Struthers is a city in eastern Mahoning County, Ohio, United States, along the Mahoning River. The population was 10,063 at the 2020 census. Located directly southeast of Youngstown, it is a suburb in the Youngstown, Warren metropolitan area.
At a Glance
- County: Mahoning County
- State: Ohio
History of Struthers
John Struthers, from Washington County, Pennsylvania, purchased 400 acres (1.6 km2) of Poland Township land in 1798 and gave it the name Marbletown. John Struthers owned this land until the War of 1812 came around when he and his family suffered financial ruin. The land was dormant until 1865 when it was purchased by Thomas Struthers. Thomas bought this land to honor his father and he was instrumental in bringing industry and railroads to the town. Eventually, the town name was changed to Struthers by popular vote.
In 1943, a Jehovah’s Witness was fined by the city for distributing religious pamphlets door to door. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that this was a violation of the First Amendment in Martin v. Struthers.
The community’s early history centers on Yellow Creek, where the cradle of steel began with the building of the Hopewell Furnace. This furnace was built in 1803 by Daniel Eaton and was mentioned in the first line of the 1995 Bruce Springsteen song "Youngstown". The Hopewell Furnace thrived for a little over ten years until John Struthers reached his financial crisis in 1812.
In 1869, Struthers again became an iron producing community with the construction of the Anna Furnace by the Struthers Iron Company. In 1880, the sheet mill plant of the Summer’s Brothers Co. was added and in 1888, the plant of the J. A. and D. P. Cooper Gear Company was constructed.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Struthers, Ohio, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license.