Ubly's name arrived without its second e

Ubly’s name story begins with two earlier names. The community in Bingham Township was first known as Sidon because it sat north of a settlement called Tyre, matching the two places named in the Bible. It later became Pagetts Corners after Alfred Pagett opened a general store at the west end in April 1870. The 1881 fire destroyed that store.

The current name came out of an 1880 meeting about applying for a post office. People at the meeting wanted Pagettville, but Pagett declined the honor. He suggested Ubley, after a small English village he knew. When the application came back from Washington, the approved name was spelled Ubly, without the second e.

The local account does not identify the person who changed the spelling or say whether it was deliberate. It simply says the paperwork came back that way. Residents kept the shorter version, and Ubly became the permanent name.

That distinction matters. Calling it a proven clerk’s typo adds a detail the surviving story does not provide. What the record supports is still memorable: the community asked for Ubley, Washington returned Ubly, and no one put the missing letter back.