Hollansburg

How Hollansburg began

Hollansburg began as two rival plats in Harrison Township, western Darke County. James Stewart laid out Union on March 28, 1838; when William Hollaman quarreled with Stewart over the price of lots he platted a competing town on his own land a mile to the northeast in October 1838, and Valentine Harland made two additions. The name combines Hollaman and Harland with the usual burgh (first Hollandsburgh), the Republican post office moved there in 1839, and the new town outgrew and finally displaced Union. The 1880 county history dates Hollandsburg to 1817, but the 1914 history and Wikipedia give 1838. It had 243 residents in 2020, and economist John R. Commons was born there in 1862.

Platted 1838-03-28 (Union, James Stewart); October 1838 (Hollansburg, William Hollaman), by James Stewart (Union); William Hollaman and Valentine Harland (Hollansburg).

Where the name comes from

William Hollaman threatened to lay out a competing town after a wrangle with James Stewart over the price of lots in Union, and did so in October 1838; Valentine Harland made two additions, and the new village was named by combining the first part of Hollaman's name with the last part of Harland's and adding burgh, making Hollandsburgh, since reduced to Hollansburg (Wilson 1914).

Before the town

No Native American village or site specific to present-day Hollansburg is documented. The village sits in Harrison Township in western Darke County, part of the broader Miami and Shawnee homeland ceded under the 1795 Treaty of Greenville. The area's Native history includes a documented 1810 attack on an early Harrison Township settlement attempt.

Nations recorded here: Shawnee, Miami.

Timeline

1. 1838-03-28 — James Stewart plats the community of Union.
2. 1838 — A rival settlement, named Hollansburg for landowners William Hollaman and Valentine Harland after a dispute, is founded nearby.
3. 1839 — The Republican post office is moved from section 29 of German Township to Hollansburg, with William Hollaman as postmaster.
4. 1840 — The village's first church, a Church of Christ congregation, is established.
5. 1842 — Dr. W. W. French settles in Hollansburg and builds a practice that reaches into Indiana.
6. 1848 — Hollansburg's first school building is completed.
7. 1852 — The New Light (Christian) congregation replaces its 1840 church on the cemetery site with a second building.
8. 1862-10-13 — Economist John R. Commons is born in Hollansburg; he later teaches at Wisconsin and drafts the first state workers' compensation law.
9. 1870 — Census records 239 residents.
10. c. 1875 — The Methodists build a church in the northern part of the village.
11. 1880 — Hollansburg has about three hundred people, a Methodist Episcopal church and a Christian church (the 1880 county history dates the place to 1817, a date the 1914 history and Wikipedia do not support); the census counts 245.
12. 1896 — A much better church building replaces the 1852 church; it is struck by lightning and burns in 1912.
13. 1914-04-26 — A new brick Church of Christ costing about $8,000 is dedicated.
14. 1914 — The village has a city hall, bank, post office, hotel, Knights of Pythias building, newspaper office, sawmill and greenhouse.
15. 1970 — Population peaks at 364 residents.
16. 1970 — Population reaches 364, the highest census count.
17. 2020 — Hollansburg has 243 residents.

Stories

Two towns, one dispute, one village

Hollansburg's odd, compound name preserves a 19th-century property fight that most towns forget within a generation. In 1838, James Stewart platted a settlement he called Union on this spot in Harrison Township. Nearby, a dispute between two other landowners, William Hollaman and Valentine Harland, produced a second, rival plat -- and rather than pick one man's name over the other's, the founders blended them into Hollansburg. The rivalry did not end in a standoff: when the countryside post office known as Republican relocated to Hollansburg, the newer settlement drew away the trade and population that had gathered at Union, and over time the two plats simply grew into each other, leaving Hollansburg as the surviving name for what had started as competing townsites.

Local history sources: en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org · archive.org · archive.org · en.wikipedia.org

No water-system data is linked to Hollansburg's ZIP codes yet.

Fire and EMS stations (1)

Elections for office

Winners in bold. Results from the county board of elections' official canvass unless marked.

Auditor of State record

• No fiscal caution, watch or emergency on the Auditor of State's lists.
• Basic Audit, 2022 to 2023, released 2025-05-08

Source: Ohio EPA eDocument portal (edocpub.epa.ohio.gov), indexed 2026-10-14. Facilities are placed on the map from Ohio EPA's own map layers, EPA's Facility Registry, coordinates written in the filings, or a geocoded street address. A permit filed under a private person's name (most are household septic systems) is counted but never named, placed or linked; licenses for individual workers and open-burning notices are left out entirely.

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