Home to the city's first settlers and changed very little since their time, it is one of Ohio's best preserved log cabins from the settlement period, and it has been named a historic site.

The land did not remain unoccupied for long; Bath Township's first settlers had become well established by the time that Greene County was organized in 1803.

By the end of the 1790s, a family from Virginia named Mercer had immigrated to the Northwest Territory and purchased a large tract of land at 25¢ per acre (approximately $61.78 per km²) that included the site of the Indian village.

[2]: 285  These early settlers were isolated from surrounding regions for the first twenty years after the Mercers arrived; except for the road running between the cities of Dayton and Springfield, the township's best transportation routes were paths through the dense forest, although the nearby Mad River could be used for light freight transportation during the spring floods.

[2]: 287  By the end of the 1810s, more settlers were moving into the area; Fairborn (then known as Fairfield) was platted in 1817, by which time the property was owned by Robert Mercer.