Highland was obviously named for topographical reasons, the elevation being  approximately 1400 feet, which is about 500 feet above Main St., Stanford.  It is said that a general store has been located at Highland since before the Civil War. Widow Laura I. Faulkner, who came to Lincoln County from High Point, NC, established a post office there in 1858. Mrs. Faulkner named the community after her native Highlands of Scotland.

About the year 1800, Charles Reed and family left their home in Reedville, NC to seek a new home. Kentucky had been a state for about eight years when the tall, red haired Reeds (originally from Scotland) moved to the Highland Section of Lincoln County.  When the War of 1812 broke out, Charles Reed met his old friend, Andrew Jackson, also of North Carolina, at Jellico, TN. He went with Jackson, then known as rough and ready fighting man from Tennessee

Jackson led an army that he said, “Could lick their weight in wildcats”. His men agreed with him and proved him right. The British were badly defeated. The young hero returned home but was killed when his horse fell over a bluff. His son, Henry Reed, was left to carry on the family name and traditions.

Henry’s oldest child was a girl, Rhoda Ann, who married John Butt. Her grand children in Lincoln County are Roberta McGuffey, Clarence Burton, Mrs. Daley Reed and Violet James. Surviving great-grandchildren are Sally Faulkner McGuffey, Norman and Billie Joe McGuffey, Berdine Reed, Dave War Ren and Russel Burton. Henry Reed had a son, Dave, father of Shell, Jim and John Reed. Great- grandchildren of Henry in Lincoln County are Daley, Walter, Charles and Cecil Reed (Shell’s children), the Rev. Fonzo Reed and Mrs. Cecil Jenkins (children of Jim Reed) and Chester, Ralph and Helen Jenkins (children of John Reed).e of their A son by a second marriage, William Reed, was the father of the late Mayor George T. Reed of Stanford, a daughter, Mrs. Sallie Warfield, a grandson Gene Reed (son of Lon Reed) and a great-granddaughter, Allene Burton (daughter of Eldie Reed)

Henry’s son, John, is the grandfather of Less Reed. Other sons of his first marriage were Joe and Sam Reed who moved to Texas, a daughter, Emily who moved to Oklahoma; Susan Terry, who moved to Virginia and Jane Mason. It was William who continued to live on at the old home place on Greasy Ridge. His son, Lon, lived there until his death and after that his wife continued to reside there

Another of the pioneer families who were among the first settlers of Highland was the Young's. There were two different Young families. One family was no doubt descendants of the Brighman Young, who pushed his way west ward in search of religious freedom. The other was Nelson H. Young, father of Henderson Young, who did much to establish Methodism in the Highland Community. The oldest recorded documents found of the Young family is the Bible of Nelson Harrison Young, grandfather of Mrs. Kelly McGuffey and the late Cyrus M. Young. The Records tell us that the Highland Methodist Church was established in 1849 on a high knoll just east of the “old corduroy road” which later became a pike and is now the old U.S. 27 high way.

The oldest graves in the cemetery, which grew up around the church, are dated 1862- 1864. Deaths that occurred between the organizing of the church and this date were probably buried in family plots or in the old Judy Bastin graveyard about a mile from there

The Civil War had its devastating effects on the Highland Community as it did all over the nation. The church was divided in its loyalty; there were two doors in the church, one for women and the other for men. They now serve a different purpose; they became one for the blue and the other for the gray. A partition was built down the middle separating the hostile feelings.

Recruiters marched up and down corduroy road with their fifes and drums “beating up volunteers”. A little “fire water” was then passed around. Men would leave their fields and joined the cause of their choice..

Out on the Greasy Ridge, just over 1mile  from her father, Henry Reed’s house, Rhonda Reed Butt, 15 years old, lay in bed with her first child (Lucy Butt Faulkner) and wept.   Her husband. John Butt, who had moved to Lincoln from Pulaski County was over on the highway clearing up the tract he had bought from the Transylvania Land company. She was afraid he would “join up” and not  come home at sundown. Her fears  were foundless for young John was not persuaded by impulse. He cleared his acres, set up a sawmill, built a house and moved his family to the home and established a general store.On up the road, where Greasy Ridge branches off from the highway, a young Mr. Cash set up a sawmill near a sparkling spring which still bears his name.  A method for splitting timber into thin known as “weather boarding” had been discovered. Cash owned a weather boarding machine.   On the high hill above the spring he built his house, which was the first weather-boarded house in Highland. Later  he heard the war drums and young Cash marched away to war. Somewhere in the south he was mortally wounded. His comrades placed the sick man in a boat, drifted it down Green River at night through enemy lines  to returned him to his family. He died and was buried in the old churchyard..

As the Civil War soldiers traveled back and forth through Lincoln County, they found a grassy ridge, leading off from Greasy Ridge, a good and safe place for grazing their horses . Morgan’s Raiders were everywhere, they were dedicated to steal as many horses as possible from the enemy.  This ridge became known as Horse Ridge and it’s still known by that name today.

Smallpox took its toll of life among both civilians and soldiers about this time. A company of Union soldiers had one of its member come down with the dreaded disease while traveling through Highland. While there the company made camp, placed the afflicted man under an overhanging rock cliff and placed a comrade to watch over him until he died. He was buried in a shallow grave at the top of the cliff on the Old Faulkner home place.  Mrs. Elsie Faulkner wrote this story about Highland for the Lincoln County Post. Information was gathered from Mrs. Kelly McGuffey, Mrs. Roxie Ervin, Mrs. Serena Dye, Mrs. Shell Reed, Norman McGuffey and Mrs. Ocela McMan.

Ester Marsh and his wife, Mary came to Lincoln County around 1854 from the High Point, NC.  The Marsh family had migrated to the United States from the Highlands of Scotland. where they were and still are very successful furniture makers. With them was their young widowed daughter, Laura I. Faulkner, and her four small children. Laura's husband had been a soldier in the Mexican War. where He had shown bravery in the battle of Buena Vista, which won him a citation, but put and early end to his life.

The Marshes, being Baptist , settled in the Pleasant Point area and began a small furniture factory at the cross roads leading from the old pike to Kings Mountain. A Baptist church had been established at Pleasant Point around 1811.  The Young Laura moved to Highland and established a post office, read law and taught in the one room school.  Her son Albert Mary Lucy Butt, the oldest daughter of  John and Rhoda Reed Butt.