OF HARD TIMES
The story of the Youngstown area from the closing of the Christy and Carbondale mines to the founding of the town of Pleasant Hill seems to move slowly. Though people lived in the area earlier, it was coal energy that drew the booming expansion of people and buildings. Now, the coal was gone and change came quietly.
The population of the area declined for several years, a reflection of the hard times that followed the mines’ collapse. Those who remained bore a heavy burden of taxation, but residents did not give in to despair. Instead, most memories of life in the period seem to be good ones.
Shadyview Lane - No Trees
Residents lived lives of simplicity, but humor was abundant. A sense of humor is evident in the names residents gave roads in the area. Stingy Lane was a track overgrown with grass. It received its name because a property owner across the lane refused to develop the road. Later Stingy Lane became Shadyview Lane, except reportedly it had no trees. Washboard Avenue was so-called because it felt like a washboard when driving over it. Vandalia was known as Hastie Road.
