Located six miles west of Toulon and near the Know county line, is the incorporated village of LaFayette. The original plat--blocks 1 to 10, of eight lots each--was surveyed on July 7, 1836, by George A. Charles, then county surveyor of Know county, for William Dunbar. On the north part of the town is Monroe street. From Monroe street it extends southward to Franklin, bounded on the east by Hodgson street and on the west by Timber. Additions have since been made until now the town embraces forty squares of eight lots each. The north and south streets are Willow, Mulberry East Main, Hodgson, Main and Timber, the last named forming the western limits of the town. Begininng at the north, the east and west streets are Monroe, Jefferson, LaFayette, Whashington, Jackson, Franklin, Madison, and Adams, and there is one row of blocks south of Adams street. The northern tier of lotsin block 20 and the southern tier of block 21 were taken to form a public square, which is intersected by Jackson street. The additions to the first plat were made by Jonathan Hodgson, Henry Dunbar and John Lundy, August 8, 1836.

One of the first houses in LaFayette was built by William Dunbar, the "Old Hatter,". Few lots were sold until about 1842 and 1843 when Asahel Holmes, George W. Jackson, George W. Dunbar, James J. Wilson, Joshua Woodbury, William Wheeler and a few others all bought property in the new town. Other early settlers were Peter F. Miner, Daniel J. and Theodore F. Hurd, William D. Runyan, Jethial Bouton, James B. Lewis, Gilbert Ward, Thomas N. Fitch, Walter Hock, James Dunn, and James E. White, some of whom located as early as 1837. Several of these Lafayette pioneers afterward became prominent in the affairs of Stark county.

Jesse C. Ware was the first merchant and is said to have been the first man to build a house within the limits of the town. Theodore F. Hurd and Barnabas M. Jackson were other early merchants, and Ira Reed opened a shoe shop as early as 1838. Some years later a few enterprising individuals organized a stock company to build a carding mill and woolen factory, but it proved to be a financial failure.

At an election held in 1869 the vote on the question of incorporation was forty-one to thirteen against the proposition. The first board of trustees was composed of Thomas W. Ross, J.H. Nichols, Daniel J. Hurd, Dennis Lee, and James Martin. The government thus established existed until September, 1872, when the vote on the question of obtaining a new charter was twenty-four to eighteen opposed. The first trustees under the new charter were M.S. Barnett, James Martin, Samuel White, B.H. Snyder, Daniel J. Hurd, and Dr. J.H. Nichols. The election of clerk was declared illegal and C.P. Jackson was elected in 1874. In 1915 J.H. White was president of the village board; F.T. Gelvin, clerk; Joshua Grant, Samuel Hanks, James Norton, S.E. White, V.H. Brown and Wiley Plankel, trustees.

In 1915 there were four teachers employed at the school during the school year. There wer several blocks of good cement sidewalks. Formerly there were several churches, but they have all fallen into disuse except the Methodist Episcopal, which is now the only active denomination.

The business interests of the village once included a bank, several stores handling many lines of goods, grain elevators, restaurants, etc., and there is the Lafayette home nursery on the north edge of town.