Youngstown history

Growing Up in Working Class Youngstown — General Thomas W. Sanderson

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General Thomas W. Sanderson

Civil War hero, lawyer, and one who both made and wrote Youngstown history. In a nutshell, that’s General Thomas W. Sanderson, and yet most of us have never heard of him. As far as I know, no Youngstown streets or buildings are named after him (there is a Sanderson Avenue in Campbell, once East Youngstown) and yet Youngstown wouldn’t have been the county seat of Mahoning County without him.

Thomas W. Sanderson was born in Indiana, Pennsylvania on October 17, 1829. His father, from Scotland, was a farmer. His mother’s family came from Wakefield, England, the setting of Oliver Goldsmith’s Vicar of Wakefield. The family moved to Youngstown in 1834, where they continued to farm. Sanderson was educated in Youngstown’s schools, attended college in Bardstown, Kentucky, and then read law in the office of William Ferguson and was admitted to the bar in a district court in Canfield, then the county seat, in 1852. After a brief stint as a civil engineer, he formed a law partnership with his brother in law, F.E. Hutchins, Hutchins and Sanderson.

Civic leadership followed quickly. Appointed county prosecuting attorney in 1856, he had to delay beginning this work to serve out an unfinished term as Mayor of Youngstown. However, the Civil War interrupted his legal career after one term as prosecuting attorney.

Sanderson entered the Army as a second lieutenant of the Second Ohio cavalry. By war’s end, he was a Brigadier General, having fought at Stone River, Lookout Mountain, Chickamauga, marching with General Sherman on Atlanta and to the sea. One example of his gallantry and leadership was an engagement south of Atlanta at Bear Creek where, leading one brigade, he held off three divisions of General Wheeler, achieving victory.

On return to Youngstown, he served four terms as solicitor beginning in 1868. During this time, the fight took place to move the county seat from Canfield to Youngstown. It turned on the constitutionality of a law passed in 1874 in the state legislature, and whether a previous law in 1846 could make Canfield the “permanent” county seat. The case finally ended up in 1879 in the United States Supreme Court where Sanderson faced future president James A. Garfield, arguing for Canfield. Sanderson won and thus Youngstown’s standing as county seat was confirmed.

In his time, he was considered the best trial lawyer in the state of Ohio. He represented Chauncey Andrews in the Hocking County railroad case, where he won a judgment of $15 million, the largest settlement won in Ohio up to that time. He also took up smaller cases. In one, in 1872, he represented Herman Brandmiller, a brewer, charged with selling a young man a drink, violating “dry” laws enacted in that period. He succeeded in proving that the ordinance had never properly been recorded, making it invalid, leading to acquital of Brandmiller.

The one grief in an otherwise successful life struck in his family. He married Elizabeth Shoemaker of New Castle on December 19, 1854. They had two children, a son who died in infancy and a daughter, Louise, a highly educated and accomplished young woman. Sadly, she died June 21, 1901, predeceasing her parents, a difficult blow for them.

Sanderson had always been a writer and in his last years, he wrote the 20th Century History of Youngstown and Mahoning County, Ohio and Representative Citizens, published in 1907. The work offers a history of the city and county and brief biographies of leading citizens of the area up to that time. I’ve used it as a source for many articles and it may be accessed at the Internet Archive. This was the first such history, preceding that of Joseph Butler.

General Thomas W. Sanderson appeared in court up to the last year of his life. He was in declining health over the previous year and passed on Sunday, January 26, 1908. He was buried on January 29, 1908 after lying in state at First Christian Church with funeral services at 1 pm that day. The Tod post provided his final escort to his burial site at Oak Hill Cemetery, where he was buried with full military honors.

A number of Youngstown leaders have living family who carry their memory to this day. This was not the case for General Sanderson. Yet his name is among the “greats” in our city, serving with distinction in the Civil War, offering leadership and capable advocacy to effect the move of Mahoning County’s county seat to Youngstown, serving clients great and small as a trial lawyer, and writing the first local history of the area. If you take a tour of Oak Hill Cemetery, be sure to visit his tomb. He is worthy of memory.

To read other posts in the Growing Up in Working Class Youngstown series, just click “On Youngstown.” Enjoy!

Growing Up in Working Class Youngstown — The Underground Railroad

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Strock Stone House, a reputed stop on the underground railroad. Photo courtesy of the Austintown Historical Society.

Last week, I re-posted an article on Jared Potter Kirtland, an early resident of Poland, Ohio. His home was a stop on the Underground Railroad. I mentioned that a post on the Underground Railroad would be a good idea for another time. Re-reading that article and a few requests led me to the conclusion that it is time to write that article.

The Underground Railroad was the clandestine effort of a abolitionists in Northern States to help fugitive slaves escaping the South find refuge and make their way to Canada, where they were not subject to capture by fugitive slave hunters. It was illegal to hide or aid fugitive slaves to escape, and so precautions were taken including keeping no records and partitioning the routes so that no one could reveal the whole network of escape routes. The terminology reflected the Underground Railroad analogy.

  • Fugitive slaves were “passengers.”
  • Those who helped escaping slaves find the railroad were “agents.”
  • Guides along the way were known as “conductors.”
  • Hiding places were “stations” and those who hid slaves were “station masters.”

Because Ohio was separated from the slaveholding South by the Ohio River, many slaves escaped across the Ohio River at various points from Cincinnati to Ripley, to Southpoint, Portsmouth, Gallipolis, and Marietta, and to Steubenville. One of the most famous stations was the home of Reverend John Rankin in Ripley, on a hill above the river. The Rankins were the first stop for 2200 fugitive slaves and the likely source of a story of a slave woman and her infant child who escaped across the ice floes on the Ohio River, captured memorably in Uncle Tom’s Cabin by their friend, Harriet Beecher Stowe. The state is crisscrossed with Underground Railroad routes running from the Ohio River to the Lake Erie port cities of the north where people could get boats to Canada: Toledo, Sandusky, Cleveland, Painesville, and Ashtabula among them. There are several markers on the Ohio State campus tracing the route through the campus. In recognition of this, the southeast corner of the new Ohio Union is configured architecturally in the form of a lantern, a sign of a “station,” recognizing the Underground Railroad history associated with the campus.

Compiled from “The Underground Railroad from Slavery to Freedom” by Wilbur H. Siebert, Public Domain

You will notice that several of the Underground Railroad routes ran from the river up the eastern border of Ohio. One of the most famous of these that ran up through Mahoning County began at Wellsville, following what is present day Route 45 up through Salem, Ellsworth, just west of what is now Meander Reservoir up to Warren, on to North Bloomfield and up to Ashtabula. Another branched further east through Canfield, into Youngstown, up to Brookfield and Hartford and then up to Ashtabula. Some may have connected with this by crossing over from Pennsylvania by Poland (the Kirtland House), and then headed north.

In Salem, The Daniel Howell Hise home was one of the stations along the Route 45 line. The Hises were Quakers (as were many abolitionists and those involved in the Underground Railroad). Salem at that time had a high percentage of Quakers and hosted many national events. In the 1850’s, the Hises bought a Gothic Revival Farmhouse that included many hidden rooms under the house and in a nearby barn. Slaves could stay in hiding, rest, and eat until a conductor would take them to the next station.

That next station may have been in Ellsworth, a center of abolitionist activity, or in Canfield, the home of Chauncey Fowler. Fowler was a physician who provided food, clothing, and no doubt, medical care to slaves on the way to Canada. On the way home from an abolitionist meeting in Ellsworth, Fowler narrowly escaped an attack by a band of pro-slavery men. Being an abolitionist and a station master were dangerous activities.

The Strock Stone House, a bit south of Mahoning Avenue was also not far from Route 45. Francis Henry lived in the house from 1851 to 1863, and this was the likely time it was used as a station. The house was isolated and allowed fugitives and their conductor to approach unseen.

One of the conductors, from Bazetta Township, was Levi Sutliff, who possibly brought slaves to the house of Judge Leicester King whose house was along Route 45 by the Mahoning River in Warren. King was a statewide leader in anti-slavery efforts. From there, they went north to North Bloomfield, the site of slave rescue in 1823, when slaves were hidden by the residents and then protected in a hideout in Rome, about 12 miles away. The slave hunters were put up in the Tavern, where a variety of stalling tactics from “sleeping late” to the horses of the slave hunters some how turning up with a shoe missing, requiring the attentions of a blacksmith, allowing the slaves to make good their escape.

From Rome, slaves found another station in Austinburg, and then made their way to Ashtabula where they were put on boats to Canada and freedom. One interesting connection to the Youngstown area was that three nephews of Nehemiah Hubbard, Jr. (after whom Hubbard is named) settled in Ashtabula: William, Matthew, and Henry. All were heavily involved in abolitionist efforts and William’s house was the final station for many on the Underground Railroad. The house survives and is now Hubbard House Underground Railroad Museum.

The other route, from Poland, conducted slaves on to Youngstown where there was a station managed by John Loughridge, the leader of the abolitionist movement there. Slaves may have been conducted from there to Brookfield and Hartford, where Dudley Tracy was a station master and radical abolitionist.

As I noted, because this was dangerous activity, many of the “stations” were kept quiet, with no records. My hunch is that this is only a representative sample of many who were involved in the Mahoning Valley and other parts of eastern Ohio in rescuing fugitive slaves. If you know of other stations and conductors or can add to the stories here, I’d love for you to do so in the comments. There was a strong abolitionist movement throughout eastern Ohio and the Western Reserve, with many prominent people who took great risks because they believed in human equality and freedom. There is an inspiring story to be told of which this is just a small part.

To read other posts in the Growing Up in Working Class Youngstown series, just click “On Youngstown.” Enjoy!

Growing Up in Working Class Youngstown — Youngstown One Hundred Years Ago: A Snapshot

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I have a pretty good memory of fifty years ago in Youngstown. I was enjoying my last weeks as a senior at Chaney High School. We’d had our prom and had just a few more weeks of class, finals, and then commencement.

I doubt any of us remember 100 years ago. This was around the time many of our parents were born. I thought it would be fun to take a look at The Vindicator from 100 years ago to get a glimpse of life back then. The closest to today I could get was the issue for Tuesday, May 23, 1922.

It was interesting that the paper led with a good news story even though City Council had voted to fire 25 police. Perhaps they had better sense and paying attention to civic-minded generosity to the Community Chest, the United Way of the day, was in the long run of greater value than squabbles at city hall.

Now for that police story. I wrote some time back about George Oles, the grocer who ran, as a joke at first, for mayor, and won. He was a reformer and saw a city that was deficit spending. The story describes acrimonious debate with Oles refuting false accusations before the measure to cut the police finally passed by a 9-6 vote (City Council was larger back then). Oles won this battle, at least temporarily, but lost the war. Just a month and a half later, July 1, 1922, he resigned after only six months in office. Political controversy has a long history in the city.

Several of the stories were national stories. Governor General Wood, the top government officer when the Philippines were basically a U.S. colony, took shelter behind an island and was in communication 36 hours later. He lived until 1927. To the question of a man kidnapping his wife, the answer is yes. As you might assume, it was an unhappy marriage, she had separated and sued for divorce, and he, a captain of industry, seized her against her will. She got free and had him arrested! The other kidnapping story probably caught the attention of locals who bought bread from the Ward Baking Company. The owner refused to pay the ransom for his son, so the son took matters into his own hands and shot his kidnapper! That raises as many questions as it answers!

Down the page is a story about a report on good authority that the Ku Klux Klan had a branch in Youngstown. Sadly, by the end of 1923, most of the political leadership including the mayor, and the school board in Youngstown would be Klan-endorsed. Sadly, they enjoyed support from many churches. Two notable exceptions were First Presbyterian Church and The Vindicator. William Jenkins, a YSU history professor wrote a history of Klan involvement in the Ohio that I reviewed elsewhere on this blog. By 1924, their influence waned.

A page 3 story indicates at this time efforts were being made to move Mill Creek Park to control by the city rather than The Park Commission but council refused to act, fearing loss of revenues going to the park commission. Over the years, funding and leadership of the park periodically has been an issue, apparently.

Some commercial highlights from elsewhere in the paper:

  • Fordyce’s was having a blue ribbon sale with the following priced at a dollar: boys knickers, men’s dress shirts, a pair of long silk gloves and two pairs of short silk gloves, girls tub frocks, panty dresses, girls rain capes, and much more!
  • Meat was on sale at George Oles’ Fulton Market with fancy sugar bacon at 21 cents a pound, cured hams for 18 cents a pound, and chopped steak for 10 cents a pound.
  • The Glering Bottling Co. advertised Orange Crush at 5 cents a bottle. Elsewhere they had ads for Coca-Cola for 5 cents and Budweiser for 15 cents. Amazing that all those brands have lasted 100 years!
  • You could buy men’s dress oxfords for $3.98 at McFadden’s.
  • Stambaugh-Thompson’s was advertising “The Greatest Tire Sale Youngstown Has Ever Seen” with tires as low as $12.55 with warranties of up to 8,000 miles! They also advertised clothes line posts for $1.45, a reminder of how everyone used to dry their clothes, even in my childhood.
  • McKelvey’s advertised lingerie of silk and fine muslin and announced that “Miss Hoban (Corseting Expert) Is Here All This Week Demonstrating the Binner Corset” while Strouss-Hirshberg advertised Women’s Dainty Silk Dresses at sale prices of $39.50 and $24.75.

The big entertainment news was that the Scotti Grand Opera was at the Park Theatre performing Carmen as a matinee and L’Oracolo and La Boheme in the evening. That’s a lot of opera for one day! And “Adam and Eva” was at the Hippodrome Theatre. I’m curious as to whether the Park was the same place that later became a burlesque theatre.

Then, as now, this was the time of the year to recognize the accomplishments of local high school students. This picture accompanied the headline “Nineteen Students in Honor Group at Rayen This Year.” Look at how dressed up all of them are, including jackets and ties for all the men! All the students names are included in the article.

Syndicated comics of the day included “Bringing Up Father,” “Pa’s Son-In-Law,” “Polly and Her Pals,” “Toots and Casper” and this moral tale titled “Cicero and Sapp.”

As I said, this is but a snapshot of Youngstown 100 years ago, and a selective one at that. One of the richest sources of historical information about the city is the Vindicator archive in the Google News Archive, which contains scans of The Vindicator from 1893 to 1984. Then, as now, advertising paid the bills and occupies a lot of space, but the fashions and prices, and sometimes the technology, are so different. The issues then and now seem not so different–cities then as now struggle with budgets and how to maintain and develop a livable place. Only the particulars and the personalities are different. If you have the time, I think you’ll find reading these old papers a fascinating way to learn about our hometown.

To read other posts in the Growing Up in Working Class Youngstown series, just click “On Youngstown.” Enjoy!

Growing Up in Working Class Youngstown — The Great County Seat Horse Race

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Vintage European style engraving featuring horse racing with jockeys by Charles Simon Pascal Soullier (1861). Original from the British Library. Digitally enhanced by rawpixel. Licensed under CC0 1.0

One of the most fascinating stories in Joseph Green Butler’s History of Youngstown and the Mahoning Valley is that of a horse race that occurred some time before 1810 on Federal Street. At stake? Whether Warren or Youngstown would be the county seat. You must remember that at this time, Warren had been designated the county seat ahead of the little village further down the Mahoning River.

The good people of Warren had a horse by the name of Dave that they thought could outrun anything. They even added a $500 wager, they were so sure of themselves.

The early founders of Youngstown were horse people. Judge George Tod, Judge William Rayen, James Hillman (who met John Young on his first surveying trip), and John Woodbridge. Judge Tod agreed to their bet and covered the $500 wager. He selected a bay mare owned by James Hillman and trained and curried the horse to perfection.

The race would begin at Judge Rayen’s home, located near Spring Common and run through the village on Federal Street ending at Crab Creek, a distance of about a mile. Everyone took off work that day. People from Youngstown lined up on the south side of the street. Those who came down from Warren were on the north side. A spectator observed that people “bet what money they had, bet watches, penknives, coats, hats, vests, and shoes.”

His account continues:

“Alexander Walker rode Fly, and under his tutelage the Youngstown horse forged ahead in passing Henry Wick’s store. At Hugh Bryson’s store Dave came alongside, but the spurt was unavailing as Walker plied his whip and gave a few Indian warwhoops and Fly shot ahead once more. Dave’s chance vanished then and there, for Fly reached Crab Creek six lengths ahead. In fact Fly had entered so thoroughly into the spirit of the affair by this time that she refused to stop at all and was brought up only at Daniel Sheehy’s cabin, a mile beyond the goal.”

Youngstown won the race and the $1000 purse. Youngstown bettors filled their pockets with winnings. But the county seat remained in Warren. It turns out that you can’t bet county seats and Youngstown wouldn’t even be the first county seat when Mahoning County was formed. Canfield held that honor from 1846 until 1876, when, after an Ohio Supreme Court decision, the county seat moved to Youngstown. It turn out that it takes more than a horse race to claim a county seat. But what a great story!

To read other posts in the Growing Up in Working Class Youngstown series, just click “On Youngstown.” Enjoy!

Growing Up in Working Class Youngstown — Central Square

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Public Square (showing Diamond Cafe)
1909-06-15, Cleveland State University. Michael Schwartz Library. Special Collections

Central Square, the heart of Youngstown’s business district has undergone numerous changes reflecting the development of the city from John Young’s village to the present. At various times, it has been called Central Square, “the Diamond,” and Federal Plaza. Over the years it has seen foot and horse-drawn traffic, streetcars, buses and automobiles. For roughly 30 years, it was a plaza with no east-west traffic on Federal Street. For 31 years, there was a branch of the library on the north side of the square. Here is a timeline reflecting some of the changes on the Square over the years.

1798: John Young lays out plats for his village, designating a public square, a rectangle 250 by 400 feet, similar to New England Villages with the simple word “Square” on his map. With foresight, he lays out streets intersecting the square 100 feet wide.

1803: Youngstown’s first log schoolhouse opens on the Square.

1806: Perlee Brush hired as the first school-teacher.

1800-1860: Central Square is the center of the village primarily along East and West Federal Street consisting of residences and small businesses. For example, Woodman’s Grocery occupied the site that later became the Mahoning Bank Building.

1866: The Rayen School built by P. Ross Berry opens on Wick Avenue north of downtown.

1869: First Tod Hotel built on the southeast part of Central Square by. P. Ross Berry.

Realty Building and the Tod Hotel, from an undated vintage postcard.

1870: The Civil War Soldiers Monument is dedicated July 4, 1870 by Governor Rutherford B. Hayes and Congressman James A. Garfield.

1870’s: P. Ross Berry builds Opera House and building complex known as “The Diamond Block” on the southwest corner of public square.

1875: Horse drawn street cars provide transportation from the Square.

1876: Youngstown becomes the county seat of Mahoning County. The ubiquitous P. Ross Berry builds the first courthouse building at Wick and Wood.

1882: Federal Street is paved.

1886: Electric street lights installed.

1889: First of the downtown office towers built, the four story Federal Building, Daniel Burnham architect.

1899: Market Street Bridge opens, making Central Square the traffic hub from all sides of town.

1902: Dollar Savings and Trust Building completed built by Charles H. and Charles F. Owsley.

1906: Stambaugh Building built. Albert Kahn architect

1907: The Wick Building, also designed by Burnham is erected.

1910: Mahoning National Bank Building, also designed by Kahn.

1923: Central Square Library opened on the site of the defunct “Maid of the Mists” Fountain on the north side of the Square.

1924: Realty Building, architect Morris Scheibel.

1926: Keith-Albee Theatre, later the Palace, built on the northeast side of the Square

1926: Union National Bank, Walker & Weeks architect.

1929: Central Tower, a distinctive art deco building designed by Morris Scheibel.

1940’s: Street car tracks are torn up and used for war material.

1954: Central Square Library closes.

1960: In October, John F. Kennedy speaks from the balcony of the Tod Hotel to an estimated crowd of 60,000 on Central Square.

1964: Palace Theatre closed and subsequently razed.

1968: Tod House is razed for urban renewal.

1974: Central Square is transformed into Federal Plaza, closing east-west traffic for one block in each direction from the square, creating a pedestrian mall.

2004: Central Square re-opened to traffic with new traffic patterns, beds, benches.

“Youngstown, Ohio – Central Square – West Federal Street” by Jack Pearce is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.

This is a far from exhaustive timeline of Central Square. If you know of key dates and events that should be added, leave a comment. I hope this page can be a concise source of the history of this space. Central Square has been the heart of Youngstown, its civic and business heart, a center for political rallies and celebrations, of tree-lightings and festivals.

To read other posts in the Growing Up in Working Class Youngstown series, just click “On Youngstown.” Enjoy!

Growing Up in Working Class Youngstown — Howard C. Aley

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Photo Source: Howard C. Aley, A Heritage to Share. Youngstown: The Bicentennial Commission of Youngstown and Mahoning County, Ohio, 1975.

I never knew Howard C. Aley, but hardly a week goes by where I don’t reference his A Heritage to Share, his bicentennial history of Youngstown and Mahoning County. He traces the history of the Mahoning Valley from prehistoric times up until 1975. For most of the time from Youngstown’s beginnings, he recounts the history year by year, interspersing feature articles on events and key figures in the area’s history. Whenever I write about Youngstown history, I often start with two sources. Joseph Butler for anything up to the early 1920’s and Howard C. Aley for the whole time up until 1975. Sometimes, browsing through Aley’s book inspires an article. At other times, I ask, “what did Aley say?” While he was alive, I doubt anyone knew more about Youngstown history. Today, as I was browsing his history, I thought it would be interesting to tell his story.

Fittingly, Howard Aley was a lifelong Youngstown resident. He was born on January 12, 1911 to William and Rose Giering Aley. He experienced an illness during his youth that confined him at home. His parents gave him a typewriter to “amuse” him, and the writer was born. He graduated from South High School in 1931 and enrolled at Youngstown College, serving as an editor of The Jambar. He began a career as a teacher in 1935 that lasted until his retirement in 1974.

The series on Valley history

He taught history for seventh through eleventh graders for a year at the Rotary Home for Crippled Children. He began teaching at the Adams School in 1936. In the 1940’s he published a series of books on Valley history used in schools in a tri-county area. They won a Freedoms Foundation Award. He won a second Freedoms Foundation Award in 1960. He moved to Wilson High School in 1953, teaching there for 21 years until 1974. Former students would come up to him, asking if he remembered them, and he almost always did. They were eager to keep in touch with him because of his interest in them and because of how he instilled a love of historical knowledge.

He was a radio and TV personality in the Valley. His TV shows ran under the titles of “It Happened Here” and “Telerama” and “Footnote.” He was also active in a number of Valley organizations including the Monday Musical Club, Youngstown Hospital Association, Aut Mori Grotto and the Youngstown Charity Horse Show. He also edited “Chimes,” the monthly newsletter of Trinity United Methodist Church where he was a member. He loved the Canfield Fair and wrote a centennial history of it in 1946. He served as a president of the Mahoning Valley Historical Society.

His home in Boardman served as a kind of private historical archive. In some recent correspondence with a former neighbor, he mentioned that Aley had a library of several thousand volumes that spilled over into the garage. One summer, Aley found a house in Canfield with newspapers back to the turn of the century. The neighbor spent a summer working with him clipping articles for Aley’s archives. His obituary states that he could find the answer to any question about people or events in the Mahoning Valley in a matter of minutes.

My copy of A Heritage to Share

A Heritage to Share was a fitting capstone to his career as “historian of the Valley.” Completed in time for the celebrations of the national Bicentennial in 1976, it is a treasure trove. It is out of print. My son found a copy for me at a used bookstore. I never got to meet Howard C. Aley, who died in 1983, but I sometimes imagine him turning to me and saying, “do you know why…?” Thank you, Mr. Aley for all you did to tell the Valley’s story.

Source: “Howard C. Aley; Valley Historian,” Youngstown Vindicator, July 14, 1983, pp. 1-2.

To read other posts in the Growing Up in Working Class Youngstown series, just click “On Youngstown.” Enjoy!