The Schuylkill Canal made Unionville a busy place its industries included a foundry, mechanic shops, gun barrel and scythe and sickle factories and the manufacture of candlesticks, lamps and coffee mills. In 1828, its post office opened with the designation, Brower. Unionville is the oldest village in the township, developed by John Brower sometime before 1820 as Browerstown. The name comes from the fact that the township was created through a union of territory from Robeson Township and from Coventry Township, Chester County. A village grew up around it and although the furnace passed through many hands, often at the request of the sheriff when an owner’s financial circumstances became “embarrassed,” it continued to operate until at least 1886, when historian Morton Montgomery wrote, “Charcoal has been used (at Hopewell) from the beginning till now.”īefore Hopewell was built, and just a year after Berks County was formed, Union was incorporated as a township.

Hopewell, built by Mark Bird about 1771, became the area’s largest employer. There were also distilleries and forges and furnaces, including Monocacy Furnace and Hopewell Furnace. However, there were many streams and the settlers were able to improve their power so that grist, saw, oil, fulling, clover and feed mills were erected and operated successfully. While the ground was productive, the water power was weak. Time and migration brought more farms to the area and with them, various industries. The first tract was taken up by warrant by Hans Monson in 1684. In the late 1600s German and Swedish settlers were drawn to the area by the fertile land. Open, undeveloped and sparsely populated, the Union Township of today – much of which is taken up by French Creek State Park – varies little from the Union Township of three centuries ago. 14, 2002, as part of a special series on the county’s 250th anniversary. Editor’s note: The stories below originally appeared in the Reading Eagle on Oct.

Union township, pennsylvania + county