by Harriet Taylor Upton, 1910

James Kingsbury may be considered the first permanent settler in old Trumbull county. Stiles and Gun were ahead of him with the party, but Gun only stayed a little while, three or four years, and it is not sure that Stiles intended to stay when he came. It is undoubtedly true that the Kingsbury baby that starved to death was the first white child born to permanent settlers.
That Kingsbury proved later to be a valued citizen, we have seen. There is now in the possession of Miss Mary L. W. Morse, of Poland, the following; which was found among the papers of Judge Turhand Kirtland, Miss Morse's great-grandfather:

"May 18, 1811. Rec'd, Cleveland, of Turhand Kirtland a deed from the trustees of the Connecticut Land Company for 100 acres, lot No. 433, being the same lot that was voted by said company to be given to said Kingsbury and wife for a compensation for early settlement, and sundry services rendered said company with me.

"James Kingsbury."

After the Connecticut Land Company had withdrawn its surveyors, the emigrants who appeared settled in isolated spots. This was because they bought land in large amounts and because the Connecticut Land Company scattered them as much as possible. Settlers were thus lonesome, far away from base supplies, and obliged to grind their own corn and grain, found trouble in procuring domestic animals, in having implements repaired, or in securing the services of a physician. No wonder they became sick and discouraged, or as metaphysicians say today, discouraged and sick, and returned to their old homes. They lived quiet, uneventful lives, and when they were gathered to their fathers the world knew them no more. The number of those coming in 1798 and 1799 was small. Unlike the surveyors when they went East, it was not to write reports for directors of a land company, but to get their families, and after they were in their new homes they were too much occupied to write diaries by the firelight, and having few or no mails, wrote few or no letters. Summer days were too precious to be used in letter writing, and winter ones, in dark cabins, too dismal to want to tell of them. It was expected that the northern part of the Western Reserve would be settled before the southern, but the opposite was true. The road from Pittsburg was less hard to travel than the one from Canandaigua; the lake winds were too severe to be enjoyed; the bits of land cleared long before, lying in the lower part, seemed very inviting to those who had attempted to remove the huge trees covering almost the entire section. All these things combined to draw settlers nearer the 41st parallel.

Of the first settlers, some men walked the entire way from Connecticut; some rode horseback part way, sharing the horse with others; some rode in ox carts; some drove oxen; some came part way by land and the rest by water; some came on sleds in mid-winter; some plowed through the mud of spring, or endured the heat of summer; some had bleeding feet, and some serious illnesses. Sometimes it was bride and a gromm who started alone; sometimes it was a husband, wife and children; sometimes it was a group of neighbors who made the party. Children were born on the way, and people of all ages died and were buried where they died. But after they came, their experiences were almost identical.
 

John Young

John Young, a native of New Hampshire, who emigrated to New York and in 1792 married Mary Stone White, daughter of the first settler of the land on which Whitestown now stands, came to the lower part of Trumbull county in 1796; this was the year Kingsbury was at Conneaut. He began his settlement, calling it Youngstown. He removed his family, wife and two children, to the new house in 1799. That year a son was born to them, William, and in 1802, a daughter, Mary. His oldest son, John, says:
"In 1803 our mother, 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 powers of endurance, our father, in deference to her earnest entreaties, closed up his business as 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."
He therefore spent but seven years in the town which bears his name and which is known throughout the United States as a great industrial center. He, however, returned occasionally for a visit, probably the last time in his own sleigh in 1814. It is supposed that Mr. Young's brother-in-law, Philo White, and Lemuel Storrs were equally interested in the land purchase. However, the contract with the Connecticut Land Company was made alone to Mr. Young.
 

James Hillman

James Hillman was early at Youngstown. Three different stories in regard to the friendship of Young and Hillman are in existence. The most common one is that Hillman was on the river in a canoe, and, seeing smoke on the bank of the river, landed and found Mr. Young and Mr. Wolcott. He visited with them a few days (people were not in such a frantic hurry as they are now), and then he persuaded them to go to Beaver, where his headquarters were, to celebrate the Fourth of July. This they did, and upon their return Mr. Hillman came with them, and from that time they lived in close friendship.
Another tradition is that Hillman brought Young up the river from Pittsburg and that Hillman induced to take up residence with Young. Still another, that Young stopped at Beaver on his way west for supplies or rest, and that Hillman, whose business was transporting passengers and trading with Indians and frontiersman, carried Young up the river, and that from their acquaintance came a friendship which resulted in Hillman locating there. The first story seems to be the generally accepted one.
 

First Dwelling in Mahoning Valley

The first house erected as a settler's dwelling in the Mahoning Valley was Youngs. This was in the neighborhood of Spring Common, probably Front street in Youngstown. Young also erected a cabin on the river bank in Warren back of the present residence of Chas. Wannemaker, on South Main. This stood in a clearing made by the Indians. Here he sowed a crop, harvested it and stored it in the cabin and transported it to Youngstown by sled in the winter.
Roswell M. Grant, the uncle of Ulysses Grant, under the date of September 7, 1875, sent a letter to the Pioneers Association of Youngstown for its celebration on September 10th, which contained some facts in regard to James Hillman. He says that Hillman was a native of Northumberland county, Pennsylvania, although his father lived on the Ohio river. James was in the Revolutionary war and was captured at Georgetown. "After his return he went to a corn-husking, where he met a Miss Catherine _____. After dancing with her for some time he proposed marriage. A squire being present, they were married the same night. I have heard Mr. Hillman many a time say she never had a pair of shoes or stockings until after her marriage; and I have often heard them both say that she had neither shoes nor stockings when they were married." Mr. Grant then tells a story of Mr. Young being carried up from Pittsburg by Hillman. "Mrs. Hillman went with them. After they arrived at Youngstown, John Young offered Mrs. Hillman her choice of six acres, any place she would choose it in the town plot, if she would remain. She did so. Mrs. Hillman took her six acres east of the spot where William Raven's house stood. James Hillman helped John Young to lay out the town. He understood the Indians and they understood him. When troubles arose between the white and red man he would volunteer to settle it provided he could go alone to do it. In this way he did efficient service to both, and did for the pioneer what no other settler seemed able or willing to do."