Berlin Township, Knox County

How Berlin Township, Knox County began

Berlin Township, in the northern part of Knox County, was created June 4, 1822 and named for Berlin, Connecticut, on the motion of settler Stephen Cole, part of a broader pattern of New England-origin place names across northern Knox County. Its first cabin was raised in 1808 by Henry Markley, and the Greenville Treaty line of 1795 runs across its northern part about a mile north of the village of Ankenytown, which grew up around a mill and briefly earned the nickname 'Squeal' after a runaway train scare. It has no incorporated village of its own today, its old towns of Palmyra and Ankenytown having faded with the railroad era. It remained a farming community through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and has grown modestly, recording 1,772 residents at the 2020 census.

Settled 1808 (first cabin, Henry Markley), incorporated 1822-06-04 (township created); reduced to present limits 1825-03-09, by Named on the motion of settler Stephen Cole.

Where the name comes from

Berlin Township took its name from Berlin, Connecticut, on the proposal of early settler Stephen Cole.

Before the town

The Greenville Treaty line of 1795, drawn by General Anthony Wayne at the close of the Northwest Indian War, crosses the northern part of Berlin Township itself, running a little south of west about a mile north of the village of Ankenytown. The 1881 county history records that the township held no permanent Native settlement but was used as hunting ground by parties from the Greentown and Jerometown Indians (Delaware and Wyandot) into the early 1800s; an old Indian remembered by early settlers only as 'Toby' kept his wigwam on a stream that came to be called Toby's Run and hunted there until about the time of the War of 1812, when he disappeared from local memory. Mound Builder earthworks were also recorded within the township: a small mound (roughly 30 to 40 feet across and 8 to 10 feet high) once stood on the Ellis Willet farm near the Quaker meeting-house and was destroyed when a house cellar was dug beneath it, turning up human bone, charred material, and what were taken for cooking implements; a larger mound (50 to 60 feet across, about 15 feet high) stood on the Davis farm in the township's southern part, which the 1881 history's writer believed was part of a chain of intervisible mounds running toward the one on the site of Fredericktown and others in neighboring Morris Township.

Nations recorded here: Wyandot, Shawnee, Lenape (Delaware).

• Ellis Willet mound (mound) — Ellis Willet farm, near the Quaker meeting-house, Berlin Township, unknown (Mound Builder) (archive.org)
• Davis farm mound (mound) — Davis farm, southern part of Berlin Township, unknown (Mound Builder) (archive.org)
• Toby's Run (camp) — Berlin Township, stream named for an old Indian hunter called Toby (his nation is not recorded) who lived there until about 1812, to c. 1812 (archive.org)

Timeline

1. 1795 — The Greenville Treaty Line, negotiated by General Anthony Wayne, is drawn across the northern part of what became Berlin Township, about a mile north of the later village of Ankenytown.
2. 1808 — Henry Markley, from Bedford County, Pennsylvania, erects the township's first cabin, accompanied by John Brown Sr.; Michael Harter, Markley's brother-in-law, also settles this year.
3. 1810 — Amos H. Royce, later the township's first justice of the peace and a War of 1812 veteran, settles in Berlin Township after arriving at Fredericktown in 1809.
4. 1813 — Michael Harter builds Harter's Tavern at the crossing of the Mt. Vernon-Mansfield and Columbus-Wooster roads; it becomes a noted stagecoach and militia-muster stop, and Harter later plants the first orchard in Knox County.
5. 1815 — Dunkard (German Baptist Brethren) settlers, organized by preacher John Moltzbaugh with the Leedy family, hold the township's first religious services, and Celestial Le Blond, a Frenchman recorded locally as 'Celestial Light,' establishes what becomes Shaler's Mill.
6. 1819 — Richard Roberts, born in Maryland in 1789 and in Ohio since 1805, builds a cabin on the farm in Berlin Township where he lives until his death on August 24, 1877, a resident of the township for 58 years.
7. 1821 — Amos H. Royce is elected the township's first justice of the peace and is re-elected in 1825, 1827, 1830 and 1833; Norton's 1862 county history also lists him as the first justice in 1821.
8. 1822 — Berlin Township is created June 4 by the county commissioners, on the motion to name it for Berlin, Connecticut; an organizing election is held June 22 at Michael Harter's house.
9. 1825 — Berlin Township is reduced to its present boundaries on March 9.
10. 1830 — The Methodist Episcopal church near the township's south line is organized; township population is recorded at 520.
11. 1834 — The Methodist Episcopal society near the south line of Berlin Township, organized about 1830 with Stephen Cole, A. H. Royce and others, builds its first church about this year; the Cole family donated the land on which the later frame church of about 1854 stands.
12. 1835 — Palmyra, for years the township's only town, is laid out on November 17 along the Fredericktown-Mansfield stage road.
13. 1840 — Township population is recorded at 1,100; a second Methodist class forms at Palmyra about this year and later buys a cooper shop to use as its church.
14. 1844 — A post office opens at Shaler's Mill, with J. M. Robinson as first postmaster.
15. 1849 — A post office called 'Maple Grove' opens at Richard Roberts' residence; it closes in 1860 at his request.
16. 1850 — Township population reaches 1,156, the highest recorded in the nineteenth-century censuses; the Dunkard society, organized about 1815, builds its frame church a quarter mile north of Ankenytown.
17. 1860 — Township population falls to 1,012 (it was 1,156 in 1850); Richard Roberts's Maple Grove post office, opened in 1849, closes at his request.
18. 1874 — The Disciples of Christ build a church at Palmyra after years of occasional preaching in the neighborhood.
19. 1880 — Township population is recorded at 910.
20. 2020 — Census records 1,772 residents in the township.

Stories

Ankenytown and the runaway 'iron horse'

Ankenytown grew up around a mill seat on Isaac's Run first developed by Amos H. Royce, and took its name from George Ankeny, a Pennsylvania-born blacksmith who bought a small lot there, set up his shop, and later served as justice of the peace and state legislator. When the Sandusky, Mansfield & Newark railroad reached the settlement, local residents unfamiliar with locomotives were said to have been so alarmed by the engine's whistle -- its 'squeal' -- that they briefly turned out armed to confront it, and the place picked up the joking nickname 'Squeal.' The story darkened when the train later killed livestock belonging to nearby farmers; angered residents banded together and tore up a stretch of track, touching off a lawsuit recorded in the Knox County common pleas court. The 1881 county history that preserves the tale allows that the armed-confrontation part was probably exaggerated, but the track-tearing and lawsuit were real.

Harter's Tavern and the first orchard in Knox County

Michael Harter, who had come from Pennsylvania about 1808 with his brother-in-law Henry Markley, built a log tavern about 1813 or 1814 where the road from Mount Vernon to Mansfield crossed the road from Columbus to Wooster. Harter's Tavern quickly became one of the best-known stopping places in northern Ohio: the township's first elections and militia musters were held there, and travelers were said to ride many extra miles after dark for the cooking of 'Aunt Katie,' Harter's wife. Harter planted the first orchard recorded in Knox County on the hill east of the tavern, bringing his trees from a nursery, then called a 'plantation,' down on the Muskingum River, and was buried among those same trees after his death. The tavern declined once the Sandusky, Mansfield & Newark railroad diverted the wagon traffic that had sustained it, and the building later became an ordinary brick farmhouse.

Uncle Richard Roberts and the winter fire

Richard Roberts was born in Frederick County, Maryland, in July 1789 and came to Ohio with his father Henry Roberts in 1805, spending a year in Belmont County before building a cabin in what became Morris Township in 1806. In 1819 he moved to a farm in Berlin Township, where he lived the rest of his life and died on August 24, 1877, fifty-eight years a resident of the township and seventy-two years in the state. He and his wife, a daughter of early settler John Garrison, raised nine daughters and one son. The 1881 county history remembers him as a sociable man and a great talker whose delight was a winter evening beside the log fire, telling the younger people of his hunting exploits from the days when Ohio was a three-year-old. In 1849 the government opened a post office, Maple Grove, at his residence and made him postmaster, a post he held until he asked to have the office closed in 1860.

Local history sources: en.wikipedia.org · knoxpages.com · archive.org · archive.org · archive.org

Mostly private wells The water here

• Fredericktown Village64% of residentsGroundwater wells (3 wells)
• Del-co Water Company, Inc.23% of residentsOlentangy River, O'Shaughnessy and Alum Creek reservoirs, plus Knox County wells
• Bellville Village11% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Clearfork MHP2% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)

High-hazard dams (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (1)

Money issues on the ballot since 2022: 1 of 1 passed; of those asking for new or higher taxes, 1 of 1.

Ballot issues

Elections for office

Winners in bold. Results from the county board of elections' official canvass unless marked.

Auditor of State record

• No fiscal caution, watch or emergency on the Auditor of State's lists.
• Agreed Upon Procedures, 2024 to 2025, released 2026-06-25
• Financial Audit, 2022 to 2023, released 2024-10-22

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