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Historical Collections of Ohio

By Henry Howe

Vol. II

©1888

 

MAHONING COUNTY

 

 

Page 175

 

MAHONING COUNTY was formed from Trumbull and Columbia, March 1, 1846. It derived its name from Mahoning river. The name Mahoning is, according to Heckwelder, derived from either the Indian word Mahoni, signifying "a lick," or Mahonink, "at the lick." The surface is rolling and the soil finely adapted to wheat and corn. Large quantities of the finer qualities of wool are raised. The valley of the Mahoning abounds in excellent bituminous coal, which is well adapted to the smelting of iron ore. There are fifteen townships in the county; the five southernmost, viz., Smith, Goshen, Green, Beaver and Springfield, originally formed part of Columbiana, and the others the southern part of Trumbull, the last of which are within the Western Reserve. Area about 420 square miles. In 1887 the acres cultivated were 105,207; in pasture, 70,464; woodland, 33,881; lying waste, 2,076; produced in wheat, 181,007 bushels; rye, 3_,359; buckwheat, 995; oats, 501,949; barley, 1,489; corn, 469,737; broom corn, 300 lbs. brush; meadow hay, 36,623 tons; clover hay, 9,610; flax, 51,600 lbs. fibre; potatoes, 95,773 bushels; tobacco, 100 lbs.; butter, 695,277; cheese, 79,450 ; sorghum, 637 gallons; maple syrup, 33,942; honey, 19,649 lbs. ; eggs, 371,039 dozen; grapes, 20,265 lbs.; wine; 267 gallons; apples, 188,271 bushels; peaches, 16,413; pears, 3,335;  wool, 251,921 lbs.; milch cows owned, 7,521.—Ohio State Report, 1888.

 

Coal mined in this county, 231,035 tons, employing 496 miners and 71 outside employees; iron ore, 13,779; fire clay, 400 tons; limestone, 53,627 tons burned for fluxing, 14,000 cubic feet of dimension stone.—Ohio Mining Statistics, 1888. School census, 1888, 16,908; teachers, 336; miles of railroad track, 168.

 

 

Population of Mahoning in 1840; 21,712; 1860, 25,894; 1880, 42,871; of whom 26,672 were born in Ohio; 5,418, Pennsylvania; 593, New York; 311, Virginia; 93; Indiana; 56, Kentucky; 3,280, England and Wales; 2,494, Ireland 1,417, German Empire; 705, Scotland; 280, British America; 65, France and 90 in Sweden and Norway. Census, 1890, 55,979.

 

In our original edition we said, "The following sketch from a resident of the county not only describes interesting incidents in the life of one of the first settlers on the Reserve, but gives facts of importance connected with the history of this region."

 

Col. JAMES HILLMAN, of Youngstown, was one of the pioneers of the West, and rendered essential service to the early settlers of the Western Reserve.  He is still living, and at the age of eighty-four enjoys good health, and spirits, and walks with as much elasticity of step as most men thirty years younger.  He was born in Northampton, Pa., and in 1784 was a soldier under General Harmar, and was discharged at Fort McIntosh, at Beaver town, on the Ohio in August, 1785., after the treaty with the Indians.

 

 

Page 176

 

of Pittsburg. They were engaged in forwarding goods and provisions upon packhorses across the country to the mouth of, the Cuyahoga (now Cleveland), thence to be shipped on the schooner Mackinaw to Detroit .During the summer of 1786 he made six trips—the caravan consisting of ten men and ninety horses. They usually crossed the Big Beaver, four miles below the mouth of the Shenango, thence up the left bank of the Mahoning, crossing it about three miles above the village of Youngstown, thence by way of the Salt Springs, in the township of Weathersfield, through Milton and Ravenna, crossing the Cuyahoga at the mouth of Breakneck, and again at the mouth of Tinker's creek, in Bedford, and thence down the river to its mouth, where they erected a log but for the safe-keeping of their goods, which was the first house built in Cleveland.

 

At the mouth of Tinker's creek were a few houses built by the Moravian missionaries. They were then vacant, the Indians having "occupied them one year only, previous to their removal to the Tuscarawas river. These and three or four cabins at the Salt Springs were the only buildings erected by the whites between the Ohio river and Lake Erie. Those at the Salt Springs were erected for the accommodation of persons sent there to make salt, and the tenants were dispossessed during the summer of 1785 by order of General Harmar. During this year, 1786, KRIBS, who was left in one of the cabins to take care of goods belonging to DUNCAN & WILSON, was murdered by the Indians, and his body was found by HILLMAN'S party, shockingly mangled by the wolves. During the same season James MORROW and Sam SIMERSON, returning from Sandusky, were killed by the Indians at Eagle creek, west of Cleveland. Mr. HILLMAN was married in 1786, and in 1788 settled at Beaver town, where DUNCAN & WILSON had a store for the purpose of trading with the Indians.

 

From 1788 to 1796 Mr. HILLMAN resided in Pittsburg, and traded with the Indians in Ohio, principally on the Reserve, bringing his goods in canoes up the Mahoning. His intercourse with the Indians during these eight years, and before, afforded him the opportunity of acquiring a knowledge of their language and gaining their confidence, both of which he obtained, and by means of which he was enabled afterwards to be of great service to the early settlers of the Reserve.

 

In 1796, when returning from one of his trading expeditions alone in his canoe, down the Mahoning river, he discovered a smoke on the bank near the present site of the village of Youngstown, and on proceeding to the spot he found Mr. YOUNG (the proprietor of the township), who with Mr. WOLCOTT, had just arrived to make a survey of his lands. The cargo of Mr. HILLMAN was not entirely disposed of, there remaining among other things some whisky, the price of which was to the Indiana one dollar a quart in the currency of the Country –a deerskin being a legal tender for one dollar and a doeskin half a dollar. Mr. YOUNG proposed purchasing; quart, and having a frolic on its contents during the evening, and insisted upon paying HILLMAN his customary price for it: HILLMAN urged that inasmuch as they were strangers in the country, and just arrived upon his territory, civility required him to furnish the means of the entertainment.. He, however, yielded to Mr. YOUNG, who immediately took the deerskin he had spread for his bed (the only one he had), and paid for his quart of whisky. His descendants in the State of New York, in relating the hardships of their ancestors, have not forgotten that Judge YOUNG exchanged his bed for a quart of whisky.

 

Mr. HILLMAN remained with them a few days, when they accompanied him to Beaver town, to celebrate the Fourth of July, and Mr. H. was induced to return and commence the settlement of the town by building a house. This was about the first settlement made on the Western Reserve. In the fall of 1797 Mr. BROWN and another person came on. It was during this season that Uriah HOLMES of Litchfield county, Conn., and Titus HAYES arrived in Youngstown the same day, both having started from Connecticut on the same day, the one taking the route through the State of New York, via Buffalo, and the other through Pennsylvania.

 

The settlement of the country proceeded prosperously until the murder of the two Indians, CAPTAIN GEORGE and SPOTTED JOHN, at the Salt Springs, by McMAHON and STORY. This affair had nearly proved fatal to the settlements, and probably would but for the efforts of Mr. HILLMAN. The next day after the murder, for such it undoubtedly was, Colonel HILLMAN, with Mr. Young and the late Judge PEASE of Warren, who had just arrived, went to the Salt Springs with a view of pacifying the Indians; but they had gone, not however without having buried the bodies of their murdered companions. Colonel HILLMAN and others expected trouble, and in order to show the Indians that the whites did not sanction the act judged it advisable to take McMAHON and STORY prisoners; which they accordingly did the same day at Warren.

 

Colonel H. had McMAHON in custody, but Story, who was guarded by John LANE, escaped during the night. On the next day McMAHON was brought to Youngstown, the settlers resolving to send him to Pittsburg, to be kept in confinement until he could be tried.

 

 

Page 177

 

mills now stand, and endeavor to avert the threatened danger. It was an undertaking imminently hazardous. Few men would have dared to go, and it is quite certain no other man in the settlement would have had any chance. of success. He was acquainted with their language, and knew their principal men, and was aware that in his trading intercourse with them he had acquired their confidence, and therefore felt no fear. Although urged to do so, he would not take any weapon of defence, but, accompanied by one RANDALL, started very early the next morning on his hazardous enterprise, and came in sight of the Indians before sunrise. The Indians, seventeen in number, were asleep, each with his gun and powder-horn resting upon a forked stick at his head. Being in advance of RANDALL became within three rods of them before he was discovered. A squaw was the only one awake. She immediately gave the alarm, which started every warrior to his feet with gun in hand. But seeing Colonel H. and his compan