Brookfield Township, Ohio

Episode 153 / 9 January 2020 / 156 min / full

That Can't Be An Accident

"We're going to Brookfield Township, Ohio... It's in northeastern Ohio... This is in Trumble County." about 0:06:13

The case: Murder of Tammy Engstrom (February 1991). Read the case file.

The figures, as told in 2020

Population

8,553

Median age

46 and a half

Median household income

$42,525

Median home value

$83,700

Two-bedroom rent

about $700 a month

Cost of living

73

Religious

45%

Property crime

▲ slightly high, about 10%

Violent crime

▼ about half

History, in brief

• In 1801 the resident heads of households in neighbouring Vienna Township included Isaac Flower, Levi Foot, James Foster, Samuel Hutchins, Samuel Daniel Humason, Dan Dennis Palmer and Epenetus Rogers. about 0:10:55
• The first post office in the area was not established until the 1870s. about 0:12:05
• Around the 1830s a blast stove moved into the area and it became more industrialised. about 0:12:16
• In 1838 coal deposits were discovered in the area. about 0:12:58
• Coal production increased between 1860 and 1890 for the war effort, at a rate of up to 350 to 400 tons of coal a day. about 0:13:28
• The first coal mine opened in 1866 in Vienna. about 0:13:54
• In 1877 eighteen miners were killed by methane produced by burning a new kind of coal. about 0:13:59
• The first automobile came to the area in 1905. about 0:14:16
• The population grew steadily until it peaked in 1869 and then began to decline. about 0:14:22
• Joshua Potts started a whisky making business at Five Points and the township became known as the whisky capital of the nation, with 22 distilleries in the 1880s. about 0:14:58
• From the 1920s to the early 1930s the township was known as Little Canada. about 0:15:17
• The township had seven large stills and six houses of ill repute. about 0:15:53
• John Dillinger was a local resident for a while and frequented the Green Parrot Bar for card games. about 0:16:10
• The Idle Wild Amusement Park opened in 1900 and was destroyed by a flood in 1913; it had a dance hall, a Ferris wheel and canoe rides. about 0:18:17
• The Yankee Lake Ball Room opened in 1928 for bands and dancing and was still open. about 0:18:34
• The population began to come back in the late 1920s, mainly through Italian immigrants. about 0:19:15
• After the Second World War there was a population boom as the area became a suburb for steel and iron workers, and the population declined again in the 1970s with the collapse of the American steel industry. about 0:21:27

The reviews read out

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