According to local history, General Robinson, a railroad official from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, named this Ohio town "Alliance" in 1850. Known for a short time as "The Crossing," Robinson believed that Alliance was a better name since the nation's two major railroads intersected here. The name stuck, and in 1854, the communities of Williamsport, Freedom, and Liberty incorporated as the town of Alliance. In 1889, the Village of Mount Union was annexed and Alliance became a city. Not only did the
railroads help form our community, they established Alliance as a city of industry. Even...