State Representative Bob Hagan

About the 60th District

The Youngstown Skyline

The 60th Statehouse district is located entirely in the northern part of Mahoning County and covers most of the greater Youngstown area including downtown Youngstown, Coitsville Township, Campbell, Austintown Township and Struthers.  To view a detailed map of the district, click here (pdf file).

Some information about the history of Youngstown, Ohio and the Mahoning Valley (from Wikipedia):

Youngstown was named for New York native John Young, who first surveyed the area in 1796 and settled there soon after.  On February 9, 1797, Young purchased the township of 15,560 acres from the Western Reserve Land Company for $16,085.  The 1797 establishment of Youngstown was officially recorded on August 19, 1802.

The area that constitutes present-day Youngstown was part of the Connecticut Western Reserve, which comprised land reserved for settlers from the state of Connecticut. While some of the area's early settlers were natives of Connecticut, Youngstown differed from most settlements of the Western Reserve, which drew a vast majority of their residents from New England. Youngstown attracted a significant number of Scots-Irish settlers from neighboring Pennsylvania as well.  The first European Americans to settle permanently in the area were Pittsburgh native James Hillman and wife Catherine Dougherty.  Within a year, Youngstown was the home of several families who were concentrated near the point where Mill Creek meets the Mahoning River. (The name Mahoning is believed to have derived from a Native American word, Mahonik, which means "salt lick.")

The village of Youngstown was incorporated in 1848, and in 1867 Youngstown was chartered as a city. The county seat was moved there from Canfield in 1876.  The discovery of coal in the community during the early 1800s paved the way for the Youngstown area's inclusion on the network of the famed Erie Canal. The Pennsylvania and Ohio Canal Company was organized in 1835, and the canal was completed in 1840.  Local industrialist David Tod (later Ohio Governor during the Civil War) persuaded Lake Erie steamboat owners that coal mined in the Mahoning Valley could fuel their vessels if canal transportation were available between Youngstown and Cleveland. The railroad came to the city in 1856, smoothing the path for further economic growth.

Endowed with substantial deposits of coal and iron as well as "old growth" hardwood forests needed to produce charcoal, the Youngstown area eventually developed a thriving steel industry. The area's first blast furnace was established to the east of town in 1803 by James and Daniel Heaton.  In time, the wide availability of fossil fuels contributed to the development of other coal-fired mills, including the Youngstown Rolling Mill Company, which was established in 1846. 

By the mid-19th century, Youngstown was the site of several iron industrial plants, notably David Tod's Brier Hill Iron & Coal Company. The iron industry continued to expand in the 1890s, despite the depletion of local natural resources. Numerous rail connections ensured a consistent supply of coal and iron ore from neighboring states.  During the same period, local industrialists began to convert to steel manufacturing, amid a wave of industrial consolidations that placed much of the Mahoning Valley's industry in the hands of national corporations.  Shortly after the establishment of U.S. Steel in 1901, the corporate entity absorbed Youngstown's premier steel producer, the National Steel Company.  One year earlier, however, a group of city investors took steps to ensure high levels of local ownership in the area's industrial sector. Led by local industrialists George D. Wick and James A. Campbell, they established what became the Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company, among the nation's most important steel producers. 

This impulse toward local ownership surfaced again in 1931, when Campbell, as chairman of the Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company, attempted to merge the firm with Bethlehem Steel. The move was successfully blocked by other area industrialists.  Between the 1920s and 1960s, the city was known as an important industrial hub, which featured the massive furnaces and foundries of such companies as Republic Steel and U.S. Steel.


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