The first mill in Youngstown township, if not on the [Western] Reserve, was erected by John and Phineas Hill about 1798 or '99, at the falls on Mill creek, in the southwest part of the township, on the site where Lanterman's old mill now stands. It was built of round logs, and contained machinery for both grinding and sawing. The machinery was put in by Abraham Powers, one of the early settlers, who was a practical millwright.
It was a small and rather primitive affair, but it answered in a measure the needs of the inhabitants. It was related by an old settler, Nathan Ague, long since passed away, who was present when a boy, at the raising of the mill, that "there were not men enough in the neighborhood to raise it, and they had to send to Greensburg, now Darlington, Penna, for hands, and got a keg of whiskey for them."
On that day his father killed a bear, which furnished the meat used by the men who raised the mill. The family used the bear's skin afterward for a bed.