First Solar Powered City To Be Built In the U.S.

[Towntalk]

James Hillman proves your point Rusty. As you will recall he used the Mahoning River hauling goods for Duncan & Wilson from Pittsburgh to Cleveland using both pack horses and canoes before settling here, and as you also know that it was during one of those trips that he met John Young.

[rusty river]

My first guess was the river as well. Maybe the fact that most of the natural resources discovered in the area (iron, coal) were located close to Youngstown and the river is the primary cause for the city's growth. If this wasn't the case, I doubt there would have ever been a push for canals.

Canfield remained a farming community because that's all they had, especially after the county seat was moved to Youngstown.

[Towntalk]

No Sarge, it was the Pennsylvania and Ohio Canal that did it. Prior to the canal goods had to be shipped in wagons, but after the canal opened, the canal carried goods produced here to Cleveland and brought back materials used by our industries as well as goods not available here.

See: "A Heritage To Share" by Howard Aley pgs. 56-60

[Towntalk]

And who would have built the roads?

The Pennsylvania and Ohio Canal for example  was built through the sale of stock:

$250,000.00 was raised in Philidelphia
$215,000.00 was raised in Pittsburgh
$220,000.00 was raised in the Mahoning Valley

By the way, I read somewhere that our John Young was one of the civil engeneers on the Erie Canal project.

Finally it was that self same P&O Canal that transformed Youngstown from a sleepy farm community to an industrial city.

[sfc_oliver]

Not being any type of expert on our local history ; wouldn't it seem that Youngstown outgrew Poland and Canfield because they had the river?

[irishbobcat]

While I do not know if the government gave cash to any Youngstowner, the government has funded many projects in our nation's history.

Samuel Slater, an apprentice in one of the largest textile factories in England, immigrated to the United States in 1789 upon learning that American states were paying bounties to British expatriates with a knowledge of textile machinery.

In 1808, Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin's Report on the Subject of Public Roads and Canals suggested that the federal government should fund the construction of interstate turnpikes and canals. While many Anti-Federalists opposed the federal government assuming such a role, the British blockade in the War of 1812 demonstrated the United States' reliance upon these overland roads for military operations as well as for general commerce Construction on the National Road began in 1815 in Cumberland, Maryland and reached Wheeling, Virginia in 1818.

The Erie Canal, proposed by Governor of New York De Witt Clinton, was the first canal project undertaken as a public good to be financed at the public risk through the issuance of bonds.When the project was completed in 1825, the canal linked Lake Erie with the Hudson River through 83 separate locks and over a distance of 363 miles (584 km). The success of the Erie Canal spawned a boom of other canal-building around the country: over 3,326 miles of artificial waterways were constructed between 1816 and 1840. Small towns like Syracuse, New York, Buffalo, New York, and Cleveland, Ohio that lied along major canal routes boomed into major industrial and trade centers.

[Towntalk]

Correction noted.

What's interesting is that for the first few years after Youngstown was settled, the folks here had to go to Poland for provisions.

Can you explain why, since Poland had that kind of head start that it didn't get the growth that Youngstown experienced prior to the building of the Penn-Ohio Canal, or why since Canfield was the first County Seat that it remained small?

[rusty river]

The basic facts are correct, but you also said:

'... which was given to its first settlers as compensation for having their homes destroyed in the revolutionary war."

The first settlers in Youngstown purchased their land from John Young and that is not disputed. He purchased the land from the Connecticut Land Company, and again that is a matter of public record. The only person to be "given" any land in Youngstown was Mrs. Hillman.

Daniel Shehy for example paid John Young $2000.00 for his plot of land. This hardly sounds like he was given anything.

The Mahoning Valley Historical Society has records of what all the pioneer families paid for their land here

Towntalk, that is not what I said. my post says Western Reserve, not Youngstown.
The first settlers to the Western Reserve were given the land by the government.
Youngstown was the first permanently settled area of the Western Reserve.
Poland was the first surveyed township of the Western Reserve.

[Towntalk]

Dennis:

Please show us evidence that the government paid David Tod, or Chauncey Andrews money to build their railroads or their coal mines, or show evidence that the government funded the building of the local steel mills.

[Towntalk]

The basic facts are correct, but you also said:

'... which was given to its first settlers as compensation for having their homes destroyed in the revolutionary war."

The first settlers in Youngstown purchased their land from John Young and that is not disputed. He purchased the land from the Connecticut Land Company, and again that is a matter of public record. The only person to be "given" any land in Youngstown was Mrs. Hillman.

Daniel Shehy for example paid John Young $2000.00 for his plot of land. This hardly sounds like he was given anything.

The Mahoning Valley Historical Society has records of what all the pioneer families paid for their land here

[irishbobcat]

The Government has always been behind growth in this country:

The Louisiana Purchase

The building of the transcontinental railroad and westward movement

The purchase of Alaska

The WPA, The TVA

Government involvement and spending have always been key to growth in America.

[rusty river]

Not quite right Rusty. John Young and a group of investers bought the land from the Connecticut Land Company. [See pgs. 16-20 A Heritage To Share by Howard Aley]

True, he didn't stay here, but none of the pioneers were given land. They paid for it.

[See also pgs. 28-32 of the same book.]

See also YOUNGSTOWN, OHIO

http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=826

The state of Connecticut held extensive land claims throughout the Ohio region. They gave most of it up to the Federal Government for the creation of the Northwest Territory. They held on to a small part of it (The Western Reserve), which they divided into two parts. The western portion was know as "Fire Lands" and were given to citizens of Connecticut who lost their homes in the war. The eastern portion was sold by the state to the Connecticut Land Company to finance its public education system. John Young and others purchased the land from the CLC.

http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=702

Bottom line is that the government was instrumental in the settlement of the Western Reserve.

[Rick Rowlands]

One of the reasons why self starters are getting hard to find these days is because government has made it so difficult to start a business without their help.  The Heaton brothers built a blast furnace from rocks found laying in Yellow Creek, cut down the neighboring trees needed to make charcoal, mined the ore and smelted the iron.  If someone wanted to do the same thing today, the EPA would require a permit to disturb the stream to remove the rocks.  They would also require the construction of an elaborate charcoal making plant with scrubbers.  Studys would have to be done and more permits applied for to dig the ore out of the ground, plus once they were done they would have to fill the land back in and replant trees.  The blast furnace itself would require more elaborate pollution control equipment, but it wouldn't even be allowed today at the same site because the bank of Yellow Creek is a "flood zone".   Today's Heatons would simply say screw it and become an iron importer from China, working out of a rented room with one employee and a computer.

Actually I cannot blame any company one bit for closing down their manufacturing plants in the US and outsourcing.   Nobody should have to deal with the amount of BS regulations and restrictions that we have for simply trying to make a product and employ people.  And government never thinks its enough.  There always has to be more and more piled on.  I am thinking that this economic collapse signaled the end of America as we knew it and we will never reach that level again.  Many companies were just barely hanging on and dealing with the government as best they could. Then when the bottom fell out they could no longer compete and closed up.  Those businesses won't come back because of the extremely high costs to start up due to massive regulation and government requirements.

So on top of all the government mandates on business that already exist, lets add mandated paid sick days, forced unionism and carbon taxes to the mix and then remove any tax breaks that they may have had.  Then lets sit back and complain that unemployment numbers keep climbing. 

[Towntalk]

Not quite right Rusty. John Young and a group of investers bought the land from the Connecticut Land Company. [See pgs. 16-20 A Heritage To Share by Howard Aley]

True, he didn't stay here, but none of the pioneers were given land. They paid for it.

[See also pgs. 28-32 of the same book.]

See also YOUNGSTOWN, OHIO

http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=826

[rusty river]

 
Its amazing how this country has changed...

We use to be a country of self starters.  John Young did not wait for government to pay him to come from Connecticut to the Mahoning Valley, he did it on his own.

And actually, the Western Reserve was GOVERNMENT land, which was given to its first settlers as compensation for having their homes destroyed in the revolutionary war.

And maybe John Young should be given credit for initiating the exodus from Youngstown. He high-tailed it back to Connecticut after only 4 years here...