The Pike County Republican Page Six - Section B Wednesday, May 27, 1964 As the township became populated a need for a trading point and a place to transact business became necessary. The earlier village of Bayville, located on Bay Creek, had been established and it was a busy trading point but many of the settlers desired a more centrally located trading post and as a result we find that in 1836 on the brow of a high hill overlooking the great Mississippi Valley not far from the old Ft. Edwards trail the village of Fairfield was born. FAIRFIELD IS BORN Four of the early settlers by the names of Eli Hubbard, Charles Hubbard, Ezra Dodge of the Bayvil1e Dodges, and John McMullen appeared before Justice of the Peace Felix Collard and filed affidavits as owners of the original plot of Fairfield. The new town of Fairfield was surveyed by J. H. Goodin and was two blocks wide running east and west and four blocks long running north and south for a total of eight blocks. The street on the west was Washington, the one on the north was called North street, the eastern boundary was Spring street, and the village was bounded on the south by Bluff street. The original survey included a small public square and the entire area lay in section 16, all located on the top of the hill. The principal road leading into the early town entered it and departed on the bluff or ridge following the ridge east and west, but some, years later as the town grew and prospered it spread down over the hill; spilling into the bottom lands that bordered the Indian trail at the base of the bluff. The land upon which the original town stood was deeded to a soldier of the Revolution by the name of Berry, by President James Monroe, and as many of the recipients of bounty land did, this soldier sold the land for 19 cents an acre, or a total of $30 in the year 1820. Soon after the plat was legally processed a settler by the name of Jacob Turnbaugh, the husband of Abilgail Collard, erected the first house of log construction in the corner of lot W7. This historic spot is now marked by a granite boulder carrying a bronze plate telling of the historic events that occurred there. The new village called Fairfield continued to be known as Fairfield until in 1846, 10 years after its founding, a mail messenger coming from Southern Illinois informed the citizens that there was already a Fairfield in Wayne county in the south part of the state which was recognized as such by the Post Office Department and as a result the village officials decided to rename their new town Pleasant Hill which it has remained to this day. The new town grew very slowly at first and at the time that Dr. John Thomas came here in 1849 there were only some three or four families living here. As a general rule the business area of any community usually changes across the years but in the case of Pleasant Hill in the 128 years of its existence the business picture has had a marked change. Originally, all of the business houses were located on the hill and year by year as the town grew it spread first to the side of the bluff, thence to the base of the hill and now it sprawls out over the bottoms toward the river. Some of the businesses that were located on top the hill in the early days were a large tobacco factory, two grocery stores, one clothing store, post office, woodworking shop, blacksmith shop, shoe repair shop, hotel, tavern, wagon shop, two saloons, a doctor's office and a coffin shop. Some of the early merchants and professional men were S. S. Thomas who ran the general store and was the postmaster; Jim Brennan the clothing store; M. P. Ray ran the hotel; Mr. Clark and Henry Scholten were the grocers; William Moore was the village smithy, also the undertaker and coffin maker; Robert Ray kept the livery stables; Ed Guiley was the shoe repairman; N. B. Williams was the woodworkman and he was also a good coffin maker. John Emert was the wagon maker and Dr. John Thomas was the village physician. As the town went down the hill we find that there were businesses established on the side of the hill. The pioneer merchant of Bayville (which by this time was beginning its decline to the. ghost town role), Alexander Hamphill, came to the larger community and he ran a general store in a building on the side of the hill on the street leading into the lower town. Frank Emert had a blacksmith shop across the street from the Hemphill store and Mr. Ephilet DeCamp, the other Bayville merchant, also had a store on the street leading down the hill. At the time that the town was located on the hill there was a Baptist church located on Washington street and school was taught at various times in several different locations on the hill.