84 



Nathaniel Cartmill, Benjamin and William Cliency, settled farther 

 down Buck creek valley, near what is now Catawba station, and Park- 

 er Sullivan, John Pence, John Taylor, Nathan Fitch, Jacob Pence, 

 Ezekiel Arrowsmith and William Kenton, a brother of Simon, settled 

 alonj:; Mad river, west and northwest of Urbana. John Beynolds set- 

 tled in the western part of what is now Mad river township about the 

 year 1803, and erected the first frame house built in Urbana. This 

 was built on the northeast corner of what is now the W^eaver House 

 block. He afterwards built the frame house on the Public S(j[uare 

 now occupied by George Collins, and the brick store west of it on the 

 corner of the Square and South Main street, now enlarged and 

 improved. 



Arthur Thomas, who was afterwards massacred by the Indians in 

 the war of 1S12, settled about five miles north of Urbana. Jacob 

 Johnson and Matthew Stewart settled on Kings creek. John Thomas 

 settled about three miles south of Urbana, about where Mrs. Newell 

 now lives, and had a small distillei'y up the branch, between where 

 the Newell and Donavan houses now stand. Besides these Felix 

 Kock, John Logan, John Owen, John Dawson and others settled in 

 the county prior to 1805. 



The town of Urbana was laid out in 1805 by Col. William Ward, 

 who had entered and owned the soil on which it was laid out. He 

 came from Kentucky, though originally from Greenbrier, Virginia. 

 The first house ex-ected in the town was a log cabin built by Thomas 

 Pearce on market space, immediately north of the present City Hall 

 building and east of South Main street. Christopher McGill, still 

 living in the city, was born in 1802, within the present city limits, in 

 a cabin standing on the east side of the Smith farm. J. H. Patrick, 

 a sturdy pioneer, was born in a log cabin about where Mrs. Keller 

 now lives, in 1811. 



Amongst the first settlers in the village were Joseph C. Vance, 

 George Fithian, Samuel McCord, Zeph. Luse, William H. Fyffe, Wil- 

 liam and John Glenn, Frederick Ambrose, John Reynolds, Simon 

 Kenton and Edward W. Pearce. These first settlers were sterling 

 men and came of good stock. The descendants of most of them still 

 live here. Col. Ward, the proprietor, came from Kentucky, was an 

 intelligent and enterprising man. In Ohio and Kentucky he had some 

 business relations with Kenton, out of which a long continued litigation 



