Harbard, born 1752) his namesake, in his will. The older
brother, Henry Winegardner (born 1750), inherited no land to give him a start, nor tie him
down, and so 'adventured' to the then wild frontier. He pioneered near Gratiot, Ohio,
resulting in that area's wide proliferation of the Winegardner name today.
Many early Winegardner cousins are buried in the Poplar Fork
Cemetery near the site of the "Olde School" Baptist Church. Herbert Winegardner
and his wife Elizabeth Barb also soon followed to take up farming in Richland Township of
Fairfield County, near what would become Rushville, in 1805-6. They were doubtless
tantalized and enticed by brother Henry's letters from the frontier. Southeastern Ohio was
new territory just opened up in 1798 by the blazing and construction of Zane's Trace, the
very first trail in the Northwest Territories outside of the original thirteen colonies.
It was interior Ohio's early pioneer days but already all of the area's homesteading (ie.,
free) land with rich soil was snapped up! In order to allow for the choice selection of
the better soils they chose to purchase lands set aside by Congress, some still unsold and
unsettled. The sale of these lands was to fund construction of those famous one-room
schoolhouses that dotted the early frontier. There were two such schools, later
constructed, on the "school lands" purchased by Herbert, the Kerlin School and
the Oakthorpe School.
The farm site was also selected so as to be near a reliable
source of fresh water. The springhouse marks that spot. The brother, Henry, probably did
not go into farming. Indeed, he may have had no interest at all in agriculture, or else he
might have taken part in the inheritance of his father's plantation instead of his younger
brother. Family records mention that in 1817 a son of Henry traveled to his uncle's farm,
referring to Herbert's, to pick out seedlings for his father's orchard. This means that by
that early time Herbert Winegardner's farm orchard was already cleared, planted and
yielding. The stone foundation of the Rushing Spring springhouse dates from these earliest
times. Herbert was a distiller and became quite a wealthy landowner. In those times a
distiller's living was considered a lawful, if tawdry, occupation. Only after being banned
by the Prohibition did the livelihood become known as 'moonshining.' Unearthed foundation
stones downstream of the spring, just to the north of the springhouse itself, outline the
location of the old stillhouse.
Old Herbert died December 17, 1830, and was buried in his
Winegardner Cemetery (on the east side of Marsh's Chapel Road, now known as Thornville
Road, about two miles north of Zane's Trace, US 22; note: Ohio's State Route 664 did not
yet exist). His will, signed in German, made sons, Anthony and Jacob, executors of his
1,500 acre estate resulting in the 'A&JW ' designations on land maps of the day and
impressed into old cement work near the barn. The estate was maintained undivided, and
thrived under the management of its executor, Jacob (1809-1891), Anthony having
predeceased Jacob. "Jake," personally, would have inherited