As you cross over the Little Miami River and drive into Old Milford, you can’t help but notice the attractive sign on the left that sits by the roadside. “Welcome to Historic Milford,” it reads, “Incorporated 1836.” Any driver passing by would figure that Milford is celebrating its 170th birthday this year. That, however, is not the whole story. While the town is touted as “Historic,” its true history seems to have been misplaced.

The incorporation date of 1836 indicates the year that the Ohio General Assembly granted a charter recognizing Milford as a village, a separate legal entity for the purposes of government. That is not the year, however, that Milford was founded. Its true establishment happened about thirty years earlier. In the realm of the public’s recollection this fact was forgotten.

There are several written works that detail the town’s early history. The Greater Milford Area Historical Society prepared a detailed account of this period in their book, Bridge to the Past, A History of Milford. Bridge explains that John Nancarrow was the first American to own the ground that Old Milford now sits on. He had his tract of 230 acres surveyed in 1788. Originally, he hoped to establish a city that would be a great metropolis in the west. It seems, however, that financial problems forced him to sell the land, instead, and he never actually settled here.

Milford’s first permanent settler was Reverend Francis McCormick. A Revolutionary War soldier from Virginia, McCormick had been granted 1000 acres from that state for his war service. He built a log cabin on a high hill just north of the river’s fork. Today, that site is 1000 Forest Avenue in Milford. McCormick stayed in Milford for a decade, and in 1797 started the first Methodist classes in the five-state region then known as the Northwest Territory. He thought so much of the area that he encouraged his friend, Reverend Philip Gatch, to move near the Little Miami River.

Gatch, too, had received a land grant from Virginia for service during the war. He arrived in the area in late 1798 and was not happy with his tract. He ended up purchasing property near McCormick’s from John Nancarrow on January 17, 1799. He immediately began building a cabin and clearing the land for farming. The site of his first home was located in the southeast corner of what today is Greenlawn Cemetery, very near the spot where he would be buried. He made payments to Nancarrow on the property regularly until gaining clear title of the land in 1802.

Gatch became a very prominent citizen in early Milford. He served on the first Constitutional Convention for the State of Ohio in 1802, and was appointed one of the first justices of the peace in the town, and later became a county judge. After Ohio’s admission to the union, Gatch was named to the new Clermont County Court as a judge for a seven-year term.

Another early but important settler in the area was John Hageman. He moved to the community in 1802. Hageman quickly erected the first gristmill on the banks of the Little Miami, gaining permission from Gatch to build there. Along with the structure, he dug a millrace, a small stream that brought water from the river to the mill. This water turned a large wheel that supplied the power to grind grain. This small, primitive mill, even for that time, began the milling heritage that contributed to Milford’s name. Hageman’s presence along the river attracted others and soon a small community grew along the bank. As the collection of cabins slowly grew, Hageman began to make plans for his next moneymaking endeavor: he would sell lots in a new organized community.

In the fall of 1805, he presented his idea to then Judge Philip Gatch. Gatch, Hageman, and another early settler, Ambrose Ranson, refined the plan and allowed for a plot of land to be reserved for a church above the flood plain. Gatch and Ranson also provide the financing for the venture, holding Hageman’s notes for a period of about 18 months and allowing him to carry out his idea.

The new design called for a four-block grid, with three streets running parallel to the river, and three streets that intersected. When he recorded his plan with Clermont County officials on January 17, 1806, the town had 46 lots. The community would take up 20 acres on the east side of the Little Miami River near his gristmill. At the time, the town’s name on the county deed was recorded as Hageman’s Mills. At some point soon after, though, he changed his mind, because that name never appeared again. Two weeks later, Hageman decided to advertise his lots for sale in Cincinnati’s early newspaper Liberty Hall. In those ads, he used the name Milford. It was the first time this name was used in connection with the community.

In the early months of 1806, then, Hageman created the plan for the town’s streets and lots, registered it with the county, and used the name Milford when he advertised those lots for sale. Ohio might have finally recognized Milford as a legal entity in 1836, but it seems clear that Hageman, Gatch and Ranson worked to make Milford a reality 30 years earlier. Certainly, that constitutes a founding.

So, the next time you drive into “Historic Milford” and see that sign at the edge of town, just remember that you know the real history. 2006 is Milford’s true bicentennial birthday! And, if you want, you can celebrate Milford’s other 200th birthday in thirty years, as well.

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