Grant County was formed from Pendleton County in 1820 and was named for two brothers who came from North Carolina in 1779 and established Grant’s Station in Fayette County. John Grant developed salt works on the Licking River. Samuel Grant was killed by Indians in Indiana in 1794. William Arnold donated the courthouse site, and Williamstown was named for him, a Captain in the Revolution and a Lieutenant in the Maumee Indian Campaign of 1790.