Union Township, Pike County

How Union Township, Pike County began

Union Township was settled about 1808-09 by Alexander Collison, first of a wave of emigrants from Virginia and Pennsylvania, and was organized May 7, 1848 from parts of Seal and Beaver townships. The neighborhood on Owl Creek, the Methodists' Beaver Chapel (1825) and a German Lutheran church (1860) mark its growth. One of its Civil War soldiers, Samuel Slavens, rode with Andrews' raiders in 1862, was captured, and was hanged with six others in June 1862. The township remains rural, with no village, and had 1,227 residents in 2020.

Settled c. 1808-09, incorporated May 7, 1848 (township organization), by formed from Seal and Beaver townships.

Where the name comes from

Not established from the sources consulted.

Before the town

No village, mound, trail or encounter is recorded for Union Township in the sources read. What the record supports is the land's status: Pike County lies south and east of the Greenville line, and the Treaty of Greenville (signed August 3, 1795) ceded roughly two-thirds of Ohio to the United States. The first settlers in this part of the county came within a few years after it, in 1796 and later.

Timeline

1. c. 1808-09 — Alexander Collison makes the first settlement; Reuben Slavens settles soon after on what becomes the John Andrews farm, and a neighborhood grows up along Owl Creek.
2. 1812-13 — The first school in the township is taught that winter in an old log hut; among the first teachers was John Zimmerman.
3. 1817 — William Galford opens a clearing near where the Pleasant Valley church now stands, building a log house; sixty-six years later his son H. S. Galford still farms it.
4. 1825 — Beaver Chapel, the township's Methodist Episcopal church, is organized; it worships in a log building until 1872, when a 26-by-36-foot frame church replaces it on the same lot at a cost of $1,200.
5. 1833 — The Pleasant Valley Free-Will Baptist Church is organized at the house of Richard Wells, belonging then to the Scioto County circuit; it buys a log school-house and builds a $900 frame church in 1868.
6. May 7, 1848 — Union Township is organized from Seal and Beaver townships; the election is held June 23 at the house of Bennett Sailor.
7. 1850 — The township has 564 residents; it has 766 in 1860.
8. 1853 — The township's first post office is established, with Abisha Rockman as postmaster; it becomes known as the Galford post office.
9. 1860 — The German Lutheran Church is organized, with a membership of forty and Jacob Koger and Michael Peters as trustees; it builds its church that year.
10. April 12, 1862 — Andrews' Raid, later called the Great Locomotive Chase, takes place; Samuel Slavens of Union Township, a private in the 33rd Ohio, is among the raiders.
11. June 18, 1862 — Slavens and six other raiders are hanged in Atlanta (the county history gives June 20).
12. 1870 — The township has 651 residents.
13. 1880 — The township has 676 residents.
14. 1882 — The township's 14,055 acres are valued at $100,581, with $67,600 in personal property.
15. 2020 — The census counts 1,227 residents in the township.

Stories

Samuel Slavens and Andrews' raiders

Samuel Slavens was born in Pike County on March 18, 1831, son of Charles and Margaret Slavens of Union Township. He married Rachel Taylor in 1856 and had three sons by 1861, when he enlisted in Company E, 33rd Ohio Infantry. On April 12, 1862, eight men of the 33rd Ohio were among the twenty-four men, two of them civilians, who took part in James J. Andrews's raid, later called the Great Locomotive Chase; the county history describes Slavens's party as 'engaged in cutting off connections between the North and South.' Captured, Andrews was hanged on June 7, and seven of his men, Slavens among them, on June 18, 1862. The 1884 county history, which gives the date as June 20 and says 'seven of them were hanged at once,' calls them 'the Bridge Burners of '62.'

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

Mostly private wells The water here

• Northwest Regional Water District26% of residentsTeays Valley Aquifer (wells near SR 348)
• Beaver25% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Waverly City19% of residentsGroundwater wells (3 wells)
• Scioto Co. Regional Water District #116% of residentsTeays Valley Aquifer (wells near SR 348)
• Ross County Water Co. Inc4% of residentsTeays Valley Aquifer (buried valley groundwater)
• Scioto Water Inc.-rose Hill4% of residentsPurchased: Scioto Co. Regional Water Dist. #1 (Teays Valley Aquifer)
• Aqua Ohio - Lake White3% of residentsGroundwater wells (3 wells)
• Pike Water, Inc.-plant2% of residentsTeays Valley Buried Valley Aquifer (wells near Jasper)
• Scioto Water, Inc.-davis Camp1% of residentsTeays Valley Aquifer (wells near SR 348)
• Portsmouth City0% of residentsOhio River

Bridges rated poor (1)

Money issues on the ballot since 2021: 1 of 1 passed.

Ballot issues

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.
• On the Auditor of State's unauditable list.
• Financial Audit, 2019 to 2021, released 2024-11-12

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