Union County: Named for the Federal Union

Union County was formed on March twenty-second, eighteen thirteen, carved out of neighboring Northumberland County. Its name was a deliberate statement of political identity: the county honored the Federal Union at a time when the young republic was still proving it could hold together. The first county seat was Mifflinburg, but by eighteen fifteen that seat had shifted to New Berlin.

Lewisburg, the county seat since eighteen fifty-five, was incorporated as a borough in eighteen twelve and grew into the county's cultural and educational center. Today Lewisburg is home to Bucknell University, a liberal arts and engineering institution founded in eighteen forty-six that draws students from across the country. The town's well-preserved nineteenth-century streetscape reflects the prosperity that followed the opening of the West Branch Canal through this valley.