History

<td> The need to construct a road from Fond du Lac to Stevens Point, with a Fox River crossing at the most feasible place, led to the founding of Berlin in 1846. In June of 1847, three people from a search party that initially looked for the crossing point purchased land here, and the fourth, Nathan Strong, preempted a tract, built a shanty and lived among the Menominee and Winnebago Indians at that location. A ferry began running in 1848, the year the Menomonies ceded their tribal lands lying northwest of the Fox River. Soon afterward a float bridge was built and was replaced in 1856 by a more substantial one. Berlin developed as a transfer point under the stimulus of the bridge and the road to Stevens Point, a linkage completed in 1849. The railroad connection with Milwaukee via Ripon, opened in 1858, again made Berlin a transfer point from rail to stage and wagon road. The river contributed to Berlin's early growth, bringing passengers on steamboats from Oshkosh and carrying freight.

Berlin, from the first years, served as a supplier of goods and services for the developing rich farmland, which stretched south to Ripon and in the originally timber-covered areas to the north. With a population of only 250 in 1850, it grew to almost 2,800 by the Panic of 1857, and after a brief decline continued to grow to 5366 in the 1990s. With a variety of ethnic groups, the initial New York-New England settlers were joined by Germans, Irish, Poles, and Welsh -- creating a town with varied religious and educational institutions, and distinctive neighborhood patterns.

One significant part of the business sector was devoted handling farm produce from the surrounding lands, another was as a wholesale center for a wide trade area, and another was centered on retail trade. Berlin also had a variety of service -oriented businesses and small factories. Two particular business developments drew state and regional attention - cranberry production and the granite quarries. Utilizing the marshy land around the Fox River, Berlin in the early 1870's became the center of the cranberry-growing boom, which turned into a permanent part of the region's agriculture. The granite beds two miles east of the Fox River provided most of the jobs in Berlin between 1883 and 1916. They employed more than 300 men by 1890 and the railroad carried away as many as 2,000 carloads of paving blocks, crushed stone, and building stone for use in the in the construction field.

Berlin is situated on both sides of the historic Fox River, which linked the Mississippi and St. Lawrence Rivers -- serving as a trail way for Marquette and Joliet during their exploration of the St. Lawrence waterway. Later trappers and Indians would barter on the shores of the Fox and eventually fur and leather factories would spring up and utilize both the river and the railroad to distribute their products.

Link to: Berlin Historical Society

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Further Reading

• 110 E. Huron Street - FormerlyEdward Jones
• 113 East Huron
• 151 W. Huron Street