Union Township, Mercer County

How Union Township, Mercer County began

Union Township, in the northeastern corner of Mercer County, was set off from Dublin Township in 1828, with its first election on December 20 of that year. The first permanent settlers, Andrew Coil and his son-in-law Thomas Parrott, built a cabin on Twelve-Mile Creek in 1822; Coil laid out Coiltown the next year and it competed with St. Marys and Shanesville for the county seat in 1824 before it vanished into a farm field. Mendon, platted as Guilford in 1834, is the only village. The township had 2,238 people in 1900 and 1,330 in 2020.

Settled 1822 (Andrew Coil and Thomas Parrott), platted 1834 (Mendon, as Guilford), incorporated 1828 (township organized, set off from Dublin Township), by Andrew Coil and Thomas Parrott.

Where the name comes from

One of twenty-seven Union Townships in Ohio; no specific reason for this township's name is recorded.

Before the town

No Native village, trail or treaty site specific to Union Township is recorded.

Timeline

1. 1822 — Andrew Coil and his son-in-law Thomas Parrott build a cabin on the banks of Twelve-Mile Creek, the first permanent settlement in the township, and Samuel Duncan also settles; their corn and vegetables are the township's first crop.
2. 1823 — Coil lays out Coiltown, which competes with St. Marys and Shanesville for the county seat in 1824; it later passes from sight and becomes a cultivated field.
3. 1827 — A log schoolhouse is built by volunteer labor on Justin Hamilton's land; Hamilton teaches the first term in 1827-28 for $10 a month.
4. 1828 — Union Township is established.
5. 1828 — The first township election is held on December 20 in the schoolhouse on Hamilton's land; Benjamin Roebuck, Andrew Coil Jr. and Peter Coil are elected trustees.
6. 1834 — The village later renamed Mendon is platted as Guilford.
7. 1836 — Jacob Panabaker builds a saw and grist mill on the St. Marys River at Mendon, then known as Guilford.
8. 1839 — A post office called Mendon begins operating.
9. 1871 — The Pleasant Grove Baptist Church is organized on November 22 with four constituent members.
10. 1880 — The census counts 1,820 people in the township.
11. 1890 — The township has 2,001 people.
12. 1900 — The township has 2,238 people.
13. 1904 — Mendon's Town Hall is built jointly by the village and township for $12,000.
14. 2009-03-13 — Mendon Town Hall is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
15. 2020 — The census counts 1,330 people in the township.

Stories

Coiltown, the county seat that became a cornfield

In 1822 Andrew Coil and his son-in-law Thomas Parrott built a cabin on the bank of Twelve-Mile Creek in what is now Union Township, with no white neighbour within a day's journey, and raised a crop of corn and vegetables that was the township's first. The next year Coil laid out a town and named it Coiltown. When the new county of Mercer needed a seat of justice in 1824, Coiltown entered the contest alongside St. Marys and Shanesville, which is now Rockford. Shanesville held the prize for a time before it passed to St. Marys and then to Celina. Coiltown dropped out of sight, as the 1907 county history puts it, and became a cultivated field. The township's later center was the village of Mendon, laid out in 1834, and Coil's name survives mainly in the records of the early settlers.

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

Mostly private wells The water here

• Mendon Village80% of residentsGroundwater wells (3 wells)
• Rockford Village15% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Spencerville Village5% of residentsGroundwater wells (3 wells)

Money issues on the ballot since 2025: 1 of 1 passed.

Ballot issues

Elections for office

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

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