History of Urbana, Ohio
Urbana is the county seat of Champaign County, Ohio. Established in 1805, the town became the county seat with Champaign County’s creation in 1805. The town’s founder, William Ward, named Urbana after the word urbanity.
Urbana grew slowly. In 1840, the town had just 1,070 residents. Twenty retail stores, four churches, two newspapers, two machine shops, an iron foundry, and a woolen mill existed in the community. With the completion of three railroads, which connected Urbana to the rest of the state more easily, the city’s population soared to 6,252 people in 1880. Five newspapers, eleven churches, four banks, and numerous manufacturing establishments existed in the town in 1886. The town contained three broom manufacturers, while other businesses produced stoves, carriages, leather, machinery, iron castings, and numerous other items. Urbana was also home to Urbana University, established in 1850 by the Swedenborgians. During the nineteenth century, frontiersman Simon Kenton and Ohio Governor Joseph Vance both resided in Urbana. They are also both buried in a local cemetery in the town. John Quincy Adams Ward, a famous sculptor, was born in Urbana, as was Brand Whitlock, a novelist, Progressive, and eventual mayor of Toledo, Ohio.
Simon Kenton
Simon Kenton was born April 3, 1755, in Fauquier County, Virginia. He grew up helping his father on their family farm and therefore had no opportunity to go to school. At the age of sixteen, Kenton became involved in a fight involving a woman. Believing he had killed a man, he fled to Ohio where he changed his name to Simon Butler.
Kenton spent the next two years hunting along the Ohio River. In 1774, he served as a scout during Lord Dunmore's War. By 1775, Kenton had moved to Boonesborough, Kentucky. For the next few years he was employed as a scout for the settlement, often coming in contact with the local Indians and at one point saving the life of Daniel Boone.
During the American Revolution, Kenton participated in a number of military engagements against the British and Indians. In 1778, he joined George Rogers Clark on an expedition down the Ohio River to the Mississippi, harassing British outposts as well as Indian settlements. Returning home, he accompanied Daniel Boone in an attack on the Shawnee Indians' settlement at Chillicothe. That same year, Kenton was captured by Indians who tortured him and attempted to burn him at the stake. Simon Girty rescued him and, instead of being killed, Kenton was sent to Fort Detroit as part of a prisoner trade with the British. By mid-1779, Kenton was once again free and had returned to service under George Rogers Clark. In 1782, he discovered that the man that he thought he had killed had actually lived, and therefore he was able to resume using his own name once again.
During the next several years Kenton lived a relatively quiet life. He settled near Maysville, Kentucky, marrying Martha Dowden and purchasing some large tracts of land. This life continued until 1794, when Kenton served in the militia under General Anthony Wayne and fought at the Battle of Fallen Timbers. After the death of his wife, Kenton remarried in 1798 and, the same year, moved to Ohio. He first lived near present-day Springfield but a few years later settled in Urbana. Kenton's military career continued, and by 1805 he had become a brigadier general in the Ohio militia. During the War of 1812, he participated in the Battle of the Thames.
Kenton moved to the Zanesfield, Ohio, area circa 1820. During the last years of his life, Kenton lived in poverty because of land ownership disputes and mismanagement of his money. He survived on a government pension of twenty dollars a month. In 1836, Kenton died in Logan County near Zanesfield and was buried there, but in 1865, his remains were moved to Urbana. The state of Ohio constructed a monument to mark his grave in 1884.