Unionville Center

• Charles W. FairbanksPerson · 1852-1918

How Unionville Center began

Unionville Center, in Darby Township, was laid out and platted in 1847 by brothers John, Frederick and David Sager under the name Unionville. A post office followed in 1848, and the village incorporated in 1879 as Unionville Center, by then home to over 200 people. It grew a working farm-town economy of a tannery, two sawmills, a flour mill and a tile factory around a Methodist congregation first organized in the 1820s. Today it is best known locally for the annual Charles W. Fairbanks Festival, honoring the 26th U.S. vice president, who had ties to the area.

Settled before 1847 (Benjamin Cutler, a shoemaker, built the first building several years before the plat), platted 1847-02-08, incorporated 1879-03-03, by Surveyed by William B. Irwin, county surveyor, for John B., Frederick and David Sager.

Where the name comes from

The county history says the town was platted as Unionville but has been called Unionville Center since its post office was established in 1848, and that the 1879 incorporation petition asked that the name be changed from Unionville to Unionville Center. It gives no reason for the added word.

Before the town

No Native American village, mound, trail or treaty cession specific to the Unionville Center site is recorded. The village lies on Big Darby Creek in Darby Township.

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

Timeline

1. 1820s — A Methodist congregation organized at Unionville, before the village itself was platted.
2. 1835 — John and Frederick Sager build a sawmill on Big Darby Creek at the site (about 1835) and add a corn-cracker a few years later; a tannery is later run for several years by John and Jeremiah Jolly.
3. 1847-02-08 — William B. Irwin, county surveyor, lays out Unionville for John B., Frederick and David Sager on the south bank of Big Darby Creek: fifteen lots and two streets, Main and Cross, around a public square.
4. 1848 — The Unionville Center post office opens on September 8 with John Sager, who kept a two-story frame store in the new town, as first postmaster.
5. 1852 — Christian, Frederick, John and David Sager add to the original plat.
6. 1856-1858 — The Methodist congregation built its church building in the village.
7. 1879-03-03 — The village incorporates as Unionville Center; the petition says 229 people live in the territory to be incorporated and asks that the name be changed from Unionville.
8. 1880 — The census counts 200 residents; the village numbered 231 in 1890 and 259 in 1900.
9. 1881 — A steam flouring mill is built, and a sawmill and tile factory are running at full blast; by 1914 all but M. W. Horn's tile works and steam sawmill had stopped, leaving the old mill buildings and flume empty.
10. 1914 — Business interests include two general stores, a hotel, a physician, an elevator, a bakery, blacksmiths and the Horn tile works, which dug clay from its own land near the depot; the churches are Methodist Episcopal and United Brethren, and the Improved Order of Red Men has about forty members.
11. 1960 — The census counts 305 residents, the village's peak (189 in 1930, 237 in 1950).
12. 2020 — The census counts 241 residents (233 in 2010).
13. before 1847 — Benjamin Cutler, a shoemaker who also kept a small stock of household goods, builds the first building on the site several years before the 1847 plat.

Stories

Three brothers plat a town

In February 1847, William B. Irwin, county surveyor, laid out the village of Unionville for brothers John B., Frederick and David Sager on the south bank of Big Darby Creek. A Methodist congregation at Unionville was first organized in the 1820s, and the village built its church between 1856 and 1858. The village once had a tannery, two sawmills, a flour mill, a school and a tile factory. It incorporated in 1879 as Unionville Center.

A vice president's hometown festival

Charles Warren Fairbanks, the 26th vice president of the United States under Theodore Roosevelt, was born near Unionville Center on May 11, 1852. Wikipedia lists him as a notable person from the village, which holds the annual Charles W. Fairbanks Festival each May.

The shoemaker who would not break his stock

The first building at Unionville Center went up several years before the town was platted, and it was a shoemaker's shop. Benjamin Cutler worked at his trade there and kept a small supply of household necessities on the side. Curry's county history tells how limited the stock was: when a customer who sometimes wore a 'biled shirt' came in for indigo bluing, Cutler asked him to go easy and take only half as much as he wanted, since he did not care to break his stock. The real mover of the early town was John Sager, who built a two-story frame store, kept a good country store for years and became the first postmaster in 1848. He and his brother Frederick had already built a sawmill on Big Darby about 1835, and the surveyor who drew the town's plat in 1847, William B. Irwin, was the same man who had built the first frame house in Marysville.

Local history sources: en.wikipedia.org · thehumblehistorian.blogspot.com · en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org · archive.org

No water-system data is linked to Unionville Center's ZIP codes yet.

Elections for office

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

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