The property Philip Boaden decided to buy was not considered prize property at the time. Little bottom land, hilly, and covered in oaks that would have to be cleared. Other farmers in the region considered the newly arrived Moravian to be a sucker. But Phillip was not planning on being a farmer. He was going to be a horse man.
From a small corral on what he called from the first day The High Ground, Phillip worked over the next quarter century to build one of the most respected horse farms in the western regions. Whether it was for heavy farm work or carriage work, city cab work or delivery work, The High Ground was the place to go to buy just the right horse.
Philip’s strict upbringing included a work ethic that put The High Ground as the sole source of all of his devotion. It was all he had and it showed. As it grew from its original small hilltop setting, Phillip maintained the original barn built on the site of the original corral. On his fifth birthday, as a gift to himself, he added a second story with a cupola and a clock. He said from the cupola he could see the whole valley and that as far as he could see he knew there was a horse from The High Ground. The second floor was to be an apartment for his use, away from the main house, a retreat of sorts.
It was the clock that upset some. It was their thought that the town hall had a clock, an official clock, and any other clock so prominently displayed was not only ostentatious perhaps revolutionary. Philip dismissed their complaints as nonsense, but they were serious and are blamed with throwing Philip from the cupola one night at midnight. The twelve chimes prevented anyone from hearing his cries for help, if there were any, and curiously the clocked stopped at midnight after striking the hour.