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The first non-indigenous settlers in the Green River Valley arrived in the 1850s, but were temporarily driven out by Indian wars later that decade. Several settler families returned in the 1860s, including Levi Ballard, who set up a homestead between the Green and White rivers. Ballard filed for a plat to establish a town in February 1886, naming it Slaughter for an officer slain during the Indian wars in 1855. Slaughter was incorporated on June 13, 1891, but its name was changed two years later to Auburn on February 21, 1893, by an action of the state legislature. Newer residents had disliked the name and its connection to the word " slaughter", especially after the town's hotel was named the Slaughter House.