Milford Center

• Norton P. ChipmanPerson · 1834-1924

How Milford Center began

Milford Center began as a ford across Big Darby Creek that George Reed first reached in 1799, then developed as he built a grist mill and a mill race nearly half a mile long between 1810 and 1812. Reed platted the town in 1814-1816 as 'Milford,' and it briefly served as Union County's first seat of government when the county organized in 1820, before the name was dressed up to 'Milford Center' in the 1820s-1890s and the county seat moved to Marysville. The village, in Union Township, incorporated in 1853 and later became the birthplace of Union general and Reconstruction-era judge Norton P. Chipman; it remains a small farm-service village on State Route 4.

Settled 1799, platted 1814-1816, incorporated 1853, by George Reed.

Where the name comes from

The 'Milford' half of the name comes from George Reed's grist mill at the Darby Creek ford (Mill Ford, shortened to Milford); a post office established in 1823 as 'Milford' became 'Milford Centre' in 1829 and finally 'Milford Center' in 1893. Local tradition, as a village historical marker gives it, holds that the 'Center' was added for a more dignified status as the village became the county seat.

Before the town

No named village, mound or treaty line specific to the Milford Center site is documented in the sources checked. The village sits on Big Darby Creek, which the Wyandot called Ollentangy ('River of Red Face Paint') before American surveyors gave it its present name, in the watershed where Jonathan Alder, captured as a boy in 1782 and raised by a Mingo chief and his Shawnee wife, later returned as an adult to farm along the creek in the Union/Madison County borderland. The Darby Ford that gave the settlement its start was, by definition, a crossing point already known and used before American settlement; no source names the people who used it.

Nations recorded here: Wyandot, Shawnee, Mingo (Seneca-Cayuga).

Timeline

1. 1799 — George Reed first reached the site along Darby Creek that would become Milford Center.
2. c. 1806 — A crossing called Darby Ford developed at the site as settlers built a ford across the creek.
3. 1810-1812 — George Reed built a grist mill and a mill race nearly a half mile long, and the settlement became known as Mill Ford.
4. 1816 — Reed platted the town as Milford; other settlers joined him and the village of Milford was established.
5. 1820-04-01 — Union County organized and Milford briefly served as the county's first seat of government; its first courthouse, built there in 1820-21, was the first frame building in the village.
6. 1823 — A post office opened under the name Milford.
7. 1829 — The post office was renamed Milford Centre as the town sought a more dignified identity after serving as county seat.
8. 1853 — The village of Milford Center incorporated.
9. 1893 — The post office and town name were fixed as Milford Center.

Stories

From a ford to a courthouse

In 1799, George Reed came upon a crossing point on Darby Creek that travelers already used to ford the stream. Settlers built a proper ford there, and the little cluster of cabins that grew up around it took the name Darby Ford. Reed built a grist mill on the creek between 1810 and 1812, with a mill race almost half a mile long, and the crossing's name shifted to Mill Ford after his mill. When Reed platted the town in 1814-1816, he called it Milford, and by the time Union County organized on April 1, 1820, Milford was developed enough to be picked as the county's first seat of government, with the county's first courthouse, the village's first frame building, raised there in 1820-21. The honor did not last long: the county seat soon moved to Marysville, and Milford, renamed Milford Center (for a more dignified status, a village marker says), settled into life as a farm-trade village, eventually incorporating in 1853.

The village's soldier and judge

Norton P. Chipman, born in Milford Center, went on to serve as a Union Army officer and military prosecutor during and after the Civil War, most notably as judge advocate in the 1865 war-crimes trial of Confederate Captain Henry Wirz, commandant of the Andersonville prison camp. Chipman later became a delegate to Congress from the District of Columbia and a California judge. His start in a small Union County mill town is a reminder of how many of Ohio's early villages sent people on to national roles far from home.

Local history sources: en.wikipedia.org · hmdb.org · hmdb.org · en.wikipedia.org · linkedin.com · historicalmarkerproject.com · en.wikipedia.org · hmdb.org

Mostly private wells The water here

• Milford Center Village100% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)

Fire and EMS stations (1)

Superfund sites (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (2)

Elections for office

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

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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