Mahoning County, Ohio

Mahoning County History, Geography, Demographics, Cities and Towns, and Education

County Seat: Youngstown
Year Organized: 1846
Square Miles: 415

Court House:

21 West Boardman Street, Suite 200
County Courthouse
Youngstown, OH 44503-0000

Etymology - Origin of County Name

Residents named the county after the Mahoning River. “Mahoning” is an Indian word meaning “salt licks.”

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

History

The Ohio government authorized the creation of Mahoning County on February 16, 1846. Residents named the county after the Mahoning River. “Mahoning” is an Indian word meaning “salt licks.”

Mahoning County is located in the northeastern portion of Ohio, and it is in the heart of Appalachia. Its eastern border helps form Ohio’s boundary with Pennsylvania. With only seven percent of the county’s 415 square miles deemed to be urban, most residents live in rural areas. The county averages 621 people per square mile. The county’s largest community and county seat is Youngstown, which had just over eighty-two thousand residents in 2000. Mahoning County has experienced a declining population in recent years, primarily due to the loss of employment opportunities in the county. In 2000, 257,555 people resided in the county, a decrease of almost three percent since 1990.

Service industries, such as health care, communications, and tourism, and retail positions are the two largest employers in Mahoning County. Farming is a distant sixth behind manufacturing, government, and financial positions. During the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, coal mining and iron ore excavation were major employers in the county. In 1803, Daniel and James Heaton established the first iron blast furnace in Ohio. Today, Youngstown State University employs many residents. In 1999, the per capita income for Mahoning County residents was just over twenty-four thousand dollars. More than fourteen percent of the county’s residents lived in poverty.

Most voters in Mahoning County claim to be independents, yet in recent years, they have overwhelmingly supported Democratic Party candidates at the national level.

Among Mahoning County’s more prominent residents were Ohio Governor David Tod, President of the United States William McKinley, and songwriter Stephen Foster

Sources

Mahoning County, Ohio History Central, July 24, 2008,

http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=1967&nm=Mahoning-County

Neighboring Counties:

Trumbull County (north)
Mercer County, Pennsylvania (northeast)
Lawrence County, Pennsylvania (east)
Columbiana County (south)
Stark County (southwest)
Portage County (northwest)

Cities and Towns:

- Austintown	township
- Beloit	village	Incorporated Area
- Boardman	township
- Campbell	city	Incorporated Area
- Canfield	city	Incorporated Area
- Coitsville	township
- Craig Beach	village	Incorporated Area
- Damascus	township
- Ellsworth	township
- Lowellville	village	Incorporated Area
- Milton	township
- New Middletown	village	Incorporated Area
- Poland	village	Incorporated Area
- Sebring	village	Incorporated Area
- Smith	township
- Struthers	city	Incorporated Area
- Youngstown (County Seat)	city	Incorporated Area

County Resources:

Enter County Resources and Information Here

County Resource Guide

Counties: US Map

The history of our nation can be seen as a prolonged struggle to define the relative roles and powers of our governments: federal, state, and local. And the names we've given our counties, our most locally based jurisdictions, reflects the "characteristic features of our country!"

But age, size and colorful names of our counties isn't the only reason to explore counties' role in American history, or the history of county government itself. In fact, the story of county government reflects the larger meanings of American history.

Today's counties are the most flexible, locally responsive and creative governments in the US. They are the most diverse, varying in size, population, geography, and governmental structure. In their politics and policies, they express a 1990's political slogan "Think globally, act locally."

Penn Foster High School

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