Biohazard and Pathogen Disinfection in Girard, OH

Girard is a city in Trumbull County, Ohio, on the Mahoning River in the heart of the Mahoning Valley, between Youngstown and Warren.

Girard was laid out in 1836 when four investors — including David Tod, the future Civil War governor of Ohio — bought 42 acres of Solomon Kline's land for $3,539 to plat a town in anticipation of the Pennsylvania and Ohio Canal.

The town is traditionally said to be named for Stephen Girard, the wealthy Philadelphia philanthropist who died in 1831, though local historians note the naming origin was never documented.

The canal reached Girard in 1839, letting local farm goods be shipped economically for the first time, and the town's first flour mill was built in 1840.

Girard incorporated as a village in the early 1890s — its first elected mayor, Ambrose Eckman, took office in 1893 — and it became a city in 1921 with a population of 6,556.

Iron and steel came early to Girard: the Girard Iron Company was founded in 1866 and the Girard Rolling Mill followed in 1872, both on the Mahoning River.

The Ohio Leather Company, opened in 1901, grew into the largest processor of calf leather in the United States, employing more than 500 people.

In 1908 the A.M. Byers Company built a Girard mill with 88 puddling furnaces, making it the largest puddling mill in the country at the time.

Girard's population was 9,603 at the 2020 census, down from 9,958 in 2010 as the Mahoning Valley's steel economy shrank.

Girard has about 4,376 households, roughly 68% of its homes are owner-occupied, and its median owner-occupied home value is about $115,500.