The original name of the settlement was Emil's Ford in honor of Emil Potemkin. The following year a drunken Indian returning from Erasmus' Tavern, rode into the sign at full speed knocking the "E" and the "S" to the ground. The town had no budget for repairs and the sign was never fixed. So many people began referring to the town as "Mil Ford" that the name stuck. In 1850 it was officially changed to Milford.

Emil Potemkin VI would follow his famous ancestor's footsteps and create Potemkin Village (Later: Miami Township). Houses were sold by mail order to Easterners interested in migrating west. Potemkin subdivided his land and placed a facade of a house on each property. Photographs were then placed in a catalog and distributed to every home on the East Coast. While many felt they were duped when they realized they had purchased only the land and a facade of a house, Potemkin narrowly avoided prosecution although he was tarred and feathered on several occasions. There is one positive note to the story. History does credit Potemkin as being the inventor of junk mail. Modern day Potemkins have taken a cue from their ancestor and have invented a great improvement to marketing using the computer. Special Potemkin Anonymous Mail, or "SPAM" as it is lovingly called, has had a great effect on computer users worldwide.

The first attempt at settling the area now called Milford occurred in 1725. A group of exiles from the Shaker Church failed in their attempt to create a utopian society along the Little Miami River. Called "Shooters", the group had hoped to create an economy based entirely on shooting dice and playing poker with each other. In the above drawing, new residents knelt for their first craps game. Facing starvation, the group returned via their boats to Newport, Kentucky in 1726.

Weakened by hunger, the Shooters load their boat for the return voyage down the Litttle Miami River in 1726. Despite frequently raising the betting limits, settlers eventually discovered that the lack of constructive employment, manufacturing and farming doomed the isolated colony once their original supplies were exhausted. Modern day government economists and politicians have not given up on the theory that a viable economy can be built on passing each other's money back and forth. Indeed, it is now taught that we can sell each other fast food hamburgers and simply raise prices, print currency and borrow from China when problems occur. It is the same logic that calls for open borders to solve unemployment, the health care crisis and low wages.