Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1883-08-26
About the Names Of Towns.

There have been many influences at
work, SAYS the Boston .Adreriiser, in the de-
termination of the names of American vii
lagos, and when one turns over Il list of
towns in the various States and Terrific
ries, amusement and wonder are in turn
aroused by the strangeness and variety
which has resulted. The earliest OF the
influences which the names betray was
inconsistencies. The weary voyagers look
ed with longing eyes over h new lands
upon which they settled in search of a ia
miliar outline or trace OF something home
like. Sometimes they found ii, but often
er the name of their new abiding. place
was the only reminder of the dearly loved
spots they had abandoned. The New
England towns especially are rich in the
reproductions OF English names. In the
far South and in Maryland the homesick-
ness showed itself i'll a deeper religious
fervOr, and the names of towns and natu-
raj objects were taken from the vocabulary
OF the Church. Saints, martyrs and holy
emblems gave their names to places then
fresh with the kindly breath Of the wilder
ness, but in later DAYS tn be desecTated by
crime and b~lackened by war. Later
when the home associations had been
exchanged for the budding thoughts OF a
colonial-born generation, the sweetly flow
ing syllables of the Indians began to be
applied 10 rivers, mountains, and even
towns. Close by Bangor, whose name
bears us back down the tide of centuries
to the day when the martyred monks
chanted their hymn in the face of death !;
or Salem, which speaks not only of En-
glish firesides, but of a more distant land
and age, we find Mattamiscontis and
Chicopec, telling OF dark forests and rocky
hillsides from which the savage has been
driven westward to make room for the
newborn race. In the South, st. Bernard,
San Antonio and Corpus Christi are sur
rounded by Catahoula, Natchitoches Qua
chita, and places with similar strange vet
musical names. In some localities the
Indian names outnumber the English, but
these are mainly districts where the pa
tiyes remained as a semi-civilized com
munity, as in Rhode Island, part OF Mas
sachusetts and Long Island. In the latter,
as one follows the Long Island railway,
the ear is assailed by such names as
Speonk,. Mauriches' and Quogue. There
is, however, a later stage in the nomen-
clature of American towns which is
seemingly free from love OF home, Gu
| phony, or any other redeeming feature.
The live Yankee, with an eve single to bus
mess II the progress OF protected manu-
features, is the maker of the new names.
If possible, he embodies his own family
| llitlllc III liC |CDulDOull', tuC Idli Gnu Vi
which is vile, town, burg or borough. In
course of time Center, North, East, South,
West, Corner or Crossroads diversifies the
outskirts, and eventually the lesser thick
enings in the distributed population are
honored with such titles as Slab Village,
Millville or Mechanicsville. The railways
became the first great cooperative name
givers of the country, and then a forlorn
succession of attempts at a revival of ear
lier days was begun. Men in dirty city
offices pining for fresh air and a glimpse
of mountains and meadows s%prinkled fair
sounding names with almost wanton free
dom along railways they had never trav-
ersed. The termination, vale, bridge, val
ley, crossing and land coupled with the
name of a tree forms one of the com
monest kinds of city-made III From
dullness and forlornness the West
ern American has plunged out into eccen-
t~ricities and vulgarities that will astound
future antiquarians as they now bewilder
foreigners. 1t is needless to give instances
Of this new tendency. Every mining
camp in sight of the Rocky mountains has
a name which would nave scandalized our
Puritan fathers and which will in time
cause disquiet to those who live under its
protection. There is, however, ample
room for new habits in name formation 70
be introduced, and if once a fashion is set
in the right locality its spread will be
rapid and far-reaching. We nave no sug-
~gestions to offer in this particular, for
name-selecting should be spontaneous and
sincere, and afford those that come after
us an index of our characters akin to that
afforded by our architecture. 1t is, how
ever, no suggestionto say that there seems
to be a tendency now developing in the
quarter that warrants further growth,
which leads to the selection of really APP
propriate names for places and natural oh.
jects.