EARLY HISTORY of the MAHONING VALLEY

     In 1662 King Charles II, granted a charter to the colony of Connecticut, and defined the limits of the colony to be Massachusetts on the north, Long Island Sound on the south, the Narragansett river on the east, and the Pacific Ocean on the west, excepting certain portions granted previously.  By virtue of this charter, subsequent to the Revolution, Connecticut claimed the land west of Pennsylvania.  The controversy in relation to this claim was at length settled by the cession, by Connecticut, to the United States, of all land west of the State of Pennsylvania, reserving a tract one hundred and twenty miles in length, and between Lake Erie and the 41st parallel of north latitude.  This cession was accepted, and considered an acknowledgment that the claim of Connecticut was well founded.  This tract received the name of the Connecticut Western Reserve.
     Excepting the "Fire Lands," containing half a million of acres on the western end of the Reserve, so called from being given by the State of Connecticut to certain suffers by fire and the destruction of their property in the State during the Revolutionary war, and the Salt Spring tract lying in the townships of Austintown, Jackson, Weathersfield, and Lordstown, and a few other parcels previously sold or negotiated, this tract was sold by the State in 1795 to the Connecticut Land Company.
     In 1796 the survey of the Reserve into townships five miles square was commenced, and in January, 1798, the survey being then completed, the land was partitioned among the stockhold

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ders of the company by draft, when the partition was completed, the stockholders of the company received from the trustees deeds of the land they had drawn.  Many of the grantees removed soon thereafter to their land, and made it their future borne.  Others sent out agents.  Purchasers of the grantees removed to the new country, clearings were made in the forest, log houses were erected, crops put in the ground, and thus in the spring of 1798 was commenced the regular settlement the Reserve.
     When Trumbull County was organized it contained within its limits the whole of the Connecticut Western Reserve.  In the year 1846, by an act of legislature, fifteen of the southern townships of this county was taken, and five from the county of Columbiana, and a new county was erected which was named Mahoning, from the Mahoning river a stream which has its bead waters in the counties of Portage and Columbiana in Ohio, and with the Shenango in Lawarnce Lawrence County near New Castle Pennsylvania.  The soil is fertile and well adopted to agricultural purposes and grazing.
     From the report of the Secretary of State for 1873, the following interesting farming statistics are compiled:

ORCILARS.

LIVE STOCK

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     The following table shows the increase of the valuation of property foom from 1850 to 1873:

RATES OF TAXATION FOR 1873.

     Youngstown being the largest City in the county, and in the Mahoning Valley, has become the centre of the vast coal and iron interest of this region, the development of which has added largely to the value of the real estate in that part of the county, which is rich in the deposits of mineral coal, and iron ore.  Of these articles there was mined in the county, in 1870, 2,720,750 bushels of coal, and in 1872, 1,894,000 bushels.  The decrease in production was the result of a long "strike" among the miners.

YOUNGSTOWN PAST

     The plat of ground in Youngstown township, in which the city is located, does not appear to have been included in the draft made for the Connecticut Land Company, and the name of John Young, does not appear among the stockholders of the company, it is altogether probable that Mr. Young purchased the topnship township from the Company, and prior to the making of the draft.  The records, however, do show that on Apr. 9th, 1800, the trustees of the company conveyed to John Young township No. 2, in the 2nd range called Youngstown, containing 15,560

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acres of land for the consideration of $16,082.16.  On the same day Mr. Young executed to the trustees a mortgage of the township to secure the payment of the purchase money.
     Mr. Young, according to tradition, visited the township about 1797 with Alfred Wolcott, a surveyor, for the purpose of surveying it into lots and commencing a settlement.  The late Col. James Hillman, who then resided in Pittsburgh, and had been for a number of years engaged in trading with the Indians on the Reserve, making his voyages up the Mahoning in a canoe, in returning from one of his expeditions saw a smoke on the bank near Spring Common.  On landing he found Mr. Young and Mr. Wolcott.  He stayed with them a few days, when they went with him to Beaver on the Ohio river, to celebrate the Fourth of July.  Col. Hillman, at the instance of Mr. Young, returned with him to Youngstown, and they commenced the settlement of the town by the erection of a log house.  This house stood on the east bank of the Mahoning river, near Spring Common, on Front street, on the site of the house occupied until recently by Wm. S. Crawford.  This was probably the first log house erected on the Reserve, and the first regular settlement on the Reserve was probably commenced in this township.
     Mr. Young laid out a town plat, which is now embraced within and is only a small part of the present city, and divided it into building lots.  Adjoining the town plat he laid out lots of a few acres each, which he named out-lots, and the rest of the township he surveyed into larger tracts suitable for farms.  The town plat was not recorded until Aug. 19th, 1802.  On June 1st of that year, Mr. Young executed an instrument commencing "Know ye that I, John Young, of Youngstown, in the county of Trumbull, for the consideration of the prospect of advancing my property, have laid out and established in the township of Youngstown aforesaid, on the north side of the Mahoning river, a town plat of the following description, viz.: Federal street is a hundred feet in width and 1,752 feet in length, beginning at a corner post standing in front of Esquire Caleb Baldwin's house, a little west of his well, running south 62° 30' east through the middle of the plat and public square." The well here spoken of still exists, and is in daily use in the yard in front of the residence of Dr. Timothy Woodbridge.  The post, a little west of the well, has disappeared, but its precise 

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to solemnize marriages.  Hence it is inferred that the first marriage in Youngstown was that of Stephen Baldwin and Rebecca Hush, and this was probably the first maariage  marriage solemnized on the Reserve.
     The first male child born in the township was Isaac Swager, son of John Swager.  The first female child was a daughter of Robert and Hannah Stevens.  They were born prior to 1800.  John Young Shehi, son of Daniel and Jane Shehi, was one of the earliest children born here, and tradition says that John Young deeded him a town lot for his name.  In corroboration of this is found on record a deed from John Young to John Y. Shehi, dated March 24th, 1807, of town lots 83 and 84, which are located on the east side of north Market street, and south of the graveyard lot.  The consideration expressed is $100, received of Daniel Shehi. Tradition also says that Mr. Young gave lots to the two other children, but the deeds are not on record.
     The first funeral was the burial of Samuel McFarland in the northwest corner of the west lot of the old graveyard.  All the population including Mr. Young, was at the funeral.  The following is the inscription on the grave stone: At the top the figures "1811," probably the date of its erection.  Then "In memory of Samuel McFarland, teacher of vocal music, late from Worcester, Massachusetts, who departed this life Sept. 20th, 1799, aged 28 years."  The stone is now removed to the west part of the Mahoning Cemetery.
     The following statement of the number and situation of the houses in Youngstown in 1823, was prepared by John H. Squire, and is said to be correct:

COMMENCING ON THE NORTH SIDE OF FEDERAL STREET AND GOING WEST.

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     About 1846, it was ascertained that the Brier Hill, or that variety of coal, could be used in its raw state, as a fuel for the reduction of iron ore, and the first blast furnace in Youngstown constructed for its use, was erected in that year.  This was the Eagle Furnace, built by William Philpot, David Morris, Jonathan Warner, Harvey Sawyer, on land purchased of Dr. Henry Manning, lying between the present city limits and Brier Hill.  The coal used was mined from land contigious leased from Dr. Manning.  The terms of this lease as to price, were one cent per bushel for the first 25,000 bushels, and one-half per cent per bushel for all over 25,000 bushels dug in one year, and to mine not less than 75,000 bushels per year, or to pay for that quantity if not mined.  The money paid for coal not mined in any year to be applied on the excess mined in any other year.  The bushel of coal to weigh 75 pounds.  The lease to continue in force for twenty years.  This lease, was the last coal lease made in this township.
     We copy from Howe's Historical Collections of Ohio, published in 1848, but who collected his materials in 1847, his statements of the condition of the coal and iron interest, and of the township generally at that time
     "Youngstown is the largest and most flourishing town in Mahoning county.  It contains about 1200 inhabitants, has twelve mercantile stores, three warehouses for receiveing receiving and forwarding goods and produce on the canal.  Four churches one Presbyterian, one Episcopal Methodist, one Protestant Methodist, and one Disciple.  The Pennsylvania & Ohio Canal passes through the village, and the products of the surrounding country are sent here for shipment.  Few places in Ohio are more beautifully situated: few have greater facilities for manufactoring, or bid fairer to become a place of wealth and importance.  Bituminous coal and iron ore abound in the immediate vicinity of the village, and along the line of the canal, adequate, it is believed, to the wants of a large manufacturing place.  Several of the coal banks are already opened and successfully and profitably worked.  The mines of the Hon. David Tod furnish about one hundred tons of coal per day, and those of Crawford, Camp & Co. about sixty; all of which have hither to found a ready market at Cleveland for steamboat fuel.  It has recently been ascertained that the coal in the valley of the Mahoning is well adapted in its raw state to the smelting of iron ore, and three furnaces similar to the English and Scotch 

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furnaces, each capable of producing from sixty to one hundred tons of pig metal per week, have been erected in the township and near the village.   A large rolling mill has been erected in the village, at which is made the various sizes of bar, rod and hoop iron, also sheet iron, nails and spikes.  The "Youngstown Iron Company" and the "Eagle Iron and Steel Company" contemplate the erection of machinery for the purpose of making T and H rail, and it is more than probable that the various railroads now projected in Ohio and the adjoining States will be supplied with rails from this point.  In addition to the above there are quite a number of snail manufacturing establishment for making tin ware, cloth, axes, wagons, &c.  The amount of capital invested in the manufacturing of iron is probably $200,000."
     The three furnaces, spoken of above, were the Eagle and Brier Hill furnaces, since rebuilt and capacity greatly enlarged, and the Mill Creek furnace, built in 1826 for a charcoal furnace, but being in an unfavorable location in regard to transportation facilities, and getting old and dilapidated, it was taken down some years since.  The large rolling mill, chronicled by Mr. Howe, was the old mill north of the canal, which was the nucleus, and but a fraction of the present extensive mills of Brown Bonnell & Co., which are among the largest in the State.