Yankee Lake

How Yankee Lake began

Yankee Lake began with the Jurko and Stewart families: John Jurko's grandfather, who had immigrated from Romania in 1906, partnered with Ernest Houston (E.H.) Stewart to buy farmland in Brookfield Township, and in 1923 the two built the dam that created the reservoir, first called Lingamore Lake before it was renamed for Yankee Run, the creek it impounded. The Yankee Lake Inn opened out of an old farmhouse in 1927, and the Yankee Lake Ballroom followed in 1928; under Paul Jurko Sr.'s management the ballroom became one of the region's premier Big Band-era venues, at times filling to over 4,000 dancing fans and hosting acts including Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey and Duke Ellington, with unverified local lore placing gangsters like John Dillinger among its visitors. The community incorporated in 1931 and reached official village status in 1934, with four generations of Jurkos serving as mayors and council members. The state ordered the lake drained in 1979 over problems with the dam, and in 2025 the Jurko family sold its remaining roughly 150 acres -- about 40 percent of the village -- ending more than a century of family stewardship.

Settled 1923 (dam built, creating the lake); 1927 (Yankee Lake Inn opens); 1928 (Yankee Lake Ballroom opens), incorporated 1931 (formal incorporation); 1934 (official village status), by John Jurko's grandfather (a Romanian immigrant, arrived 1906) and Ernest Houston (E.H.) Stewart.

Where the name comes from

The community was first known as Lingamore Lake before being renamed to match Yankee Run, the creek dammed in 1923 to create the reservoir around which it grew.

Before the town

No Native village, camp or treaty event specific to Yankee Lake is recorded in the sources we reviewed. The community sits within Brookfield Township, in the wider region the county's 1882 history describes as Delaware-occupied hunting ground used seasonally by Seneca and Mingo bands through the 1700s, but no source found names a site at this specific location.

Nations recorded here: Lenape (Delaware), Seneca, Mingo (Seneca-Cayuga).

Timeline

1. 1906 — John Jurko's grandfather immigrates to the United States from Romania.
2. 1923 — Jurko and E.H. Stewart, having partnered to purchase farmland in Brookfield Township, build the dam that creates the reservoir, first known as Lingamore Lake.
3. 1927 — The Yankee Lake Inn opens, created out of an old farmhouse.
4. 1928 — The Yankee Lake Ballroom opens beside the reservoir, which by this time has taken the name Yankee Lake.
5. 1930s to 1940s — Under Paul Jurko Sr.'s management, the ballroom becomes a premier Big Band-era venue, at times filling to over 4,000 dancing fans and hosting acts including Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey, Artie Shaw, Benny Goodman, Cab Calloway, Count Basie and Duke Ellington; unverified local lore holds that gangsters of the era, possibly including John Dillinger, visited as well.
6. 1931 — The community of Yankee Lake formally incorporates.
7. 1934 — Yankee Lake achieves official village status; over the following decades, four generations of the Jurko family serve as village mayors and council members.
8. 1979 — The State of Ohio orders the lake drained because of problems with the dam.
9. 2020 — The census records 75 residents in the village of Yankee Lake, within Brookfield Township.
10. 2025-06 — John Jurko sells the family's remaining roughly 150 acres -- about 40 percent of the village's land area -- to Yankee Village Land Co. for $675,000, ending over a century of Jurko family land stewardship in the village.

Stories

Big bands on a man-made lake

Yankee Lake exists because of one immigrant family's partnership with a local farmer. John Jurko's grandfather, who had come to the United States from Romania in 1906, joined E.H. Stewart to buy farmland in Brookfield Township, and in 1923 the two men dammed Yankee Run creek to create a reservoir, first known as Lingamore Lake. The Jurkos built out from there: an inn carved from an old farmhouse in 1927, then a ballroom in 1928 that, under Paul Jurko Sr.'s management, became one of the region's premier entertainment venues through the Big Band era -- filling at times to over 4,000 dancing fans for acts like Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey and Duke Ellington, with local lore, never independently confirmed, placing Depression-era gangsters like John Dillinger among the crowd. The Jurkos didn't just run the resort; four generations of the family went on to serve as the incorporated village's mayors and council members after it achieved official status in 1934. The lake that started it all was ordered drained by the state in 1979 over problems with the dam, but the family's grip on the land endured far longer -- until June 2025, when John Jurko sold the family's last roughly 150 acres, ending more than a hundred years of Jurko stewardship over the place their grandfather had helped build from bare farmland.

Local history sources: en.wikipedia.org · newsonthegreen.com · trulytrumbull.com · archive.org

Mostly private wells The water here

• Hubbard City58% of residentsShenango River / Shenango River Lake (Pymatuning area) surface intake
• Brookfield Acres Mhc42% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)

Spills reported since 2021 (1)

Who holds office

Roster as of 2026-08-24: county board of elections.

Money issues on the ballot since 2016: 2 of 2 passed.

Ballot issues

Elections for office

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

Auditor of State record

• Fiscal watch: declared 2002-04-11, released 2004-04-15. source
• Basic Audit, 2023 to 2024, released 2025-12-09

Source: Ohio EPA eDocument portal (edocpub.epa.ohio.gov), indexed 2026-10-14. Facilities are placed on the map from Ohio EPA's own map layers, EPA's Facility Registry, coordinates written in the filings, or a geocoded street address. A permit filed under a private person's name (most are household septic systems) is counted but never named, placed or linked; licenses for individual workers and open-burning notices are left out entirely.

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