New Middletown

How New Middletown began

New Middletown, in southeastern Mahoning County's Springfield Township, was founded by Samuel Moore around 1820-1825 (sources differ), likely named for the settlers' former home of Middletown, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania. Joshua Dixon opened the village's first store, David Shearer served as its first postmaster, and by the later nineteenth century its most prominent business was the Wire, Welsh & Company distillery, which made Golden Rye Whiskey and was, by local account, the last operating distillery in Mahoning County before Prohibition forced its closure in 1917. Sitting on the stagecoach route linking Youngstown, Cleveland and Pittsburgh, the village kept its original brick roadbed beneath what is now Main Street. New Middletown separated from Springfield Township government and incorporated as its own village in 1972, reportedly over a tax dispute, and remains the township's largest community.

Settled Springfield Township was settled from about 1801; the village was laid out before 1825 by Samuel Moore (the weebly local-history page says 1820, Wikipedia 1825), platted Before 1825, by Samuel Moore, with later additions by William Brotherton and John Miller (spelled 'New Middleton' in the 1879 and 1882 county histories), incorporated 1972, separating from Springfield Township, by Samuel Moore.

Where the name comes from

New Middletown was most likely named for Middletown, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, the former home of a share of its first settlers.

Before the town

No Native American village, trail, or site specific to New Middletown is documented in the sources consulted. Springfield Township, in which the village sits, was never part of the Connecticut Western Reserve, having belonged to Columbiana County until 1846.

Timeline

1. 1820s — Samuel Moore founds New Middletown, at roughly the same time as neighboring New Springfield.
2. 1830 — Joshua Dixon opens the village's first store and a tavern begins operating; David Shearer serves as first postmaster and Dr. Elisha Murray as first physician.
3. 1830 — Samuel Moore keeps the first public house in a building on the later J. G. Bacher lot, and Joshua Dixon opens a small store; at one time the village had four taverns.
4. 1841 — Welker, Pease and Company put up a horse-powered carding-mill, the first manufacturing in the village; it later holds a distillery and a linseed-oil works and burns in 1871.
5. 1849 — Welker and Brungard put up a steam saw-mill in New Middletown.
6. 1851 — Tobias Hahn's store, burned that year, is rebuilt, and David Johnson builds the present hotel on the stand of the old tavern, which had been destroyed.
7. 1870 — A stock company of twenty members is formed to build a steam grist-mill in the village; Henry Miller's business house burns the same year.
8. 1878 — In August, Tobias Hahn's large store is robbed and burned by the burglars to prevent detection, and on August 27 a fire destroys the steam grist-mill, which Fred Fouser then replaces.
9. 1879 — The county history counts about 250 inhabitants in the village, with stores, a drug store, physicians Floor and Floor and a daily mail from Youngstown (the census had counted 147 in 1870 and 190 in 1880).
10. 1890 — The village's first school building is constructed.
11. 1917 — The Wire, Welsh & Company distillery, maker of Golden Rye Whiskey and the last operating distillery in Mahoning County, closes under Prohibition.
12. 1960 — The census counts 500 people in New Middletown, up from 264 in 1950; the count reaches 1,664 by 1970, two years before incorporation.
13. 1972 — New Middletown incorporates as a village, separating from Springfield Township government.
14. 2020 — The census counts 1,507 residents in New Middletown, down from 2,195 in 1980.

Stories

The last distillery in the county

By the later nineteenth century, New Middletown's best-known business was not a store or a mill but a distillery: the Wire, Welsh & Company works, which turned out Golden Rye Whiskey and was, according to local history, the last operating distillery anywhere in Mahoning County. Its prominence on the map helped make the village a stagecoach stop on the route linking Youngstown, Cleveland and Pittsburgh, and the brick roadbed the coaches once rolled over still lies beneath the modern Main Street, State Route 170. Prohibition ended the distillery's run in 1917, and the property was repurposed first as sawmills and farmland; today the Golden Rye Grill, occupying part of the original site, keeps the distillery's name alive in the village even though the whiskey stopped flowing more than a century ago.

Burglars burn Hahn's store

By 1878 Tobias Hahn, whose store had burned once already in 1851 and been rebuilt, had opened a large new store in New Middletown. In August of that year, according to the 1882 county history, the store was robbed and then burned by the burglars to cover their tracks. The same month, on August 27, a fire destroyed the village's steam grist-mill, which twenty townsmen had financed in 1870 through a stock company and which had passed to Fred Fouser. Fouser built a new mill soon afterwards. The histories say nothing of any arrest, and the 1879 and 1882 texts, which are close copies of each other, are the only account found.

Photographs

Local history sources: en.wikipedia.org · newmiddletowngroup2015.weebly.com · en.wikipedia.org · commons.wikimedia.org · archive.org · archive.org · archive.org

Evans Lake, an Aqua Ohio-owned impoundment of Yellow Creek in southeastern Mahoning County (near New Springfield), supplying Aqua Ohio's treatment plant in Poland that serves Struthers and nearby communities. The water here

• Aqua Ohio - Struthers98% of residentsEvans Lake (Yellow Creek impoundment)
• Deer Meadows MHP2% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)

Fire and EMS stations (1)

Private schools (1)

Public libraries (1)

Police stations (1)

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.
• Financial Audit, 2024 to 2025, released 2026-07-07
• Financial Audit, 2022 to 2023, released 2024-12-03

Cite this page