Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Its Register listing is the US Post Office-Hornell. Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1926 on, and the census since 1850.
The West Union post office opened in 1847, the earliest record of the town by name. Two smaller post offices, Wileysville (1854) and Saunders (1897), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how West Union’s history is told.
West Union had its own post office from 1847 to 1947. Two other post offices opened and closed inside today’s town.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Peaked at 1,392 in 1860; 343 people lived here in 2020.
18 censuses, 1850–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on West Union’s Wikipedia page.
From Wikipedia’s history of West Union.
West Union was formed from part of the Town of Greenwood in 1845. Originally the names "Green" and "Union" were proposed for the town, but both names were deemed unsuitable due to other towns in the state using those names, in, respectively, Chenango County and Broome County.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention West Union, cut from the printed page as they were published.
A Catholic church was organized in the town of West Union in 1845, and in the town of Bath in 1846. At Perkinsville, town of "Wayland, a parochial school was founded in 1850, under the instruction of the Sisters of Mercy. It is well attended and has a good reputation. A Catholic church was organized in the town of Addison in 1854; town of.Cohocton, 1861; town of Caton, 1883; town of Prattsburg, 1887 ; town of Pulteney, 1888 ; town of Cameron, 1891 ; and in the town of Campbell the following year.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
On his assuming pastoral charge, one of his first oflScial acts was the transfer of parochial jurisdiction from Greenwood to the village of Rexville, in the town of West Union, where was founded a larger and more handsome church, suited to the wants of the Catholics of the towns of Greenwood, West Union, and Troupsburgh. Owing to the onerous duties of his office, and the large undertaking of building a new church, Rev. Bishop Ryan appointed Rev. Father
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
name, when they changed it to Union. This also conflicting with another Union in the eastern part of the State the word West was prefixed, and the bill was passed April 25, 1845, erecting the town of West Union. The town, though not thickly settled at that time, was erected for political reasons, the ruling power having gravitated towards the north end of the old town of Greenwood, to the exclusion of the more remote southern part.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
The New York and Pennsylvania extends from the Erie Railroad, in the village of Canisteo, through the towns of Canisteo, Greenwood and West Union, Steuben county, and through Independence and Willing, Allegany county, to the Pennsylvania state line at Genesee Forks, thence following a tributary of the Genesee river to Rose lake, the most eastern source of the Mississippi system of rivers ; and thence down a tributary of the Allegheny river to Ceres, on the state line, where it intersects the Pennsylvania
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
In the archiveWest Union Business Notices.; West Union (Township)
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyOne decade in the archive so far: the 1870s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of West Union. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of West Union.
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.
Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on West Union’s page.
Retake this view · +15The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
Nobody well known was born in West Union itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The West Union post office opened in 1847, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
One place: the US Post Office-Hornell (listed 1997).
What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →
From Wikimedia Commons (1), the National Register of Historic Places (1), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
