NEW PARIS HISTORY
At the beginning...The first house on the site was built in 1846 by William Blackburn. Other early residents who built houses here were Jacob Coplin in 1848, Rueben Davis in 1850, Luther Davis in 1853, John W. Davis in 1856, Jacob Bowers in 1858, and John Wayde in 1859. Blacksmith Daniel Raffensparger bought Blackburn's house and most of the land on which the village sits in 1851, and also gave New Paris its name.
Jacob W. Miller and Isaiah Conley opened the first store in 1856, and was managed by Mrs. Eliza Richards. William Crissman started the first hotel, along with a store, in 1869.
New Paris was incorporated as a borough on September 7, 1882. The first school house was built just west of the borough in 1841. A new one was built north of town in 1859, and another in the borough in 1886. In 1919, this building was used as the first first high school, a two year high school, with two pupils - Gladys Davis and Frederick Blackburn. In 1881 the newspaper "New Paris Star" was begun, with C. S. Davis as its editor. The name changed to "New Paris Review" in 1890.
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