A large share of South Union's original inhabitants were Shakers. Their South Union village was established in 1807 and lasted until 1922.[2] During this period, the Shakers constructed 200 buildings, worked 6,000 acres (2,400 ha) of farmland, and produced garden seed, fruit preserves, brooms, baskets, rugs, linen, hats, bonnets and silk both for use within the community and sales to the outside world.
After the Civil War, they hired about a dozen freedmen to work in their woolen and flour mills, allowing them to build cabins here. Other whites in Logan County were attacking blacks and trying to expel them from the county. In late August 1868, a mob of whites burned some of the freedmen's cabins. After the Shakers offered a reward to capture the men, whites returned and burned the Shakers' mills. These were uninsured, and their losses were close to $70,000. A Shaker wrote to a friend in New York that he believed "their offenses" were that they had "hired the negroes and pay them for their work... we treat them like men and pay them as such."[3]
Today, in addition to the Shaker Museum historical site, the South Union community is host to the county's only waste transfer station, operated by Apex and Scott Waste Services.
^Wright, George C. 1990. Racial Violence in Kentucky, 1865-1940: Lynchings, Mob Rule, and "Legal Lynchings". pp. 39-40. Baton Rouge and London: Louisiana State University Press
