The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1882-04-17
NAMES OF STATES.

NAMES OF STATES.
Their Origin and SIGNIFICANCE Familiar Mean
Only One Commonwealth Called for rs
Founder-Great DISCOVERIES Who
Might Have Been but Are Not
| Commemorate.
From paper on the origin of the
names of the States of the American
Union, read by Mr.. Hamilton B. Staples
before the American Antiquarian Society
we take the following interesting facts
and suggestions:
The origin of the name of New Hamp-
shire is very simple. The original Ter
ritory, conveyed by patent of the Ply
mouth Company to John Mason in 1929,
was named by him after Hampshire
county in England.
The life of Massachusetts, as an au-
tonomic State, begins with the charter
of 1851, which merged into one province
the Plymouth and the Massachusetts
Bay jurisdictions and also the Province
of Maine. The present name of the
State is derived from the bay of that
name. In fact, the word Bay was q
part of the name of the younger colony
which alone had received charter from
the Grown, sand was retained in the
name of the new province, and afterward
| in the name of the State, till the consti-
| tuition of 1880 went into operation. The
| Massachusetts Bay received its name
from the Massachusetts Indians, who
peopled its shores at the time of John
Smiths visit in 1914. The word Mas
sachusetts is an Anglicized plural of
| Massachusett, meaning stat or near the
the great hills sat or near the great hill
country" from massa, great, - wadchu
| lin composition) adchu-plural wad;-
| chuash mountains or ''hills," and the
| suffix ct, Eat or near
The origin of the name of Rhode Is
land is quite obscure A writer in the
Providence Journal says: ''Some an
cient authors write the name Island of
Rhodes. Some have believed that the
name was to be derived from the Dutch
Roode Eylandt, which signifies Red Is
land, and which the first Dutch explorers
Of the bay sometimes gave to the island.
Others have written the name Rod Island.
Perhaps it could also be Road Island
| (the Island of the Roadstead) or harbor
island. In the early history of the State
| persons of the family name of Rhodes
are also mentioned. Could not one Mr..
Rhodes have been among the first Eng
| fish settlers?'' Mr.. SchoOlcT-aft, in his
history of the Indian tribes, adopts the
Dutch origin OF the name. n3r- Arnold
in a note to his valuable ~-History of
Rhode Island" says that the celebrated
Dutch navigator Adrin Block, who gave
his name to Block Island, sailed into
| Narragansett Bay, where he commemo-
rated the fiery aspect Of the place, caused
by the red clay in some portion Of its
shores, by giving it the name of Rhode
Eylandt, the Red Island, and by easy
transpositiQp Rhode Island" In sup
port of the theory that the State was
named after the island in the Mediter-
| ranean Sea- we have the authority CT
Peterson's History of Rhode Islan1."
We have also the commanding authority
OF the public act by which the name was
given.
The name Connecticut. spelled Quin-
neh-tukqut, signifies land on Il long
tidal river The name is so spelled in
| Cambridge Records it appears as
Quinetuckquet. This explanation rests
upon the authority Of DR.. Trumbun.
The Territory of New York was COM
prised in the royal grant to the Duke OF
York in 1864, of all the land from the
west side Of the Connecticut river to the
east side of the Delaware Bay" In 1904
the Duke fitted out ;sn expedition which
took possession of New Amsterdam. and
the place was To GREATER called New
York, in honor of the Duke. The same
name was apple to the State. BY a
strange caprice of history the greatest
State in the Unispn bears the name OF
the last and most tyranlcal OF the Stuarts.
The State of J<ew Jersey, granted by
the Duke of Fork to Sir George Carteret
and Lord Berkeley in 1864, received its
name in til grant in commemoratlon OF
the brave defence of the Isle OF Jersey
by Carteret. its Governor. against the
Pm aT11C +ay
War.
Pen'Asylvania owes its name to its
founder, William Penn. The name CIV
en- by Penn himself was Sylvania, but
King Charles III. insisted that the name
of Penn should be prefxed. 1t is the
only State in the Union named after its
founder.
The counties of Newcastle. Kent, and
Sussex upon Delaware" granted by
the Duke of York to Penn in 1852, were
known as the territories OF Pennsyl-
vania. In 1901 Penn granted them
certain autonomy. The State was named
after the bay fsthat name, and the bay
after Lord De-la-war, who explored it.
1t has been claimed that the bay and
river were named after the Delaware In
dams, who in 1860 dweh upon their
shores This claim is unfoElnded. The
Delaware name of the river was Lena
pehittuk, meaning Lenape river.
Maryland was settled under charter
granted in 1852 by King Charles l. to
Lord Baltimore. Tie State was named
after Queen Hesrietsta Maria. In the
charter the country is called ''1errd
Marse -Anglice, Maryland.
The first step in tie colonization OF
America by England was the charter
granted In 1854 by Queen Elizabeth to
Sir Walter Raleis n Under this charter
Raleigh took possessiGn of the country
west of the Roanoke, and called it Vir-
ginia In honor OF. the Virgin Queen
This is the only Safe in the Union whose
name appears III literature associated
with the royal title Spenser dedicated
the Faerie Queene to elizabeth, by the
grace of God, Qslesne of England. France
and Ireland, and of Virginia. The
nearest approach to this Ia pubic act
is the order of the English Privy Coun-
ell to the Virginia colony after the reVo-
luton of 1858 to pgoclaim William and