In the spring of 1849, before any railroad ran through western Ohio into Indiana, several east central Indiana businessmen met in the woods where Union City now stands to decide where the states first rail line would run. Speeches proposed Indianapolis, Connersville, Fort Wayne, and Bellfontaine, Ohio, and a vote chose Bellfontaine to Indianapolis by a two-thirds margin, giving rise to the "Bee-Line" railroad and helping set in motion a larger railroad system for the great northwest. Within a few months, five railroads were planned to meet in Union City. On Christmas Day, December 25, 1852, Dayton and Union track-layers extended the iron one foot across the line into Indiana, and the first train passed through Union City on January 24, 1853. After establishing the Bellfontaine Railroad on a route to this spot on the state line, Jeremiah and Oliver H. Smith conceived the idea of building a town here on the Indiana-Ohio border. The town's growth became more certain because the railroad from Bellfontaine to Indianapolis was being built by two different companies, and in those days goods had to be trans-shipped at the termination of each road. The land on which Union City stands was purchased by Jeremiah Smith from Augustus Loveland, whose small cabin and log stable stood in the only clearing on the land.