Union Township, Tuscarawas County

How Union Township, Tuscarawas County began

Union Township lies in the eastern part of Tuscarawas County, bordering Carroll and Harrison counties, and was organized on March 6, 1833 (together with neighboring Mill Township) out of land that had earlier belonged to the now-vanished One Leg Township, when the formation of Carroll County required the eastern townships to be reshaped. Settlement of the Little Stillwater valley began between 1808 and 1812; James Boyd, an Irish immigrant, built the Black Horse Tavern in 1819, a noted stopping place for wheat wagons hauling grain from Harrison County to the Ohio Canal. Rockford, laid out in 1816 by Nathan McGrew and Abraham Ricksecker, never prospered and by 1884 held only two or three houses. The township's southwestern corner holds part of the village of Dennison, the county's railroad town, while its northwestern corner touches the small community of Roswell; otherwise it is farm country with scattered rural schools, one of which -- the former Roxford District School -- now operates as a winery. It covers 22.2 square miles and had 1,449 residents at the 2020 census.

Settled 1808-1812 (Little Stillwater valley), incorporated 1833-03-06, by organized March 6, 1833, from territory formerly part of One Leg Township, when Carroll County's formation required the eastern Tuscarawas townships to be re-shaped.

Where the name comes from

"Union" is one of the most common township names in Ohio; the state has twenty-seven Union Townships, and no source consulted here gives a founding-specific reason for the choice in Tuscarawas County.

Before the town

No Native American village, trail, or archaeological site specific to Union Township itself is documented in the sources consulted. The township lies within the Tuscarawas River watershed that was Delaware (Lenape) country in the 18th century and was ceded to the United States by the Treaty of Greenville (1795). The wider valley's documented Moravian mission towns, Fort Laurens, and treaty history are not placed inside Union Township's own boundaries by any source found here.

Timeline

1. 1808-1812 — The Little Stillwater valley becomes the first-settled part of the township; John McPherson, William McCleary, David Wagoner, James Vanater, George Kail, Jacob Creager, Solomon Arnold and James Boyd (an Irish immigrant from County Tyrone) are among the earliest arrivals.
2. 1816 — Nathan McGrew and Abraham Ricksecker lay out Rockford, forty-two lots, on the southeast quarter of Section 36; neither proprietor ever lives there, and a supposed defect in the title deters settlers, so the village never prospers.
3. 1819 — James Boyd builds the Black Horse Tavern on the southwest quarter of Section 26, at a road junction; it becomes a noted stopping place for teams hauling wheat from Harrison County to the Ohio Canal, with a dozen wagons in the yard a common sight.
4. 1833 — Union Township is organized on March 6, along with Mill Township, from territory reshaped after Carroll County's formation; for the first five years elections are held at George Rutledge's house, then move permanently to William Brock's residence.
5. 1835 — The Langdon Mill is built in the southeast corner of the township and is, for a time, the only mill within a radius of many miles.
6. 1865 — The Dennison Land Company lays out the village of Dennison, whose southwestern portion falls within Union Township (the rest lies in Mill Township).
7. 1873 — Dennison incorporates as a village, named for Ohio governor William Dennison.

Stories

A school becomes a winery

Like many rural Ohio townships, Union Township once ran a network of small district schools serving the farms scattered across its 22 square miles. One of them, the Roxford District School, has survived past its original purpose: the building now operates as Casella Winery, an example of the adaptive reuse that has kept a number of the county's one-room and small township schools standing long after consolidation ended their use as classrooms.

Free whisky wins the first election

The 1884 county history records that at Union Township's very first election for Justice of the Peace, the two candidates who kept taverns, James Boyd and James Gray, ran against George Graham and John Iler, both members of the Methodist Church who opposed the free flow of liquor at public gatherings. Boyd and Gray opened a keg of "free whisky" at the polls and carried the election. The temperance element soon rallied, however, and took control of the township for good; men including Joshua Leggett, Thomas Milligan, William Rutledge and Reese Baldwin later led the effort that ended the practice of serving liquor at barn-raisings and other public gatherings altogether.

Rockford: the town that never was

In 1816 Nathan McGrew and Abraham Ricksecker surveyed forty-two lots on the Little Stillwater and called the place Rockford. Neither man ever lived there, and word that the title to the land was questionable kept most settlers away; at its largest the village may have held six dwellings. A post office operated there for a time under Thomas Furby, and a handful of merchants, a doctor and tavern keepers came and went over the decades, but by 1884 only two or three houses remained on a site that once had a full town plat on paper.

Photographs

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

Tuscarawas River valley aquifer (local wells) The water here

• Twin City Water and Sewer District83% of residentsTuscarawas River valley aquifer (local wells)
• New Philadelphia City14% of residentsTuscarawas River valley sand-and-gravel aquifer (wells)
• Aqua Ohio - Midvale2% of residentsGroundwater wells (3 wells)
• Fohl Village MHP1% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Tcmsd-wainwright0% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Tuscarawas Village0% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Dover City0% of residentsSugar Creek Basin sand-and-gravel aquifer (Dover wellfield)

Bridges rated poor (1)

Shale and injection wells (3)

Spills reported since 2021 (4)

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.
• Agreed Upon Procedures, 2024 to 2025, released 2026-05-07

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