Der Ohio Adler

People of Germanic origin ...

were among the earliest white settlers of Ohio. Most migrated from Pennsylvania during the late 1700s and the early 1800s along Zane's Trace. Many came to help build the numerous canals constructed during the 1820s and 1830s. They established communities in modern-day Columbiana County, Stark County, Portage County, Jefferson County, Auglaize County, Perry County, Fairfield County, and Mercer County. One notable town of German background was Fort Loramie, in Shelby County. Most residents were German and referred to the community as Berlin. They did this to help remind them of their earlier Ohio home of New Berlin. The German residents of Fort Loramie allowed other nationalities to settle in their village, but they would try to buy these people out as quickly as possible. 

In 1800, Germans immigrants helped found Lancaster, Ohio.  Signs in this community were printed in both English and German.  Enough people of Germanic origin lived in Lancaster by 1809 that a German language newspaper, Der Ohio Adler, was published. Like many other Americans during the late 1700s and the early 1800s, these ethnic Germans viewed Ohio as a land of opportunity.

Beginning in the 1830's ...

ethnic Germans began to settle in Cincinnati which was fast becoming the pork-processing center of the United States. Most Americans, however, refused to eat spareribs. Butchers simply dumped the ribs into the Ohio River since no one would buy them. Once Germans moved to the city, the meat processors had a market for the ribs. Many Germans lived in the area of Cincinnati known as Over-the-Rhine. Like Lancaster and other German communities, Over-the-Rhine emerged as an important center of German immigrant culture, with its own churches, clubs, and German-language newspapers. These immigrants were not always fully accepted by other residents of Cincinnati, however, who sometimes felt threatened by the

 Germans and blamed them for many of the city's problems. Anti-German sentiment erupted into violence in 1855, when a mob tried to invade the neighborhood but was pushed back by armed German-American militia units.

During World War I, many Ohioans of German descent faced anti-German sentiment once again.  It was at this point that many communities lost much of their German character, as residents changed German street names, banned the teaching of German in schools, and removed all German-language publications from libraries.  German Americans faced additional persecution during World War II, although not at the level experienced during the First World War.