In the first decade of the 1800's pioneer Swiss farm families began to arrive in the west end of town, and on March 2, 1825, they dedicated their village as Basil (a misspelling of Basel, Switzerland). One day earlier, March 1, the Virginians in the east end of town dedicated their own village of New Market (after a town by that name in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley). This opened the gates to a century and a quarter "twin city" feud. In that same year of 1825 the Ohio-Erie Canal would begin ditching its silver ribbon toward the two villages. The L.U.H.S. alma mater recalls this heritage when the community was furrowed by canal waters.


Growth and change were imminent. Three years later (1828) north of the current railroad, the hamlet of Rome City was dedicated. In 1833 New Market was incorporated, for some still unexplained reason, as Baltimore. In 1893 the paper industry's founder came to town on a bicycle and his legacy is obvious to this day. Again, the alma mater reflects,  known for her mills.


From 1945-1947 there was a notorious controversy over the new name for the twin city consolidation. In a widely publicized story, Baseball a merging of Basel and Baltimore) was thrown out of the circuit judge umpire and Baltimore was safe.


A brief glimpse of twentieth century schools includes the school year 1919-1920 graduation of the first class from the new community school building called Liberty (after the township) Union after the junction of the Baltimore and Basil districts). For the 1960-1961 school year Baltimore and its neighbor community Thurston consolidated their kids into the Liberty Union-Thurston School District. And following the 1986-1987 school year the original (1917) Liberty Union School was razed to make room for the new (1988-1989) high school.


Though a current Fairfield County map indicated this Liberty Township, Paw Paw Valley site as Baltimore, locals can quickly identify the whereabouts of Basil Park, Market Street, and Rome Side within their village.