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Village Of Union City

419 East Elm Street
937-968-4305

Union City, Ohio was first platted in 1838; it was platted again in 1853 by Josiah Monger. Surveys were anchored on original 1798 federal government survey. (Interesting article on surveying in the area was written in the newspaper in July 1980).The Darke County Atlas of 1875 records a part of Union City, Ohio, as Rail Road City. Rail Road City was located east of Division Street to the Deerfield Road between Elm Street and the Columbus, Piqua and Indiana Railroad.

Union City, Ohio was also known as Union. The town west of the State Line was called the Indiana Side. The town east of the State Line was called the Ohio Side.
When the village of Union City, Ohio, was first platted in 1838 and lots sold, a grocery store and other business houses were established on the Deerfield Road, west and north of the Haas Inn; but the records of Union City, Ohio, prior to 1850 were not all recorded in Greenville and are probably lost. It has been historically reported that herdsman would stay overnight in the Inn enroute to Cincinnati. Their animals would be put to pasture in the area where the A&W Restraurant now stands. Many locals can recall when that area dropped down and formed somewhat of a natural corral with the railroad bed to the South.

Mail was received at Hillgrove until the coming of the first railroad in 1852, when a post office was established on the Deerfield Road on the Ohio side. There are citizens today who remember a building that was demolished on the southside of the tracks which turned out to be of log construction.

The first school after the incorporation of Union City, Ohio, was taught in a room on the third floor of a large building on the corner of Sycamore Street and the railroad. Later a two story frame schoohouse was erected on the lot where the present East Side Building now stands. The two story structure had only two rooms, one down and one upstairs. This building was used until 1870 when it was moved North across the street on the east corner of North and Sycamore Streets. It was converted to a dwelling and for many years was owned by one of the Superintendents of the School, Mr. J. M. Bunger, and remained in the family for a number of years. Mr. Bunger is credited with developing a course of study which made it possible to have a graduating class every year.

It is interesting to note that during the developing years of the railroad that Union City, Ohio was "wet" and Indiana was "dry". An old wive's tale has it that for an exciting weekend individuals in Chicago and other locales would travel to Union City and stay in the Branham Hotel for a vacation.