Incidents Connected with the 

 Early History of Cham- 

 paign County. 



BY JOHN II. YOUNG, ESQ. 



The history of the first settlement of Champaign county connects 

 itself very closely with the history of the first settlements of the 

 State. 



The first settlements made in what is now the State were made soon 

 after the termination of the Hevolutionary war, and were composed 

 largely of Revolutionary soldiers or their families, coming here in the 

 spirit of adventure or driven hither to seek compensation for their 

 services or a home, because of the inability of the General Govern- 

 ment to pay them for their services except in lands and land grants. 



Indeed there was an express military reservation for the benefit of 

 Revolutionary soldiers which extended into our own county. After 

 the close of the Revolutionary war Virginia ceded to the United 

 States the larger portion of the great domain received by her under 

 charter from King James the First, but in doing so, sb.e reserved all 

 the lands lying between the Little Miami and Scioto rivers, in Ohio, 

 for the purpose of paying the Virginia soldiers who served in the war 

 of the Revolution, and it was distributed amongst the officers and 

 soldiers in quantities proportioned to their several grades in the army. 

 What is known in this county as Ludlow's line was one of the westerly 

 lines of this military reservation. 



That grand old soldier of the Revolution, Gen. Putnam, settled at 

 Marietta in the spring of 1788, and this was the first settlement made 

 in the State. It was made at the mouth of the Muskingum river and 

 the settlements continued up the valley of the river. Washington 

 county, of which Marietta became the county seat, was the first county 

 formed in the State. 



The next settlements were made near the mouth of the Little Miami 

 river and on the present site of Cincinnati. These settlements were 

 made in November and December of the saiue year, IT'IS; and in a 

 very few years thereafter they were extended up the valleys of the 



