Swanders is a rural unincorporated community

Unincorporated area

In law, an unincorporated area is a region of land that is not a part of any municipality.To "incorporate" in this context means to form a municipal corporation, a city, town, or village with its own government. An unincorporated community is usually not subject to or taxed by a municipal government...

 located on Fort Loramie-Swanders Road in Franklin Township

Franklin Township, Shelby County, Ohio

Franklin Township is one of the fourteen townships of Shelby County, Ohio, United States. The 2000 census found 2,842 people in the township, 1,773 of whom lived in the unincorporated portions of the township.-Geography:...

, Shelby County

Shelby County, Ohio

As of the census of 2000, there were 47,910 people, 17,636 households, and 13,085 families residing in the county. The population density was 117 people per square mile . There were 18,682 housing units at an average density of 46 per square mile...

, Ohio

Ohio

Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...

, United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. It lies midway between the village of Anna

Anna, Ohio

Anna is a village in Shelby County, Ohio, United States. The population was 1,319 at the 2000 census.Anna is the location of a Honda Motor Co., Ltd plant that builds the GM L66 engine and Honda J engine....

 and the city of Sidney

Sidney, Ohio

Sidney is a city in Shelby County, Ohio, United States. The population was 20,211 at the 2000 census. It is named after English poet Sir Phillip Sidney and is the county seat of Shelby County.Sidney was the recipient of the 1964 All-America City Award...

.

History

In 1857 the Dayton and Michigan Railroad was constructed through James Swander's farm who gave the railroad the right of way through his farm; in 1867 a flag station of the D & M. R. R. and a Post Office was established in the village on the application of James Swander. The village was named in honor of James Swanders who was the town first postmaster and who also served as a railroad agent for the D & M R R.

One of the 1965 Palm Sunday tornados narrowly missed the community.

For many years, Swanders was the location of a community-owned grain elevator

Grain elevator

A grain elevator is a tower containing a bucket elevator, which scoops up, elevates, and then uses gravity to deposit grain in a silo or other storage facility...

, which has since been demolished with the silos and office remaining of the ag business which was purchased in the 1990s by Wapakoneta-based Auglaize-Provico. In 2010 Auglaize-Provico merged in with Trupointe Coopererative based in Piqua which also now owns the former Landmark grain terminal in nearby Sidney.

Transportation

A north-south CSX

CSX Transportation

CSX Transportation operates a Class I railroad in the United States known as the CSX Railroad. It is the main subsidiary of the CSX Corporation. The company is headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida, and owns approximately 21,000 route miles...

 rail line passes through Swanders.

Because of its location near County Road 25-A, Swanders can easily be accessed by road from the nearby Interstate 75

Interstate 75

Interstate 75 is a major north–south Interstate Highway in the Great Lakes and Southeastern regions of the United States. It travels from State Road 826 and State Road 924 in Hialeah, Florida to Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, at the Ontario, Canada, border...

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