130 years ago in 1895, transcribed as originally published in the Youngstown Vindicator:

To celebrate. The project to observe the one hundredth anniversary. It seems to meet with favor. Some interesting things about John Young that are not known to all.

The suggestion made to celebrate the one hundredth anniversary of the settlement of Youngstown finds favor with all one talks to and there is no doubt that the result will be a fitting commemoration of the great event, in every way worthy of the proud metropolis of the Mahoning Valley. In this connection it will be interesting to all who take pride in the city to read a biographical sketch of the man from whom Youngstown was named:

In August, 1875, in response to a request from John M. Edwards, corresponding secretary of the Mahoning Valley Historical Society, Charles C. Young, of Brooklyn, New York, fourth son of John Young, the founder of Youngstown and to which he gave his name, furnished a biographical sketch of his father, which is published in the collections of the Society and from which we have prepared the following:

‘John Young was born in 1763, emigrated to Whitestown, New York, about 1780, and in June, 1792, was married to his wife, Mary Stone White, the youngest daughter of Hugh White, the first settler and original proprietor of a large tract of wild land.’ Mr. White was of English descent; had moved in 1785, with his family, from Middletown, Conn., to this land, founded a town, to which he gave his name, became, in time, a judge of the court, and died in 1812.

‘John Young lived in Whitestown until 1796, when his own land interest was removed to Ohio, and in 1897 he began the settlement of Youngstown. In 1799 he removed with his family, wife and two children, John and George, to Youngstown, where two more were born to him; William in November, 1799, and Mary in February, 1802. In 1803 Mrs. Young, finding the trials of her country life there, with the latch-string always out and a table free to all, too great with her young family for her power of endurance, Mr. Young, in deference to her earnest entreaties, closed up his business and best he could and returned with his family to Whitestown and to the home and farm which her father had provided and kept for them.

‘Our father’s nominal occupation after his return was that of a farmer, but nor much given to manual labor. He soon became interested in the Great Western turnpike from Utica to Canandaigua, and for many year was engaged in its construction and superintendency, and still later on, other public works, such as the Erie Canal, which ran for miles in sight of our house, and upon which one of my brothers was employed as civil engineer. He was a Mason of high order and brought back with him from Ohio the prefix “judge,” by which he was ever known and addressed….

‘He died quietly at his home, after a long but a severe illness, in April 1825, aged sixty-two years, twenty-two years after his return from Youngstown. Our mother survived him fourteen years, and died at last full of joyful hope, in September, 1839, in the old home of her father, in the village of Whitestown, New York, aged sixty-seven years.’

Compiled from the Youngstown Vindicator by Dante Bernard, Mahoning Valley Historical Society Museum educator.