Bedford Township is three villages without a village government

Bedford Township does not have one downtown. It has three village centers: Temperance, Lambertville, and Samaria. None is an incorporated village. Local government still comes from the township, but each name carries a separate piece of the map.

Lambertville’s post office took that name in 1836 for John Lambert. Samaria was first called Weeksville. The railroad arrived in 1878, and a post office followed in 1879. Township history ties the new name to Samuel and Mary Weeks. Bedford Center gained a post office in 1884. A local petition then changed its name to Temperance.

Those old post-office and railroad names still organize daily life. People can live in the same township, use the same public services, and still answer “Temperance,” “Lambertville,” or “Samaria” when someone asks where home is.

The three names do not divide Bedford into three governments. They are community centers and mailing identities inside one township. Temperance serves as the township’s government center. Lambertville lies toward Toledo, while Samaria sits farther northwest near the rail corridor. That pattern makes local addresses, school references, and old newspaper accounts easier to place.