Who wants to live real nice and quiet?
Who wants a home? – come now and buy it,
You’ll like the place – just come and try it
In Berlin.
So go the opening lines of a short poem published in the May 12, 1882, edition of the Mahoning Dispatch that evokes a sense of small-town serenity in western Mahoning County.
The subject is Berlin Township and its commercial node, Berlin Center. The seven-stanza piece – composed by an unknown author known only as “Z” – touches upon the homespun nature of the sleepy community and its business district. There is Mock’s, a buggy and wagon manufacturer; W.K. Hughes, M.D., on whose “skill you may rely”; Elias Beckman, a local tailor; and Mr. Stanley’s – a corner store along what was then called Broad Street.
Moreover, the simple rhyme hinted of changes ahead: “We have a railroad started through. And that will make all things seem new. And put new life in all things, too. In Berlin.”
As its name suggests, Berlin emerged as a settlement initially dominated by those of German ancestry who migrated to Ohio from Pennsylvania. The western portion of the township proved especially inviting, since the Mahoning River snakes along its border with Deerfield Township in Portage County. It was here in approximately 1811 that the first White settler, Garret Packard, established a farm along Mill Creek in the southwestern portion of the township, then part of Trumbull County.
Others soon followed. Jacob Weldy set up a homestead in the southwestern portion of the township; George Baum, who emigrated from Germany and settled first in Salem, arrived around 1814; Joseph Coult became the first to organize a farm at what is today Berlin Center; Abraham Hawn settled his family approximately 2 miles north of the township center; while Matthias Glass established a farm, gristmill and sawmill along the Mahoning River in the northwest corner of the township in 1822.
Ancestral Ties
Initially part of Ellsworth Township to the east and named Hart and Mather’s, Berlin was officially organized in 1828. It was Glass who suggested the name, as he and others of German heritage in the area sought to establish a community that reflected their ancestral homeland. Initially, the first schools established in the township taught both German and English.
More residents flocked to the township between 1828 and 1850, records show. An 1860 map of Mahoning County – established in 1846 from Trumbull County – shows Berlin Township studded with small farms and the center with established names such Glass and Baum still residing there.
Also on the map are the surnames of Shilling, Rummell, Hartzell, Helsel and Kline – reflecting a remaining presence of German ancestry.
By 1860, though, the map shows a more ethnically diverse community, as the township recorded a substantial presence of families of Irish, English, Welsh and Scottish ancestry.
A Turbulent Event
Despite its bucolic nature and reputation, Berlin nevertheless found itself thrust into a disturbing incident during the 19th century that resonated throughout the entire state.
In June 1837, Presbyterian minister and abolitionist Marius Robinson was invited by Berlin resident Jesse Garretson – a Quaker – to present a lecture on the subject of slavery.
According to Russell B. Nye, writing in the Ohio Archeological and Historical Quarterly in 1946, Robinson arrived in town before his scheduled talk and was lodging at Garretson’s house. A mob of approximately a dozen men arrived at the home, subdued Garretson, and then snatched Robinson. He was beaten, stripped, tarred and feathered, and transported by wagon to Canfield. There, he sought the help of a sympathetic farmer, who treated his wounds and lent him a new set of clothes. Amazingly, Robinson “walked back to Berlin and held his lecture,” notes the Nye account, “but the mistreatment and exertion left him weak and ill.” Nevertheless, Robinson by August was back in action on the abolitionist circuit, making his way along Ohio River communities.
Twelve of the men who assaulted Robinson were arrested, and a preliminary trial was held in Ellsworth. A settlement was reached, with each of the perpetrators forced to pay Robinson $40.
A Quiet Town
By the 1880s, Berlin and Berlin Center had grown into a community that had preserved its rural past. The township’s business directory in 1882 lists six proprietors at the center of town, bisected today by U.S. Route 224. Among these are Mock & Son carriage and blacksmith shop; the A. Wilsdoff Tannery; R.H. King Hotel; John Lally, shoemaker; J.M. Brown’s saloon; and merchant B.T. Smiley. Other enterprises around the township included blacksmiths, sawmills and gristmills, coopers, cabinet shops, and pottery manufacturers.
“Berlin Center is still alive and prosperous,” a contributor to the Mahoning Dispatch wrote on Feb. 27, 1880. “The doctor, tailor and shoemaker are all kept busy to their respective offices and well deserve the patronage they receive. The people in general feel cheerful and happy.”
By the mid-1880s, the region was active enough to convince the Alliance, Niles & Ashtabula Railroad to route its tracks through the township and construct a depot on the west side of Berlin Station Road. A second depot, probably constructed in the 1920s on Berlin Station Road, served the Alliance branch on the Pennsylvania Rail Road.
A Difficult Time
Much of this hometown ambience would be shattered with the United States’ entry into World War I in April 1917. Young men from across the township joined up to fight in France and Belgium, as German forces prepared to launch a massive offensive during the spring of 1918. One resident, Pvt. Raymond Renkenberger, was killed while serving in the U.S. Army. He was awarded the World War I Victory Medal posthumously, according to HonorStates.org.
Such sacrifices nevertheless were not enough to suppress the anti-German sentiment that swept across the country as U.S. forces mobilized after 1917. In Ohio, for example, the Ohio State Council of Defense established an Americanization Committee that policed what it called “pro-German” sentiments. Schools either limited or stopped teaching the German language, sauerkraut was rebranded “liberty cabbage,” and teachers were mandated to take loyalty oaths.
Efforts to crack down on “pro-German” speech intensified across the Mahoning Valley as well. In June of 1918, Youngstown City Council approved the addition of five new police officers for the sole purpose of “taking charge of pro-Germans and Americans who make disloyal remarks,” according to a Vindicator story dated June 18, 1818. The account cites Council President J.M. Higley as noting that “in these critical times, one is liable to hear of people expressing pro-German sympathies or making disloyal remarks and that all such cases be referred to the police department, where a thorough investigation will be made.”
Others across the community took offense to such measures, evidenced by a letter to the editor of the Vindicator in May 1918. “I would here make plain the fact that all people bearing German names must not be accused of pro-German sympathies, because we have some most faithful Americans bearing names which make them very uncomfortable right now.”
Meanwhile, communities and streets that were named for German cities, towns, and regions were now rechristened with more “American” sounding names. During the same Youngstown City Council session, for instance, an ordinance was passed to change the name of Berlin Street to Funston Avenue. In Stark County, the city of New Berlin was changed to North Canton, as it remains today.
The names of Berlin Township and Berlin Center, however, have stayed their course for nearly 200 years, and there is no evidence of any serious consideration to change their names. Today, the township numbers just under 2,000 residents, according to the 2020 census.
In 1942, construction on a dam along the Mahoning River was completed, forming Berlin Lake, a secondary reservoir to serve the region’s water supply. The amenity has transformed this portion of Mahoning County into a scenic destination area that caters to fishing, boating, bird watching, and other activities. Or, as the anonymous poet of 1882 concluded:
The place is small, but pleasant, too,
The people trying all they can do,
To still keep pushing business through,
In Berlin.
Pictured at top: The Weidenmier House, built in 1888 at Berlin Center, is home to Berlin Township’s administration offices and its historical society.