Union County Chapter
of the Ohio Genealogical Society

Bridgeport - This is a small village that grew up around a bridge crossing the Big Darby Creek at it's confluence with Buck Run.  Bridgeport dates to at least 1799.  The Upper Liberty Presbyterian Church was located about one mile northwest of Bridgeport on present day Orchard Road.  The Woods-Reed cemetery is located at that site today.  Currently Fairbanks Local Schools sit where the village once existed.   At one time there was a one room school at the site of this lost village.  

Chuckery - Chuckery was never formally surveyed or platted as a village.  Earliest mention of this village in local histories date to 1814.  In approximately 1858 a small Methodist Episcopal Church was built at Chuckery.  This church, named for its founding pastor, was called Lewis Chapel and was a part of the Milford Circuit.  In 1892 a Lutheran parochial school was built in Chuckery as a branch school to the St. John's Lutheran congregation also located in Darby Township.  In 1893 St. Paul Lutheran Church was formally recognized as a separate entity from the St. John's congregation.  On April 8, 1898 a US post office was established in this small village, based out of the general store.  The St. Paul Lutheran Church congregation erected a house of worship in 1902.  In 1903 the post office was closed.  The Little Darby Creek was dredged in the vicinity of the village in the early 1920s as a flood control measure.  The 1930 US Census reported that there were 36 inhabitants of Chuckery.  In 1946 the store in Chuckery was closed, and in 1953 a semi truck hit the abandoned store building.  At one time there was also a blacksmith and a hotel in this village.   Today Chuckery is still home to St. Paul Lutheran Church and School.  There is also a parsonage in the village limits for the church, and one farmstead also lies within the town limits.  

The Chuckery Special School was built in the village in 1905.  The school received a grade school charter in 1917 and again in 1929.  In 1937 the public school in Chuckery was closed with the consolidation of the Chuckery and Unionville school districts.  St. Paul Lutheran Church bought the vacant building, using it for a few years while they constructed a new parochial school building. 

St. Paul Lutheran Church has maintained a elementary through middle school in Chuckery from 1892 until 2014.  The school originally taught just students in grades 1 through 7.  A kindergarten was added in the late 1980s.  A preschool was added in 2006.  Today St. Paul Lutheran Church maintains a small preschool on the site.  Fairbanks Local Schools also houses their early childhood learning center in Chuckery.

Mitchell Settlement - This area included a one room school house and the Mitchell Cemetery.

Neudettelsau/German Settlement - Generally speaking, the German Settlement still exists in 2018.  This settlement dates from the 1830s.  The area of this settlement was originally defined as German immigrant settlements in the vicinity of the Marysville-Plain City Road (present-day SR 736).  In the 1850s, by subsequent settlement and expanding families, this settlement had begun to spread west and south.  The St. John Lutheran Church was established to serve this community by 1843.  A school was also associated with this church.   A branch school and church of the St. John congregation  was established at Chuckery by 1891.  Today, there is still a large German presence in the southern part of Union County encompassing large areas of Darby and Union Townships and spilling over into areas of adjoining townships and even south and west into Champaign and Madison Counties.  St. John Lutheran Church still serves the community as does its parochial school.  The St. John Lutheran School has a preschool as well as a school serving students in grades k-8.

North Liberty - North Liberty was platted by Lucas Sullivant in 1797.  It was located on the southern bank of the Big Darby Creek in the south eastern portion of Darby Township.  The only settlers to have taken up residence in this village was the Ewing family.   They later moved to Westminster (present-day Plain City).  Varying accounts place this lost village in either Darby Township or Jerome Township.

Robinson Neighborhood - This area included a one room school that was erected around 1820.

Sodom - This was a community that existed at the present day crossroads of Fladt Road and SR 736.  There was once a school located here.

Unionville - Unionville Center was originally founded as Unionville.  The name was changed upon application for a post office as there was already a Unionville in Ohio.

Unionville Center - This village was called Unionville in its earliest days.  The town was built upon land originally owned by Benjamin Cutler.  Mr. Cutler built a house on the site years before the organization of Unionville.  He also maintained a small country store.  The Darby Seceder Church was formed in the area in 1824.  It would later be known as the Unionville United Presbyterian Church.  Around 1835 this congregation built their first church building.  This building was used until a larger building was built between 1856 to 1857.  John and Frederick Sager built a saw mill on Big Darby Creek, near the village site, in 1835.  The village was platted on February 8, 1847 by Union County Surveyor, William B. Irwin, originally containing 15 lots and 2 streets.  On May 11, 1852 Charles Warren Fairbanks was born near Unionville Center.  He would later become the Vice President of the United States, serving under Theodore Roosevelt.  The Fairbanks Local School District was named to honor this man.  The Methodist Church at Unionville, first organized in the 1820s, built a church building in the village between 1856 and 1858.  The village was officially recognized on March 3, 1879 by the county government, with the official name being Unionville Center.  Upon its organization, there were over 200 residents of the village.  The first village elections were held in 1879, with F. N. Mattoon elected first mayor.  This town once supported a tannery, two sawmills, a flour mill, a school, and a tile factory.  

The Darby Rural School District was chartered in 1915.  A substantial brick building was built by this district in 1925.  The school district was consolidated with the Chuckery School district in 1937.  This district was known as Chuckery-Darby School, and it was eventually consolidated into the Fairbanks Local School District.   

Unionville Station - Unionville was often referred to as Unionville Station due to its location on the railroad.