Berlin Township, Mahoning County

• Berlin LakeBuilt 1943 · 3,590 acres

How Berlin Township, Mahoning County began

Berlin Township, in western Mahoning County within the Connecticut Western Reserve, was established in 1828 and named for Berlin, Germany, the ancestral home of a share of its first settlers. Its central community, Berlin Center, dates its own history to an 1833 post office originally spelled "Berlin Centre" and remained a small crossroads settlement, with only about 60 residents recorded in 1907. The township's defining modern feature arrived over a century after its founding: Berlin Lake, a 3,590-acre reservoir the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built in 1942 under the Flood Control Act of 1938, impounding the Mahoning River across the meeting point of Mahoning, Portage and Stark counties for flood control, water supply and, eventually, recreation. Berlin Township remains rural and unincorporated, its lake now a regional destination for boating and fishing.

Settled Settled by German-heritage families among others in the early Western Reserve era, platted Township established 1828; Berlin Center post office opens 1833, incorporated Township government only; Berlin Center remains unincorporated, by Settlers with roots in Berlin, Germany, for whom the township is named.

Where the name comes from

Berlin Township is named for Berlin, Germany, the ancestral home of a share of its first settlers. Its central community, Berlin Center, in turn takes its name from the township; its post office opened in 1833 under the spelling 'Berlin Centre,' changed to 'Berlin Center' in 1893.

Before the town

Williams's 1882 history says Indians were probably as numerous along the Mahoning as anywhere in the region and stayed some years after the first white settlers came. It tells of Garrett Packard, the township's first settler, that while still living in neighboring Deerfield a Native man who had watched him and his wife in their field told them he could have shot them both and chose not to, because the white man had never harmed him; the man was invited to dinner and remained a friend of the family. The county history also records that, before the township was organized, early settlers called the area Hart and Mather's after two original proprietors, and that it was a favorite hunting ground. No Native village or earthwork is recorded in Berlin Township.

Timeline

1. 1809 — Garrett Packard, the first white settler, moves from Deerfield to a farm on Mill Creek in the southwest; his son Thomas, born March 27, 1809, is the first white child born in Berlin.
2. 1824 — The township, still sparsely settled, begins to fill as the greater part of its land is offered for sale; a log schoolhouse goes up on Turkey Broth Creek near the center about this time.
3. 1825 — Matthias Glass builds a sawmill and gristmill on the Mahoning above Frederick; Isaac Wilson later buys the site and builds the flouring mill, the only gristmill ever built in the township.
4. 1828 — The county commissioners erect Berlin as a separate township in March; the first election is held April 7 at the schoolhouse near the center, and the first post office, Amity, opens about this year with Peter Musser as postmaster.
5. 1833 — The Berlin post office opens at the center with Joseph Edwards as first postmaster and first storekeeper.
6. 1834 — Dr. James W. Hughes settles in Berlin as the township's first regular physician and practises until his death in 1869.
7. 1837 — The abolitionist Marius R. Robinson comes to Berlin in June to lecture on slavery and stays with the Quaker merchant Jesse Garretson.
8. 1893 — The post office's spelling is changed from Berlin Centre to Berlin Center.
9. 1907 — Berlin Center has about 60 inhabitants.
10. 1938 — The federal Flood Control Act authorizes a new reservoir on the Mahoning River at the Mahoning-Portage-Stark county line.
11. 1942 — The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers completes Berlin Lake, a 3,590-acre reservoir built for flood control, low-flow augmentation, water quality control and water supply.
12. 2020 — The census counts 1,973 people in the township.

Stories

A reservoir built at three counties' corner

Berlin Township's German-named crossroads village of Berlin Center stayed a tiny settlement for more than a century, counting only about 60 residents as late as 1907. What transformed the township's landscape was not local growth but a federal decision made in Washington: the 1938 Flood Control Act, passed in response to devastating floods across the Ohio and Mississippi river basins, authorized the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to dam the Mahoning River at the point where Mahoning, Portage and Stark counties meet. Completed in 1942, the resulting Berlin Lake backed up 3,590 acres of water -- with an average depth of 23 feet and a maximum of 55 -- built explicitly for flood control, low-flow augmentation, water quality control and water supply for the industrial cities downstream. Only later did the reservoir's recreational value become its most visible purpose, drawing sailors, anglers and campers to a lake that exists, at bottom, because the Mahoning Valley's mills and rivers needed better flood and water management.

Turkey Broth Creek

Berlin Township was known to early settlers for miles around as Hart and Mather's, after two original proprietors of a tract, and one of its streams still carries a name that Garrett Packard gave it. In 1805 Packard moved his family from Austintown to Deerfield, nineteen miles, and the journey took three days. The first night he stayed with Philip Ports in Ellsworth, and the second he camped beside a creek, shot a wild turkey and made broth with water from the stream. The stream has been Turkey Broth Creek ever since. Packard soon bought land from General Perkins on Mill Creek, and the neighbors from Deerfield built a rough log cabin for him with three walls and blankets across the fourth. His son Thomas, born March 27, 1809, was the first white child born in the township, and for several years the Packards were the only family there. The name Berlin came later, in 1828, at the suggestion of Matthias Glass, who wanted his new home to remind him of the Fatherland.

Photographs

Local history sources: en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org · berlinyachtclub.com · en.wikipedia.org · commons.wikimedia.org · archive.org

Mostly private wells The water here

• Island Creek Homeowners100% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)

Fire and EMS stations (1)

Public schools (3)

Bridges rated poor (2)

Spills reported since 2021 (2)

Who holds office

Roster as of 2026-09-17: county board of elections.

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 2026-06-30
• Financial Audit, 2022 to 2023, released 2024-09-05

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