YOUNGSTOWN, a city of north-eastern Ohio, U.S.A., on the Mahoning river, about equally distant (65 m.) from Cleve land and Pittsburgh; the county seat of Mahoning county. It has a municipal airport; is served by the Baltimore and Ohio, the Erie, the New York Central, the Pennsylvania, the Pitts burgh and Lake Erie and the Lake Erie and Eastern railways, two industrial belt lines, inter-urban trolleys, motor-bus and truck lines ; and is on the route of the proposed barge canal from Lake Erie to the Ohio river. Pop. (1920) 132,258 (26% foreign-born white) ; 1930 Federal census 170,002.
The city occupies 34.5 sq.m., lying on both sides of the river, at an altitude of 858 ft. at the public square. It is on the water shed between Lake Erie and the Ohio river, and is surrounded by rolling hills. The adjacent country is a fine agricultural region, rich in mineral resources. Youngstown is the centre of the second largest iron and steel district of the country, producing a of all the pig iron and of all the steel made in the United States, and using annually more than 8,500,000 tons of iron ore from the Lake Superior mines. Coal comes in over short hauls, and the limestone needed is quarried in the immediate vicinity. The total output of the city's industries in 1927 was $207,378,620.
The public square (given in 1802 by the founder of the city) is still the centre of municipal life. Facing it, or near by, are several of the older churches, several banks, stores and office buildings, the Stambaugh memorial auditorium, the Reuben Mc Millan free library (named after the first superintendent of schools), and the beautiful Butler Art institute, of Georgia mar ble. The parks of the city cover 1,950 ac. The character of the
chief .occupations is reflected in the preponderance of men in the population ( 15 males to ioo females in 1920), the very small proportion of women employed (18.5% of all ten years of age and over) and the very small proportion of children 1 o to years of age working for wages (2.5% in 1920). The city's as sessed valuation for 1927 was $364,669,13o. Bank debits for 1927 aggregated $853,827,000.
Youngstown was named in honour of John Young (1763 1825) of New Hampshire, who in 1796 bought a tract of land in the Western Reserve, on which the city now stands, from the Connecticut Land Company. The first settlement was made in 1796 by William Hillman. A township government was organized in 1802, the town was incorporated in 1848 and in 1867 it was chartered as a city. In 1876 the county seat was moved from Canfield to Youngstown; in 1879, after litigation, the legality of the change was confirmed. Iron was mined in the vicinity in 1803 by Daniel Eaton, who in 1804 built the first blast fur nace north of the Ohio and west of Pennsylvania and in 1826 the first one within the present limits of Youngstown. As late as 1860 the population of the city was only 2,759. By 1880 it had grown to 15,435 and by 1900 to 44,885. The 20th century has been the period of rapid development. Between 190o and 1920 the population increased threefold, and the area was en larged in about the same ratio.