Old Village Businesses

1860-1870 Census

South Fork Burying Ground

The history of a town is written by the families and the names that made that history. Unison (formerly Union) has a wealth of history in the people and personalities that would make it the third largest town in Loudoun County a century and a half ago.

One of the earliest documents containing Union residents was a 1771 petition to the General Assembly of Virginia by several members of the Goose Creek Monthly Meeting of the Society of Friends regarding a 10 acre plat of land in Union that was given over to the Society as a place to build a meeting house. Names of persons residing in Union that appear on that document include:

• Walker, Isaac
• Dixon, Solomon
• Lovett, Daniel and Sarah (his wife)

Another genealogical gem is a Dec 22nd, 1817 petition to the General Assembly of Virginia by prominent citizens of the town decrying the "moral disorder" caused by the frequency of horse racing taking place on "public days" on town streets and lanes. The names signed at the bottom of the petition were (in order of signing beginning on the left):

Smith, Seth Lloyd, Geo. E. Baldwin, Mehlon Simpson, Samuel Dorsey, Wm. H. Wey, Thomas H. Galleher, Eli C. Machlam, James King, Patrick Griffith, Willis

Bergled, George Handy, John Hibbs, Joseph Hadon, John Palmer, ? Duntsen, John Richards, Samuel Brown, Moses Monroe, John. M. Dunhin, William

Daymude, William Mahoney, James Wilson, John Johnson, John Carten, Richard Reder, Jacob Rust, Peter Plaster, Michael Plaster, Henry

The records and diaries of the various preachers who call the Union Methodist church their home is invaluable for the genealogical information they contain. On September 12, 1976, the Unison Methodist Church copied an article that was written in 1905-06 by J. L. Kibler, the circuit preacher of Loudoun County at that time. Kibler had written many articles for the Baltimore Southern Methodist, and in his 1905-06 article he wrote specifically about the history of the Unison church. Among the prominent early families names he mentioned were:

Galleher Duncan Taylor Jacob Johnston Lovetts Anderson Beavers

Brown Seaton Taverens Plasters Fanny Plaster (d. 1892 at 101) husband Henry, son David H. William Galleher (d. 1815) Capt. Price Jacobs owned first carriage in Unison Mrs. "Peggy" Beavers, wife of John Beavers

We continue the process of pulling together a series of listings of the residents of the village from the 1700's up to 1870. As soon as the project is finished, we will put it online.