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Little and Great Miami rivers to our own beautiful Mad river valley ; 

 for history hath it, "that as early as 1795 the region between the 

 Little and Great Miamies, from the Ohio far up toward the source of 

 Mad river, became checkered with farms and abounded in indications 

 of the presence of an active and prosperous population." Hamilton 

 county, of which what is Champaign was part, was the second county 

 established in the State. 



How little is known, as it ought to be, of the men who by their 

 heroic struggles with the savage and the wilderness prepared the way 

 for the advent and progress of these settlements — the beginning of a 

 State now so grand in its intelligence, its wealth and its population ! 

 Who can properly estimate the value to Kentucky and Ohio of the 

 services of Simon Kenton and Daniel Boone in the conquest of these 

 States from the savage and their allies? 



The first settlements seem to have been made upon, and to have 

 followed up, the valleys of the rivers — just as the wild animals and 

 wild Indians had followed and roamed along and dwelt upon them. 

 These favored portions were first sought by the Indian and afterwards 

 by the white man for the same reasons. All up and down the valleys 

 were the great hunting grounds of the Indian. 



On the farm immediately west of Urbana, formerly owned by Judge 

 Smith, more recently by his son James C. Smith, have been ploughed 

 up on the fields and found, various Indian implements, such as broad 

 arrow heads, stone pestles, etc. It is said that in the spring of 1795, 

 Tecumseh was established on Deer creek, near the site of Urbana, 

 where he engaged in his favorite amusement of hunting, and remained 

 until the succeeding spring. The Deer creek referred to was prob- 

 ably our town branch, and he was also probably located on the Smith 

 farm througE which it ran. There were very fine springs there. On 

 the farm next west of this — the Bryant farm — in a mound on a hill 

 overlooking the Mad river, were found large quantities of human 

 bones. At the mouth of Mac-a-cheek, where it empties into Mad 

 river, are the evidences of an Indian settlement. On the farm now 

 owned by David Miller and Frank Mcllvain, in Salem township, was 

 an old Indian corn field. Up the valley of Kings creek, near the 

 town of Mingo, was the village of the Mingo tribe of Indians, to which 

 the great chief Logan belonged — Alfred Johnson now owns the farm 

 embracing that covered by the village, with its great spring — and a 



