New Berlin, Ohio

Samuel Bachtel laid out the community of New Berlin in February 1831. The small village was located in Plain Township, Stark County. Many of the early settlers of New Berlin were Germans. The original plan included twenty-three lots.

New Berlin remained small in the nineteenth century. By the mid-1840s, there were 221 residents. Many of the town's citizens were involved in agriculture in the area surrounding the community. In 1901, the town began to be more closely linked to other communities in the area, especially as a result of the construction of the interurban railroad line between Canton and Akron. The line ran down Main Street in New Berlin.

During World War I, it became unpopular to be associated with anything German. As a result, the citizens of New Berlin voted to change the community's name to North Canton in January 1918.

One of New Berlin's most prominent residents was William H. "Boss" Hoover, who ran a tannery in town. In 1919, Hoover chose to change his business to manufacturing vacuum cleaners. As the Hoover Company became more and more successful, Hoover donated money to the town to make improvements, including a community building, a library, and Memorial Stadium. Because of Hoover's contributions to North Canton, the residents chose to name the local high school after him in 1957. As the Hoover Company grew, the town's population also grew. In 1930, the vacuum cleaner manufacturer employed 1,432 people, and the town's population was at 2,648. Twenty years later, 2,400 people worked at the Hoover factory, while four thousand people lived in North Canton. In the second half of the twentieth century, North Canton continued to grow as a result of the construction of I-77. By the late twentieth century, the population had grown to approximately fifteen thousand.