Butler County, Ohio: History
Successive cultures of ancient Indigenous peoples of the Americas occupied areas of the county. They built large earthworks, seven of which were still standing and recorded by a Smithsonian survey.
Early French explorers likely passed through the area along the Miami River. The gravesites of David and Margaret Gregory indicate they were some of the first white settlers in the area, in Liberty Township. White settlers began moving into the area in larger numbers after the 1795 Treaty of Greenville was signed with the Native Americans of the area. The current area was split about evenly between the Symmes Purchase and the Congress Lands West of Miami River.
Butler County was formed on March 24, 1803, from portions of Hamilton County. It is named for General Richard Butler, who served in the American Revolutionary War and Northwest Indian War. Between 1803 and 1823, the townships of the county became officially recognized. Large portions of the county were held by non-resident owners, including 640 acres owned by major general and future U.S. president William Henry Harrison. Butler County's original size was 480 square miles (1,200 km2); some land that was originally part of Butler County was reassigned to Warren County in the north and Hamilton County in the south.
In 1803, the United States Congress granted one township to the Ohio General Assembly in the region to build a college. The legislature selected a township off Four Mile Creek, the College Township, and chartered Miami University in 1809.
Around the late 1860s or early 1870s, the community of Maud was the sight of an attempt by a local entrepreneur to construct a mill that worked via perpetual motion. A large crowd gathered to watch the mill start, and when it did not, laughter ensued. Nothing was heard from the unnamed entrepreneur again, and the mill quickly vanished. The local newspapers did not record the event, and the only record of its occurrence was transmitted by elderly residents of Maud to William Marion Miller of Miami University.
The Great Flood of 1913 affected much of the county, particularly Middletown, where approximately 25% of the town was flooded and 6 people died, and Hamilton, where 46% of the city was flooded, over 300 buildings destroyed, and at least 98 people killed.
In the 1920s, Butler, Pickaway and Washington counties were central areas of the rural membership of the Ku Klux Klan in Ohio.
In 1957, the Ohio Legislature established Hueston Woods State Park, which covers 3,596 acres in Butler and neighboring Preble County. In addition to a 625-acre manmade lake, the park contains the 200-acre Hueston Woods, one of the last near-virgin growths of American beech and maple in Ohio.