WEST UNION

John D.  Wright, county surveyor, certified that he surveyed this town site for James M. Campbell and Andrew S. Stithem on July 26th, 27th and 28th of 1854. The town plat consisted of 136 lots each 60 x 112 feet, the streets were 60 feet wide and  the alleys 16 feet wide.  The town was located in the west half of the southwest quarter of section 22,  Jones Township and was on the stage route from east to west across the county and was for a number of years and important stopping point.  At its peak West Union was comprised of about 12 families, a school house, general store and post office, steam powered sawmill, a hotel and a blacksmith shop.  The first cemetery in the county other than that used by the Mormons was established here.

In June 1883 Isaac Burd filed a petition with the county to have all of the streets lots and alleys declared abandoned.   In his petition Burd stated that the town had been abandoned since 1871 and that he had acquired all but about 12 of the town lots and was presently, and for the last 10 years, farming the ground where West Union once stood.  The petition was granted and the town plat was declared abandoned.

On April 19, 1899, Isaac Burd and wife Margaret Burd, for the consideration of $40 sold to the trustees of the Methodist Episcopal Church, a plat commencing at the north west corner of the north half of the south west 1/4 of section 22, running 10 rods east, thence south 15 rods, thence west 10 rods, thence north to the place of starting, containing 1 acre more or less.  It is not known when the church was built, but probably in the 1860s or 70s, long before they obtained, a deed for the property in 1899.   Just a year later in 1900 the church building was moved to the town of Thayer where it still stands today as the city hall.

In 1914, when Burd was trying to sell the land, the small group of remaining lot owners, including the trustees of the Methodist Church, tried to sue, saying they still held an interest in the ground by means of their former town lot deeds.  At the trial, the judge declared that too much time had passed since the town had been declared abandoned in 1883 and the lot owners had no standing.  Burd was granted a clear title to the land which he promptly sold.  The church site appears on maps late as 1894 and the cemetery still exists today, but oddly the name West Union was only found on one map from that time period.  Kings Post Office, the town of West Union, and Patriot Post Office were all in section 22.   According to National Archives records, Kings Post Office existed from 1855 to 1860 and Patriot Post Office existed from 1861 to 1866, but the only record ever found for a post office in the town of West Union was in an 1865 National Archives document for the Patriot Post Office, saying that it was also known as West Union.