Berea ( bə REE ə) is a city in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, United States. Its population was 18,545 at the 2020 census. A western suburb of Cleveland, it is a part of the Cleveland metropolitan area. Berea is home to Baldwin Wallace University, the training facility for the Cleveland Browns, and the Cuyahoga County Fairgrounds.
At a Glance
- County: Cuyahoga County
- State: Ohio
History of Berea
Berea was established in 1836. The first European settlers were originally from Connecticut. Berea fell within Connecticut’s Western Reserve and was surveyed and divided into townships and ranges by Gideon Granger, who served as postmaster general under President Thomas Jefferson. Abram Hickox, a Revolutionary War veteran, bought the first plot in what is today Middleburg Heights and in 1808 traveled west from Connecticut to his new purchase. Dissuaded by the swampy and heavily forested land, he decided to settle in Cleveland. He became successful as Cleveland’s first full time blacksmith. His plot of land was sold to his nephew, Jared Hickox, who came to the area with his wife Sarah and family in 1809. They followed an ancient Indian highway down through the forest from Cleveland and then, at what is now the corner of Bagley and Pearl roads, began to hack their way directly west. About two miles (3.2 km) in, they found Granger’s plot markers and set up their homestead. Today, this area is a strip mall on Bagley Road, just down the road from Berea. At the time Hickox discovered Granger’s plot markers, the area was a swampy lowland, and as fate would have it, the Hickox’s two grown sons died from typhoid fever shortly after the family’s arrival. The family farm was in dire straits, having been so severely depleted of male laborers. Love came to the rescue, however, and the area’s spirits were lifted by its first marriage, that of Jared’s daughter Amy Hickox to a recent arrival, Abijah Bagley. Bagley ended up taking over the farm and managing it into a successful concern. Today, Berea’s largest street bears his name.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Berea, Ohio, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license.