics in the county schools. In later years he turned his attention to farming and acquiring a large acreage of improved land.

George W. Roades opened a country store in 1877 doing a "good business" though still surrounded on nearly every side with native forest. In the store he carried about one thousand dollars worth of stock. In later years George's children told of their father running a store and a post office and how he could make such good shoes and that he was considered a shoe cobbler.

The George W. Roades house was acquired from Richard and Grace Baker in 1974 by Joseph and Thelma Hatfield who donated it to the Village. Jane Ellen Fite of nearby Harveysburg bequeathed a sum in her will which provided a frame addition which is named for her. Village members built the addition to contain modern plumbing for kichen and bathroom use. Plans for the layout were presented to the Village by two fourth year architecture students at the University of Cincinnati, Mindy Wargowski and Connie Garrison through member Mrs. Paul Crane.

The house is now used as a home for the Village caretaker and is not open to visitors. Information furnished in 1982 by descendant Betty Roades Shemaker, Mt. Orab, Ohio. Mrs. Shewmaker refers to Book of Memoirs of my Ancestry by Velma Roades Trant Ref. Alya W. Martin's History of Clay Township, Highland County and Bedford, Ohio. History of Ross and Highland Counties, Ohio, William Bros., Cleveland, Ohio 1880.

This Cabin is not open to the General Public as it is the private residence of the Village Caretaker.