A History Set in Stone
by George D. Kanaan
Berea got its name by the flip of a coin back in 1836. Reverend Henry O. Sheldon, a circuit rider and later Berea's first postmaster, chose the name over another biblical locale: Tabor (Mount Tabor). Baldwin called "heads" and the rest is history.
Information obtained from the Berea Historical Society reveals that a New Englander named John Baldwin is credited with being one of Berea's founding fathers. He is also known as a founder of the Baldwin institute, which later became Baldwin-Wallace College. John Baldwin prospered in Berea by successfully transforming the sandstone along the banks of the Rocky River into a successful industry beginning in the early 1840s and lasting nearly a century.