Staff photo / Dan Pompili From left, Austintown trustee Steve Kent, Austintown Historical President Joyce Hunsinger Pogany, and trustees Robert Santos and Monica Deavers stand with the new township seal.

AUSTINTOWN — It’s safe to say most Mahoning Valley residents know where Austintown is located. Now township trustees want everyone to have a better idea of what the community is all about.

They hope the new township seal revealed last week will be a good first step in that branding effort.

Trustees recently unveiled the township’s first official seal, featuring images they believe are intrinsic to the township’s identity and its history.

“Branding is important to communities and this seal sends the message we want it to send about ours,” said township Administrator Mark D’Apolito.

“We’ve never had a seal, so this is a milestone for us,” said trustee Robert Santos. “I’m honored to be a part of it. We all are.”

The seal was commissioned by trustees last year for $2,520, and was completed by Boardman artist Ray Simon, who did the art for the township’s 911 Memorial Park and whose works are on display in several presidential libraries.

The image depicts a falcon, the silhouette of a U.S. soldier holding the flag, images of Austintown’s two most historic landmarks — the Austin Log Cabin and the Strock House — and a prairie wagon representing Austintown’s first settler, John McCollum.

In attendance at the meeting was Joyce Hunsinger Pogany, who has been president of the Austintown Historical Society for more than 25 years and actually wrote the book on Austintown. Pogany expressed great appreciation for the new seal.

“It’s gorgeous. The Log Cabin and the Strock House, those are the only two national historic landmarks we have,” she said.

Santos said the seal will be displayed in the trustees hall at the township center, and eventually also will be on the welcome signs at townaship entry points. It also will be added to official business cards and the township’s website and social media pages.

“It’s about teaching residents where we’re from and where we’re going,” Santos said. “It’s a small step toward giving residents something they can hold sacred. Every image has a meaning and a story behind it.”

AUSTINTOWN HISTORY

According to “Images of America: Austintown” by Joyce Hunsinger Pogany, John McCollum is widely believed to be the first settler in the township.

He built the township’s first homestead near the Salt Spring, half a mile west of the Youngstown line, in 1798 and moved there with his wife and their 13 children in 1800. Some others assert that William Templeton was the first settler, although those are mostly his descendants. Templeton married one of McCollum’s stepdaughters, Elizabeth Hampson.

Trustees said they struggled to find any images of McCollum, which is why he is represented on the new township seal by a prairie wagon.

The township is named for Calvin Austin, as is the log cabin at the corner of South Raccoon and Burgett Roads. Calvin was an agent for the Connecticut Land Company, and in 1814 he sold the land on which the cabin sits to John and Mary Packard, whose grandsons, Warren Doud and James, would go on to found Packard Electric and the Packard Motor Car Company. It is believed that John Packard built the log cabin, according to the Mahoning Valley Historical Society.

The log cabin was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on July 30, 1974. It was restored and rededicated by the Austintown Historical Society in July 1976. Pogany said the society led a parade from Fitch High School to the cabin on July 4, and has hosted an Independence Day service at the site every year for the past 20 years.

The Strock Stone House, at 7171 Mahoning Ave., just east of Meander Reservoir, was built in 1831 by stone mason William McClure, for William and Lydia Crum Strock. The house has been occupied by Francis Henry; David Anderson; Anderson’s son, Judge William Anderson; and served for a time as the home of the Mahoning Valley Sanitary District’s chief engineer. It was added to the national register in 1976.

There are rumors that the house functioned as a stop on the Underground Ralroad during the era of slavery in the United States, but there are no records available to substantiate the claims, given the clandestine nature of those activities, according to the Mahoning Valley Historical Society.

dpompili@vindy.com