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Early map of the Connecticut Western Reserve
area marked with the location of the salt springs, Mosquito Creek
and future site of Niles. |
1803
Ohio County Map.
Note that at this time, Trumbull County was marked
along Lake Erie. Later, this area would be divided into several
separate counties.
It was long held that Ohio had been admitted
to the Union in 1803.
However, during the 150 Sesqui-Centennial celebration
of 1953 it was discovered that Congress had never completed the
actual congressional paperwork that finalized Ohio as the 17th
state.
In 1953, Congress again admitted Ohio to the
Union of States and made it retroactive to the original 1803 date. |
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Lewis Evans Ohio Map of 1755 shows
the Salt Springs existence was known in 1755. At this time, the
French controlled the area from Fort Duquesne (Pittsburgh) westward.
Evans was a cartographer whose maps were used by Braddock
in his 1755 attempt to take Fort Duquesne. PO1.651 |
Salt
Springs
There were actually four separate springs on
the site, all within a 200 foot radius.
The Salt Springs, a magnesia, Sulphur, and a
lithia spring.
Long before the French defeat (French-Indian
War) in 1763 opened the territory to the white man, generations
of Indians boiled the water for salt and used the waters of the
other springs for medicinal purposes. |

Weathersfield Township map illustrating the location
of the Salt Springs area. PO1.658 |
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According to the 1787 map attributed
to Thomas Jefferson, a salt spring is located somewhere
within the city limits of Youngstown, Ohio.
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Please note that the upper reaches
of the Beaver River were later renamed Mahoning River.
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Youngstown
Archeology
SALT SPRING DISCOVERED IN YOUNGSTOWN
Jefferson labels it on his map as 'Mahoning
Salt Springs'. In addition, he mentions the Niles salt springs
as Salt Lick Town, as it is known by current historians and the
people of the time. So this map indicates that there are TWO salt
springs along the Mahoning River.
Originally, Youngstown was a Native town known
as Mahoning Town (not to be confused with the nearby New Castle,
PA suburb of Mahoning Town).
Just as a Native town grew up around the Niles
salt springs (Salt Lick Town), apparently a town also grew up
around the Youngstown salt spring. |
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This illustration is from a painting by Joseph
N. Higley, from a photograph taken by him about 1903, just
before the Salt Springs were covered over by the B & O railroad
fill. PO1.1493 |
Before
1755, when Lewis Evans marked the Salt Springs on his
map of the region, red man and white man had been extracting precious
salt from the famous springs. In 1796, Augustus Porter
reached the Salt Springs with a survey party. He described it
as a two or three acre site, with a plank vat full of water and
with kettles at hand for boiling out the salt residue.
The Salt Springs were an important asset and
were probably an important consideration when General Samuel
Holden Parsons bought the first tract of land in the Western
Reserve, which included the springs. General Holden was one of
the three judges appointed by Governor St. Clair for
the whole Northwest Territory which embraced the Western Reserve.
The springs were an attraction for many years.
The first road in Trumbull County led to the Salt Springs, following
the ancient Mahoning Indian Trail. Reuben Harmon, the
first permanent settler in Weathersfield Township, bought part
of the Salt Springs tract. He was the only taxpayer in 1801.
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The spring at which Mr. Kennedy stands is the
old salt one. It is hard to stand beside them and not be struck
with the idea that the little bubbling fountain was what first
attracted the white man to this part of the country and caused
the Mahoning Valley to become one of the greatest manufacturing
centers of the country. PO1.1492

Ohio Historical Marker, The Salt
Springs
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The Old
Salt Springs has been a historical landmark of the area since
the early days. When settlers first came to this area they found
the Massassauger Indians camped near the springs, only one of
four such springs within 200 miles. The Indians made salt there
and used the water for medicinal purposes.
To protect the springs, Mr. and Mrs. J.S. Kennedy,
who owned the farm on which the springs were located, went to
court in 1903 to try and prevent the B & O railroad from crossing
the farm and burying the springs.
They lost, however, and the springs are now 40
feet beneath the railroad bed. And so, the salt springs, shown
on maps as far back as 1755, were lost forever.
Historical Marker for Salt Springs.
Inscription. Side A
A salt spring, located about a mile west of this site, was the
primary attraction for immigrants to the Western Reserve territory
in the mid-1700s. Prior to European-American settlement, Indians
used the springs, boiling the water to extract the salt and using
it for preserving meat among other uses.
In 1755, surveyor Lewis Evans underscored the
importance of the springs by noting it on his “General Map
of the Middle British Colonies in America.” This enticed
immigrants from western Pennsylvania to the region. In addition
to the salt itself, the abundance of wildlife near the spring
ensured good hunting in the area.
Side B
In February 1788, Connecticut, which asserted ownership of the
Western Reserve from the colonial period to 1795, deeded the Salt
Spring tract to Samuel Holden Parsons, a pioneer of the
Northwest Territory and former Continental army officer. In 1796,
Reuben Harmon, an early settler in what became Weathersfield
Township, purchased the springs. Although new settlers initially
considered the springs an asset, the salinity of the water was
too low to make the salt production profitable.
In 1903, railroad tracks covered the once-famous
salt springs. “Mahoning” is said to be derived from
the Lenape word mahonink, meaning “at the [salt] lick.”
Ohio Historical Marker, The Salt Springs
Photographed By Mike Wintermantel, August 18, 2018
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From
the Youngstown Vindicator dated November 25, 1903.
“Within a very short time one of the most interesting historical
spots in northeastern Ohio will be destroyed to make room for
a new railroad. The famous Salts Springs near Niles will soon
be buried forty feet under the bed of the B & O railroad.
The B & O has graded its roadbed up to within
a few hundred yards on both sides of the old spring and the only
reason the famous fountains are not now covered with earth is
because the present owner of the farm on which the springs are
located, Mrs. F. S. Kennedy, has gone to into court and
tried to save the springs and prevent the railroad from crossing
the farm.
The spring at which Mr. Kennedy stands is the
old salt one. It is hard to stand beside them and not be struck
with the idea that the little bubbling fountain was what first
attracted the white man to this part of the country and caused
the Mahoning Valley to become one of the greatest manufacturing
centers of the country.
The salt water from the spring binds the past
to the present and it is a pity that the first halting place of
the white man in the Western Reserve cannot be preserved. It stands
in the midst of historical surroundings, for one mile away the
great (President William) McKinley first saw light of
day and but a few hundred yards away is the river bank along whose
shores the great (President James A.) Garfield once drove
canal mules. The springs are located in a remarkably pretty glen
and the spot whereon they stand would make a beautiful little
park.”
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French-Indian
War
The French and Indian War (1754–1763) was
a theater of the Seven Years' War, which pitted the North American
colonies of the British Empire against those of the French, each
side being supported by various Native American tribes. At the
start of the war, the French colonies had a population of roughly
60,000 settlers, compared with 2 million in the British colonies.
The outnumbered French particularly depended on their native allies.
Two years into the French and Indian War, in
1756, Great Britain declared war on France, beginning the worldwide
Seven Years' War. Many view the French and Indian War as being
merely the American theater of this conflict; however, in the
United States the French and Indian War is viewed as a singular
conflict which was not associated with any European war. French
Canadians call it the guerre de la Conquête ('War of the
Conquest').
Source: Museum of the American Revolution
https://www.amrevmuseum.org/read-the-revolution/braddock-s-defeat
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Source: Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Braddock
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General Braddock
In 1754, the French and British
were in the midst of a rush to control the strategically important
Ohio River Valley. That year, the French established a series
of forts in what is now western Pennsylvania. The French forts
included Fort Duquesne, near the Forks of the Ohio River where
modern-day Pittsburgh is located. Tasked with capturing the
French strongholds, British General Edward Braddock
marched west with an army of British soldiers, Indian allies,
and American provincial troops and began a campaign that would
soon end in failure.
On July 9, 1755, French and Native
American warriors from Fort Duquesne deftly defeated Braddock’s
forces and mortally wounded the British general at the Battle
of the Monongahela. The French retained control of the Ohio
Valley in the wake of their victory. As the first major battle
of the French and Indian War, the Battle of the Monongahela,
remembered as Braddock’s Defeat, ended in a shocking loss
for the British Army and accelerated the conflict into a global
war.
Yet, the Battle of the Monongahela
offered a young George Washington, who was recruited
as a volunteer aide-de-camp to General Braddock, valuable military
experience. After the death of Braddock, Washington helped save
the British and provincial troops from total destruction.
Source:Museum of the American Revolution
https://www.amrevmuseum.org/read-the-revolution/braddock-s-defeat
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