By Daniel Lapham/Staff Writer

Union City officials are trying to dig up their roots.

Janice Monroe, the city’s Fourth Fest coordinator, said when she started planning this year’s Fourth of July celebration, she wanted to do something that would tie her community to Oklahoma’s 100th birthday celebration. That’s when the light bulb clicked on — track down and honor the families that have made Union City their home for the past century. Union City’s centennial families will be honored at the town’s annual celebration July 4.

“Last count we had (there were) 26 original families,” Monroe said. “We are still trying to figure out exactly how to do this, but right now we have asked the governor’s office to recognize them for living here for that long. They have agreed to make certificates and the governor will sign them for us to present to the families at Fourth Fest.”

The festival is a town-wide celebration with child pools, entertainment, food and fun for all ages.

“It is just a neat community celebration,” she said. “It is growing every year and this year is sure to be the biggest yet.”

The stories of near starvation and pioneer innovation are sure to filter through the festivities this year, said genealogist Kay Bornemann, who is doing all of the research on Union City’s first families.

“One of the (stories) that comes to mind first is about a family whose husband left the family and provided no support,” she said. “So the wife started selling butter, cream and eggs out of a wagon in El Reno so she could buy a farm. Later she purchased a loom and made and sold carpets. She had a bunch of kids and just made it on her own. I’m sure there are many more stories, but that one grabbed me and I was thinking, ‘I would have probably starved to death.’”

Armed with a passion for history and bound by the roots that have secured more than seven generations in Union City, Bornemann said this is only the beginning of documenting her hometown’s history.

“I started working on this project using the Canadian County History Book that we published a number of years ago,” she said. “Then I used the Union City phone book to cross reference names. After that I used the current annual from the high school at Union City and then I followed up by using my Union City scrapbook — it’s a compilation of things that I have collected over the years. After that I used a map of the Union City area and mentally went down the mile lines to map out a perimeter.”

Although Bornemann said she has done her best to compile a comprehensive list of centennial families, she still wants more.

“Anyone who has information on their families and when they moved here can contact me at 483-5501 or the Union City Town Hall, whichever is more convenient,” she said. “We are hoping that this project will spawn another project where we will have a photograph of each original family that settled in Union City in 1907. We are planning to recognize these families at the community Thanksgiving dinner. We can recognize any families that we did not know about at the Fourth Fest, also.”

Anyone who has information on their families, even if it is not from 1907, should contact Bornemann.

“It would be a shame to not pursue this legacy at this time,” she said.