Auchi was founded by a man called Uchi who migrated from Udo near Benin City about 14th century C.E. definitely before the reign of Oba Ewuare 1 of Benin.
The coming of Uchi, his family and followers to this Guinea Savannah belt know today as Etsakoland was as a result of internecine wars, acts of brutality, intimidation and dehumanization which the proud people of Auchi and their likes could not perpetually stomach.
The town is bounded on the east by South Ibie; On the north-east by Jattu; on the north by Ayua, iyuku and Imeke; on the north-west by Ikpeshi and Ihievbe Ogben; on the south by Ivbiaro and Warrake and on the south by Era and Ayuele-Ugioli.
Right from ancient times, migrants have always preferred to settle where they are sure of abundant water, flora and fauna.
The case of Auchi could not have been an exception. It is due primarily to the indispensability of water to life that many groups in Africa and elsewhere took to a deification of the prominent river in their localities. That Auchi people of old used to worship Orle is, therefore, not a surprise, though it was wrong. It is the Creator of Orle, the Creator of other rivers and the universe at large who should be worshipped with undivided attention and utmost zeal, that is Almighty God.
In the accounts of migration from Benin and its environs to Etsakoland, many historians explained how people settled in Auchi while many others moved northwards and eastwards. The lush and verdant vegetation of Auchi, its forest and Savannah belts, and very fertile, land had contributed immensely to this reality.
The written history of Etsako people is not very old. Most of the sources of Etsako history were first documented by European explorers, missionaries and colonial officers. In the case of Auchi, the oldest record available is the mention of Auchi and a few other Etsako towns and villages by Kweller, a European writer in a work he published in 1850. In the work, the author interviewed freed slaves in Freetown and asked them to mention their places of origin, That was in the 1820s.
A particular ex-slave named Agbodo or George Cole of Campbell town claimed that he was of lslam origin from Iwieta (Ewatto) whence he was sold into slavery at the age of 18 and taken to Sierra Kaeone in 1827- He was asked to mention the towns and villages in his area of origin and that was how he mention AWITSI (Auchi) among a few others. The conclusion however is that, at least by 1820, i.e. before the coming of the Nupe, Auchi was firmly in existence. This is contrally to the believed that Auchi people migrated from Hausa Land.
Auchi town is made up of five grand quarters which were initially inter-dependent villages with common ancestry. Patches of bushes separated the villages and intermixed with the houses even within the same Quarters. The grand’ Quarters are Utsogu, Akpekpe, Aibotse, Igbhei and lyekhei.
Utsogu is the royal Quarter from which the Otaru (king) of Auchi is customarily chosen and enthroned right from the era of Ikelebe I in the middle of the nineteenth century. Utsogu has the responsibility of welding Auchi together and galvanizing the town in its valorous forward march for the attainment of lofty goals.
Within each of the grand Quarters, there are small Quarters and kindreds with clearly demarcated lineages both from within matrilineal Amohoya and the matrilineal Otse” types of wedlock of the pre-Momoh era of Auchi.
