Transcription contributed by Dorothy Fitzpatrick 8 November 2004

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852

William H. Heighway, retired, Waynesville; born in Cincinnati Feb. 5, 1817; is a son of John and Eliza (Mercer) Heighway; he was born in 1785, in England, and she was born in Cincinnati, March 18, 1791: she was the first female child born in Cincinnati. The paternal grandfather, Samuel Heighway, was a native of England, and emigrated to America about 1795 and came to Cincinnati; was one of the surveying party who came up the Little Miami Valley to survey the lands under the Symmes contract, and reaching where Waynesville is now located, they surveyed and laid out the town. He afterward returned to England, and again came to America, and died at Cincinnati in 1815 or 1816. The maternal grandfather, John Mercer, was a native of New Jersey, and his ancestry from Holland. About 1790, he emigrated to Ohio, locating at Cincinnati, where he died about 1802, being one of the earliest settlers of that place. John Heighway was about 18 years of age when he came with his parents to Cincinnati. There he married and settled, and became one of the leading and prominent men of Cincinnati; he built the first bank vault ever erected in that city, and was President and Cashier of the United States Branch Bank first established there; he died in 1827, aged 42 years; his wife died Jan. 10, 1866, aged 72 years. They had four children-Samuel M., William H., Archibald E. and Mary E., the eldest and youngest of which are deceased. Our subject grew to manhood, remaining with his mother after his father's death till his majority; was married, April 22, 1851, to Julia

daughter of Ulysis and Charlotte Salis, natives of Germany, who emigrated to America in 1835 and located in Medina Co., Ohio, where his wife died Aug. 12, 1835. About six weeks after their arrival, Mr. Salis became a resident of Waynesville, in 1866, and died here May 11, 1870, aged 82 years. They had two children-Charlotte, now Mrs. Cadwell, residing in Cincinnati; and Julia, born in Germany April 4, 1826. Mr. Heighway and his wife have four children-John M., born Jan. 25, 1852; Charlotte E., Jan. 30, 1854; Emma, April 8, 1857; and Annette, born Jan. 22, 1861. Mr. Heighway carried on a brass foundry in Cincinnati some years; then engaged in the grocery and rectifying business several years, since which his principal business has been in managing the estates of his mother and the family the whole care of which has principally devolved upon Mr. Heighway. In 1866, he bought his present property in Waynesville, where he located and has since resided; here he has a fine property and beautifully situated, where he now lives retired from all active business. Prior to embarking in the grocery and foundry business, Mr. Heighway was one of the first to cultivate flowers in Cincinnati, and for several years was engaged as a florist; he has now in his possession a fine specimen of the India crape myrtle, which he has grown from a cutting of the first plant brought to New York from India forty-five years ago.