MINERAL RIDGE – There is a particularly narrow section of Meander Creek Reservoir in Weathersfield Township that is spanned by the time-worn Austintown Warren Road bridge.
Motorists or pedestrians traveling the bridge receive an expansive view of the reservoir, completed in 1932 to provide drinking water to the cities of Youngstown, Niles, and eventually McDonald. Today, small waves lap onto a shoreline filled with trees and vegetation, a natural habitat for fish, bald eagles, red-winged blackbirds, mockingbirds, red-bellied woodpeckers, and other species of avian and aquatic life.
Submerged under these waters, however, is another story. Underneath the Meander are plots of land where farms once thrived, roads crisscrossed, gristmills processed grain, sawmills cut lumber and miners dug coal banks: a small but vibrant community known as Ohltown.
Ohltown’s Origin
Ohltown, often referred to as Ohlton on early maps, was established in 1815 by Michael Ohl, whose mother and father had migrated to Ohio a decade earlier and settled in Canfield.
Ohl, a cooper by trade, acquired property along the Big Meander Creek, in what is today a portion of southern Weathersfield Township in Trumbull County and northern Austintown Township in Mahoning County. Here, Ohl established a sawmill, which provided the materials for the construction of a gristmill and his family’s home, according to the Niles Historical Society.
Ohl also served as Ohltown’s first postmaster, established the first general store there, and converted his home into an inn to serve stagecoach passengers, according to the society. In addition to these ventures, coal was first mined on Ohl’s farm in 1835 and the Ohltown Methodist Church was established three years later. Ohl – the father of 15 children – died in 1857.
By the middle of the 19th century, Ohltown had emerged as a quiet, but vibrant, community. In 1869, a station was constructed at Ohltown (in Austintown Township) along the newly commissioned Niles & New Lisbon Railroad, a line developed to transport coal, iron ore, and other minerals along a 35-mile stretch through Columbiana, Mahoning and Trumbull counties. However, by the late 19th century, the station at Ohltown was decommissioned, and additional rail and trolley lines to major manufacturing and population centers such as Niles, Warren, and Youngstown, bypassed smaller communities such as Ohltown. By 1880, the town had approximately 400 residents, two general stores, 30 houses, three churches, a blacksmith shop and the original sawmill founded by Ohl.
The Path of Progress
By the turn of the 20th century, the now bustling industrial cities of Youngstown and Niles were facing a mounting urban problem. Traditionally, the cities had relied on the Mahoning River as its major source for drinking water. The rapid rise of the iron and steel industry along the banks of the Mahoning, however, had polluted much of that water supply by the early 1900s. In 1905, Youngstown had developed its own filtration system, followed by Niles six years later in the wake of a deadly outbreak of typhoid fever.
Still, these efforts were deemed temporary and inadequate as the populations of both cities continued to boom. By the time the United States entered World War I in 1917, there were real concerns among the city’s administrators as to how to develop a safe water supply.
They decided on a bold public works plan to create a massive reservoir that could send fresh water to Youngstown and Niles for generations to come. Their answer was the creation of the Mahoning Valley Sanitary District, and by early 1925, a plan to dam the Big Meander just north of Ohltown started to progress. By July of that year, plans to create the Meander Reservoir were announced.
“Propose New Lake Bigger Than Milton,” screamed the July 26 headline of the Sunday Vindicator. “Believing that local citizens wearied of drinking sewerage and industrial wastes dumped into the Mahoning River by cities and numerous industrial plants between here and Lake Milton, members of city council are turning with longing eyes toward the Meander Creek watershed in the hope that in a few short years it will blossom forth into a second Lake Milton, making possible a more palatable drinking water,” the Vindicator story began.
The project would entail constructing a dam at Mineral Ridge along with a purification plant and create a reservoir seven miles long with a capacity of 11 billion gallons of water. Total cost of the project stood at approximately $9.2 million – a hefty sum in 1925.
Yet for the plan to work, the water district would need to acquire 5,700 acres along the east and west banks of Meander Creek. Ohltown and its residents were directly in the plan’s path.
Fighting the Land Grab
Some residents of Ohltown were suspicious, as efforts to purchase land, businesses, and homes in the village were finally put into action by 1927. Indeed, many of those presented with offers believed the Mahoning Valley Sanitary District was intentionally lowballing appraisals to scoop up land at little cost. The impasse triggered lengthy court hearings that would last for weeks.
More than 150 protests to these initial appraisals were filed before Judge Frank L. Baldwin and Judge William Carter of Warren, many seeking reappraisals of their property, according to a Vindicator report dated Jan 4, 1928. “John Jerome of Ohltown testified Thursday that his property had been appraised at $3,300 and he values the land at $7,000,” the account read.
Other reports show Ohltown residents’ dismay at the values placed on their property. Mrs. Eva Smith, for example, requested before the judges that she be awarded $1,700 more than the water district’s appraisal. “She asks $10,000 for her property and the appraisers estimate its value at $8,300,” according to an account published Jan 8, 1928. Another resident, Alfred Bray, requested that the judges grant him $25,000 for damages to his property and $50,000 for his 64 acres.
In February, the judges ruled that the sanitary district should pay 12% above their initial appraisals.
Other lawsuits related to land along the Meander continued throughout the year and into 1929. Once resolved, the project moved forward, sealing the fate of Ohltown for good.
By late 1928, residents had either sold out, relocated, or physically moved their homes to a new location outside the reach of the Meander project. “Lee Hood of Ohltown is building a fine residence on E. Main St.” reads one Vindicator account. “He recently disposed of his real estate near Ohltown for use in the Meander Valley water system.”
While many were satisfied with the outcome, others thought the district’s obliteration of Ohltown was executed with utter indifference to those who lived their entire lives in the community.
“I think it is wicked, I think it is cruel,” remarked Ohltown resident Lucy Carnes as she resolved that the old cabin built by her father a century earlier would be torn down and inundated under 30 feet of water. “I know I will never feel at home or be happy up on the ridge where they are building me a four-room cottage,” she said, according to a Vindicator piece dated Dec. 15, 1928.
Carnes was awarded $2,800 for her cabin, plus a new cottage under construction in Mineral Ridge. “They think that is a lot just because this place is old and falling down. But it is the only place I know. I cried more tears over my little home here than I did for my father when he died.”
The Meander Reservoir project marked the end of Ohltown. By the spring of 1929, the entire village had been cleared out in preparation for the construction of the new viaduct and dam.
“Practically the entire hamlet of Ohltown has vanished,” reads a Vindicator account dated June 16, 1929. “The last of the houses are being moved or torn down.” The empty lots are then “cleaned down to virgin earth,” eliminating any contamination or debris that could compromise reservoir water.
In 1932, the reservoir opened for business, providing desperately needed clean drinking water for the growing populations of Youngstown and Niles.
“In a short time, nothing will remain of Ohltown north of the line between Trumbull and Mahoning counties but the Methodist Episcopal Church and the cemetery,” projected a newspaper account in December 1928.
Today, there’s little evidence that a small town ever existed, save the village’s name on Austintown Ohltown Road and a structure along the short stretch of Depot Road.
There, after more than 180 years, the Ohltown Methodist Church still stands. Directly behind the church is the Ohltown cemetery, where the descendants of Michael Ohl lay buried.
Pictured at top: Ohltown Methodist Church, established in 1836, is the last surviving structure of the village.