Sunbury

How Sunbury began

Sunbury was platted on November 9, 1816 by brothers William and Lawrence Myers on land bought from a Mr. Alden, at the junction of the Old Walhonding Trail and the Delaware-Newark Pike in Berkshire Township. Its position at that crossroads made it a stagecoach town from 1820, when the first coach arrived from Mount Vernon, until 1873, when rail travel ended the trade; travelers said to have passed through include William Henry Harrison, Henry Clay, Rutherford B. Hayes and Johnny Appleseed. The village incorporated in 1882 and grew slowly through the twentieth century as a Big Walnut-area farm town anchored by its 1868 Town Hall on the square. Sunbury's population more than tripled between 2000 and 2020 as Columbus-area growth reached Delaware County, and the community converted from a village to a city on October 22, 2021.

Platted 1816-11-09, incorporated 1882, by William and Lawrence Myers, who platted the town on land purchased from a Mr. Alden; incorporated as a village in 1882 with I. A. Ports as first mayor.

Where the name comes from

No source consulted explains why the town was named Sunbury; other American towns of the same name exist elsewhere (notably in Pennsylvania), but none of the sources opened here connects this Sunbury to a specific namesake.

Before the town

No source opened ties a specific Native village, mound or trail to the town of Sunbury itself. The town was platted in 1816 at the junction of the Old Walhonding Trail and the Delaware-Newark Pike; 'Walhonding' is a place name of Native origin used elsewhere in Ohio, but no source consulted here confirms that this particular road followed a pre-contact Native trail rather than simply inheriting the name. Sunbury lies within Berkshire Township, whose land was opened to settlement by the 1795 Treaty of Greenville, in which the Wyandot, Shawnee, Lenape (Delaware), Miami, Ottawa and other nations ceded most of Ohio to the United States. For the county's documented Native history, including a Wyandot missionary connection and a recorded Native burial a few miles south in Kingston Township, see the Berkshire Township and county files.

Nations recorded here: Wyandot, Shawnee, Lenape (Delaware), Miami, Ottawa.

Timeline

1. 1795 — The Treaty of Greenville cedes most of what becomes Ohio, including the future site of Sunbury, to the United States.
2. 1816 — William and Lawrence Myers plat Sunbury on November 9 on land bought from a Mr. Alden, at the junction of the Delaware-Newark and Columbus-Mount Vernon roads; a Mr. Whitmore opens the first store the year before the town starts, and Mr. Rogers opens the first hotel.
3. 1820 — The first stagecoach reaches Sunbury from Mount Vernon, and Lawrence Myers builds a two-story inn to compete for the growing stagecoach trade.
4. 1868 — Sunbury builds a two-story school building for $5,000 on the town square; the Masons add a third-story lodge room for $1,500. The building goes on to serve as village office, jail, fire station, community library, bank and church.
5. 1873 — The last stagecoach rolls out of Sunbury as railroads take over long-distance travel.
6. 1882 — Sunbury incorporates as a village; I. A. Ports serves as its first mayor.
7. 1908 — The village's business district includes the Sunbury Co-Operative Creamery, the Farmers' Bank, Burrer's Flouring Mill, a poke (bag) factory, a hay-baler factory, and the Delaware County News Item newspaper, published by W. F. Whittier.
8. 2020 — The U.S. Census records 6,614 residents, roughly triple the village's 1980 population of 2,101.
9. 2021 — Sunbury converts from a village to a city on October 22, having passed the 5,000-resident threshold.

Stories

A Stagecoach Crossroads

Sunbury's founders picked their townsite for a reason: it sat exactly where the Old Walhonding Trail crossed the Delaware-Newark Pike, and Lawrence Myers built his inn right at that junction to catch the traffic he expected. The gamble paid off. From the first stagecoach's arrival from Mount Vernon in 1820 until the last one rolled out in 1873, Sunbury was a working stagecoach town, and the roster of travelers who reportedly passed through reads like a list of the era's most famous names: William Henry Harrison, Henry Clay, Rutherford B. Hayes, and the itinerant nurseryman Johnny Appleseed. When the railroads finally made the stagecoach obsolete, the inn's fifty-three-year run as a waypoint for the young republic's traveling public came to a quiet end.

One Building, Many Lives

The two-story building the village raised on its square in 1868 was built, on paper, as a school, for $5,000. It never stayed just a school for long. The Masons paid $1,500 to add a third floor and used it as a lodge room for ninety-one years. Over the building's working life it also did duty as the village office, the jail, the fire station, the community library, and at one time a bank; church services and Farmers' Institute meetings were held there too. A 2002 renovation returned it to use as a community room and village offices, and it still anchors Sunbury's New England-style town square today.

Photographs

Local history sources: ohiogenealogyexpress.com · sunburyohio.org · remarkableohio.org · en.wikipedia.org · delgazette.com · en.wikipedia.org · commons.wikimedia.org · commons.wikimedia.org · commons.wikimedia.org

Alum Creek Reservoir intake at the Scott plant, Lewis Center Rd at Africa, Orange Township The water here

• Del-co Water Company, Inc.100% of residentsOlentangy River, O'Shaughnessy and Alum Creek reservoirs, plus Knox County wells

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