GENERAL DESCRIPTION.

     Berlin is township one of range five, Connecticut Western Reserve, and was, until the formation of Mahoning county, the southwest corner township of Trumbull county.  Berlin has Milton on the north, Ellsworth on the east, Goshen and Smith on the south, and Deerfield, Portage county on the west.  In natural beauty it is unsurpassed by any portion of the county.  The winding Mahoning washes a portion of the western borders of the township.  The surface in its vicinity is more or less broken, and with

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[PORTRAIT OF R. K. HUGHES]

[PORTRAIT OF MRS. MARTHA A. HUGHES]

woody banks and verdant valleys, the river helps to make a scene of picturesque loveliness.  Mill creek waters the southwestern quarter of the township.  One of its tributaries has the suggestive name of Turkey Broth.  Turkey Broth creek is a small stream rising in the northeastern part of the township, and flowing southwesterly until it reaches Mill creek.  Several small runs empty into it.
     The land of Berlin is mostly very nearly level, and consists of a succession of broad swells with wide and very slight depressions intervening.  The surface is so nearly uniform that an observer, upon almost any of hte gentle rises of land, can obtain a view of nearly all parts of the township.  The soil is deep and fertile, very little clay or sand, but a good strong loam, well adapted to fruits and cereals.  A traveler along almost any of the roads in the township can scarcely fail to note and admire the beautiful fields on every hand.
     Berlin center, a straggling settlement of twenty or more houses, is the only village, and is pleasantly situated on a slight elevation a short distance east of the geographical center of the township.
     Belvidere, where Shilling's mill is located, advanced far enough toward the dignity of a village to receive a name, and apparently its ambition was satisfied.  Shelltown in the northeast is a thickly settled community.  At Christy's corners, in the southwestern part of thetownship, quite an extensive business has been carried on for a number of years in the manufacture of pottery.
     The township was but sparsely settled untli about 1824 for the reason that the greater portion of hte land was not offered for sale until that time.

ORGANIZATION.

     The township, which for several years had been a part of Ellsworth, was erected a separate township and election precinct by the county commissioners in March, 1828.

THE FIRST ELECTION.

SCHOOL DISTRICTS.

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erty holders and tax-payers of the township for the year 1829

JUSTICES.

     The first justice of the peace was Peter Muser, appointed in 1818.  His immediate successors were Joseph H. Coult, William Hartzell, James B. Boyd (resigned), and D. A. Fitch.

SETTLEMENT.

     GARRETT PACKARD

     JACOB WELDY was the second settler.  He came with his family from east of the mountains, but at what date we are unable to learn.  He located in the northwestern corner of the township.  His son Jacob lived upon the old place after him.  Samuel also lived and died in Berlin.  The family was a large one.

     GEORGE BAUM was the next comer.  His father emigrated from Germany and settled in Salem.  George came to Berlin when a young man.  About 1815 he married Betsy Packard.  This was the first marriage that occurred among the residents of "Hart and Mather's".  They went to Ellsworth and the ceremony was performed by "Squire William Ripley.  Baum settled in the southwestern part of the township on the next farm east of Weldy.  None of his children reside in the township.

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     ABRAHAM HAWN came to the township about 1820, and located two miles north and a little east of the center.  HE brought up a family of six children.  Two of the sons, Peter and Matthias, died in Berlin; Jacob lives in Akron; Michael D., in Berlin.  His daughters were:  Christina, who became the wife of Joseph Cline, and died in this township, and Mrs. Susanna Smith, Deerfield.

     JOSEPH H. COULT was the first settler at the center.  His family was the fourth or fifth that came to the township.  Coult acted as land agent for Amos Sill, the proprietor of the greater part of the township, and sold the land to the settlers.  He came about 1823.  He made the first clearing at the center and built the first frame house in the township.  In 1842 he sold his place to Thomas Hawkins, who still resides upon it.  Mr. Coult moved to Ellsworth and thence to Atwater.

     MATTHIAS GLASS settled in the northeast of the township about 1822.  His sons were John, William, Matthias, Peter, Jacob, Solomon.  There were also several daughters.

     Reuben Gee, Joseph Davis and David Parshall bought land and settled in the township about 1824.  Gee remained but a short time.  Joseph Davis is remembered by some of the old settlers as a very religious man, and an earnest friend of the church and preachers.  His son James resided in the township for a while.  David Parshall settled about one mile west of the center on the south side of the road.  He sold out and moved.

     From 1824 to 1830 the settlers came in rapidly, but of the families who came during that time comparatively few are represented in the township.  The early as well as the later settlers were chiefly Pennsylvanians, quiet, unobtrusive, but progressive people.  Their characteristic thrift has born its fruit, and Berlin, the youngest of the Mahoning county townships, will compare very favorably with some sections where improvements were begun much earlier.  We have space to mention a few early comers.

     JONATHAN KING was born in Pennsylvania in 1804.  In 1823 he came to Springfield township, this county, where he worked for some time.  In 1825 he married Lydia Keck, and in 1826 settled in Berlin township.  They had ten children.  Seven arrived at maturity, and five are still living.  Mr. King first settled two miles north of the centre and a little east, and there made the first improvements on the farm where his son Joseph now lives.  Mr. King has probably been a resident of Berlin longer than any other man now living in the township.

     JOHN CLINE, a native of Pennsylvania, settled in Boardman township quite early; thence moved to Canfield, and in 1828 settled in the northern part of Berlin.  He was the father of seven sons and four daughters.  Three sons and one daughter are still living, viz: Jonathan, George, and Conrad, and Mrs. Sarah Hawn, the oldest of the family.  All the residents of this township.

     GEORGE RIPPLE was an early settler west of the center.

     SALMON HALL settled on the west side of the Mahoning.

     The MISNER FAMILY settled in the northern part of the township.

     HENRY HOUCK located on the road west of the center.

     DAVID and TOBIAS HARTZELL were early settlers.

     WILLIAM KIRKPATRICK settled east of the center on the farm now occupied by Jonathan King.  He kept tavern at the center a few years.  His name was changed to Kirk on his petitioning the legislature.  His sons, William, James, and Isaac were residents of Berlin for a time.  James died here.

     EMANUEL HULL, an early settler in the northeast of the township, lived and died on the farm now owned by his son George, and his daughter Mary.  Michael, his son, also resides in the northeastern part of the township.

     JOHN KIMMEL settled on the east line of Berlin township in 1828.  He brought up five sons and four daughters.  Four sons and two daughters are yet living.  Daniel, one of the sons, lives on a part of the old homestead.

     GEORGE BEST came to Berlin township in 1830 and settled northwest of the center, where he now resides.  He has brought up a family of eight children, six of whom are living.

     HORACE ROWLAND has been a resident of the township since 1831.  He began in the woods in the southeast of Berlin.  Later he moved east of the center and bought the farm on which Michael Crumrine had made the first improvement.

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     ZIMRI ENGLE has resided in Berlin since 1832.

     In 1833 JOHN BURKEY came from Petersburg and settled in the northeast of the township.  He brought up a faily of eleven children, nine of whom are living, five sons and four daughters, Peter, Solomon, and Sophia (Hull) being residents of this township.

     JOHN CARSON came to Berlin in 1832, and in 1834 settled on the farm he now occupies, in the northwestern corner of the township.  Adam Zedaker had been living on the place and had made some improvements before Mr. Carson purchased it.

     LAWRENCE SHIVELY came to the northwestern part of Berlin in 1833.  His family of ten children are all living.  Mr. Shively moved to Milton in 1848, and resided there several years.  He is now living in Berlin.

     About the year 1800, PETER HOYLE came from Virginia and settled in Ellsworth township, where he lived until 1836.  At that date he settled in the eastern part of Berlin.  He brought up five sons and two daughters.  All are now living excepting one daughter.  George and Peter are residents of this township.

BERLIN.

was the name given the township at the instance of Matthias Glass.  He, being a German, desired to have his adopted home bear a name which would remind him of the Fatherland.  Previous to the organization, the township was known to the early settlers for miles around as Hart and Mather's, from the names of two men who were originally proprietors of a tract within it.  General Perkins owned a thousand acres or more in the southwest corner, and it was of him that Packard and other early comers purchased their land.  About two-thirds of the township was owned by Amos Sill, and sold by his agent, Joseph H. Coult, who was the first settler at the center.

TURKEY BROTH CREEK

was so named by Garrett Packard.  His journey with his family from Austintown to the place where he settled in Deerfield, a distance of nineteen miles, occupied three days.  The first night he stayed at the house of Philip Borts, in Ellsworth; the second night encamped beside the creek, and while there shot a wild turkey and made broth, using water from the stream, which has since borne the name he bestowed upon it.  The third day Packard arrived in Deerfield.

HARD TIMES.

A NARROW ESCAPE

     In early days Indians were probably as numerous along the Mahoning as in any part of this region, and here, too, they continued to remain some years after the white man appeared and made his home in the forest.

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[PORTRAIT OF JONATHAN KING]

[PORTRAIT OF MRS. LYDIA KING]

MILLS.

TANNERY.

MERCHANTS.

TAVERNS.

WILSON'S STORE.

PHYSICIANS.

POST OFFICES

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EARLY SCHOOLS.

THE FIRST WEDDING.

AN INCIDENT OF SLAVERY DAYS.
(contributed by E. P. Thorn, Ellsworth.)

     MARIUS R. ROBINSON, a Presbyterian minister residing in Salem, Ohio, came to Berlin in June, 1837, having been invited to deliver a lecture on the slavery question.  He was one of the early Abolitionists, and was about thirty-one years of age at the time of his visit to Berlin.  Here he became the guest of Jesse Garretson, a Quaker merchant.  It being impossible to secure any public building for a lecture he spoke in MR. GARRETSON's dwelling on Friday, June 2d.
     Another meeting was announced for the following Sunday, when the lecturer proposed to vindicate the Bible from the charge of supporting slavery.  The South at that time largely controlled public opinion in the North and forbade the agitation of the slavery question, therefore the announcement of an "abolition" lecture threw the village into a state of fierce excitement.
     About ten o'clock Saturday evening Mr. Robinson was sitting in the store with Mr. and Mrs. Garretson when several men rushed in and seized him, saying, "You have got to leave this town to-night; you have disturbed the peace of our citizens long enough."  A struggle ensued, Mr. Garretson and his wife making desperate efforts to protect him, but them were overpowered; the lecturer was taken out, stripped of his clothing and covered with tar and feathers.  While some of the men were holding him, waiting for others to bring the tar and feathers, Mr. Robinson made several attempts to talk, but was prevented by being struck at each effort.  He was bleeding freely from a cut or wound in the arm, near his left shoulder.  After the tar and feathers and been applied, his clothes were put on again and he was carried in a wagon a distance of about eleven miles to a point about one mile south of Canfield, and there left in the road.  Although a stranger in that locality he found his way to the house of Mr. Wetmore, where he was kindly cared for.
     Twelve of the men who committed the outrage were arrested and had a preliminary trial before a justice of the peace at Ellsworth; but while Mr. Robinson's attorneys, Milton Sutliff and Robert Taylor, of Warren, and Joshua R. Giddings, of Ashtabula, were preparing the case for the court of common pleas, a compromise was effected, each of the parties charged paying Mr. Robinson the sum of $40.
     The effect of this affair was wide spread.  Salem became known throughout the whole

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country as a "hot-bed of abolitionism;" and it was this incident and Mr. Robinson's subsequent work that made it so, or contributed largely toward that result.  Mr. Robinson was an able man and devoted the remaining years of his life to fighting slavery as a lecturer and as editor of the Anti-slavery Bugle, until the institution was swept out of existence by the war.

CHURCH HISTORY.

THE GERMAN CHURCH.

THE METHODISTS.

THE UNITED BRETHREN.

     This denomination once had two churches in the township, and now has none.  Had the two concentrated perhaps the church might have been alive now.  The motto "United we stand, divided we fall," applies to churches, as well as to political parties.

     About 1835, the United "Brethren organized and held meetings at the houses of Jacob Strong and Joseph Davis, south of the center.  A few years later they built a house two miles west of the village.  Among those who preached here were Charles Carter and Father Biddle.  Prominent among the first members were Jacob Strong, Joseph Davis, and Jonathan Davis.  About 1851 the United Brethren and Evangelical Association built a union church at Shelltown. Active members: Michael Hull, John Hull, Madison Traill, and Alexander McNutt.  The society was small and short lived.  Carter's Zion drew away several members, and a few that remained were not able to pay a preacher.

MOUNT CARMEL EVANGELICAL CHURCH.

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ZION CHURCH

THE CHRISTIANS.

CEMETERIES.

    There are three small burying grounds in the township.  That adjoining the German church is probably the oldest, though the graveyard near the center was probably laid out nearly the same time with it.  In the German graveyard the earliest recorded death that is legible is that of Noah Boyer, died Dec. 27, 1831.  Doubtless interments were made much earlier, but the al-effacing fingers of time have already blotted out some inscriptions that were placed upon rude headstones of sandstone.

BERLIN BUSINESS DIRECTORY.

     The following is believed to be a correct list of all occupations carried on in the township, other than farming:

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES:

     DR. JAMES W. HUGHES - 120

     WILLIAM STRONG

     ALONZO STRONG (w/ Portrait of Alonzo Strong & Elizabeth C. Strong)..

     JONATHAN KING - 122

     [PORTRAIT OF GEORGE CARSON]

      ALONZO STRONG - 123

     GEORGE CARSON (w/ Portrait of George Carson) - 123

     HORACE ROWLAND (w/ Portrait of Horace Rowland & Mrs. Fidelia Rowland) - 124

---------------

     REV. I. J. MILLER

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     HEZEKIAH PARSHALL

     JOHN ECKIS

     ROBERT KIRKBRIDE

     BENJAMIN F. KIRKBRIDE

     HOUSTON PORTER

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     ELI MYERS

     HENRY KING

     ADNA B. SILVER was born in New Jersey in 1800; married in 1821 to Miss Lydia Allen, and had a family of five children, viz: Sarah, Joseph, Elizabeth, Allen, and Mary, all of whom are living except the son Joseph.  Mr. Silver came to Ohio in 1827 and settled in Berlin township, Mahoning county, on the farm now owned and occupied by his daughter Mary Linton.  He erected his log cabin in the woods, as the country was yet new.  He was the pioneer black smith in that region, and made most of the implements which his neighbors used in clearing their farms.  His wife died in December, 1868.

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     L. J. MILLER

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     HEZEKIAH PARSHALL

     JOHN ECKIS,

     ROBERT KIRKBRIDE

     BENJAMIN F. KIRKBRIDE, the fourth child of the subject of the preceding sketch, was born in Pennsylvania in 1831. In 1853 he married Miss Lucinda Hoadley, who died in 1877.  By this marriage there were no children.  In 1878 Mr. Kirkbride was married to Miss Ellen Dickson, by whom he has had one child—Mabel.  He followed farming until he attained his majority, when he went to blacksmithing, at which he still continues.  Mr. and Mrs. Kirkbride are members of the Presbyterian church.

     HOUSTON PORTER

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     ELI MYERS, the youngest child of Daniel and Anna Myers, was born on the farm where he now lives in Berlin township, Mahoning county, in 1837.  His father, Daniel Myers, was a native of Pennsylvania, and came to Ohio with his parents in 1802, and settled in Springfield township, the county then being a dense wilderness.  He afterwards moved to Berlin township, where he also settled in the woods, on the farm now occupied by his son Eli.  He was married at the age of twenty-five to Anna Mary Rummel, and had a family of nine children, as follows:  Christina, Susanna, Elizabeth, Margaret, Lucinda, Henry, John, Peter, and Eli.  They are all living with the exception of Susanna and Lucinda.  Mr. Myers was a hard-working and prosperous farmer, and lived to the good old age of eighty-two years.  Mr. Eli Myers was married to Miss Barbara E. Reichards in 1859, and has eight children, as follows: John, Emery J., Henry, Clark, Elina, Serena, Martha J., and Anna Mary, all of whom survive.  Mr. Myers has always followed farming, and is now (1881) serving his first term as justice of the peace.  He and his wife are members of the Lutheran church.

     HENRY KING

     ADNA B. SILVER was born in New Jersey in 1800; married in 1821 to Miss Lydia Allen, and had a family of five children, viz: Sarah, Joseph, Elizabeth, Allen, and Mary, all of whom are living except the son Joseph.  Mr. Silver came to Ohio in 1827 and settled in Berlin township, Mahoning county, on the farm now owned and occupied by his daughter Mary Linton.  He erected his log cabin in the woods, as the country was yet new.  He was the pioneer black smith in that region, and made most of the implements which his neighbors used in clearing their farms.  His wife died in December, 1868.
 

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