The Palatka daily news. (Palatka, Fla.) 1884-1888, 1885-11-12
NAMING THE TOW rs.
THE TASK WHICH WAS GlVEil De
WITT CLINTON.
Row the Tosvns!lfps of Central New forh
Came 30 Have suciI Strange and
Classical Sames-rThe True
Explain atfon.
lCr5frut in Detroit Free Press

lCrofTut in Detroit free Press
The San recently published, but dill not
answer the gu. ton, How came so many
towns Il Central Eew York to have such
strange c.a,,cai AMI European Names"
The query ou,A. to have la some sort of an
answer. TaurIow Weed toll me years ago
how il apr,eg-Is', -,,islt l doubt if the expla-
H Ds t cto 5 y I HIi h9 sa wa y" ' sur
veYJr sei,4r-I # to- state in 1921 The log
stature ARRANGED for division Of the vast
area Or "a ,c upied+I Ian Is into townships of
about eQu.l sic. anil a week before al jourl-
mont it ca,.tI Of D. Witt to supply nam,s
FIR them.
do" many are thoro@ asked tae officer
"ALodt % sal tho clerk
BEGINNIlG WITH OUR HEROES.
Two hundred and fifty towns to manner
exclaimed ths astonished MAJ. Il don't b.
Ieve that i. inclu ie i'll The duties OF my
oliice. Fvrvor. we can begi a with our
heroe. Washington, jefferson, A1ams,
Madison. Warren Putnon Greone Gates,
Knox, S.arE. Decatur Stoub9a-'
Very good, said lie clerk oncouragingly.
"hut they ~, al cen appropriated in this
state, ezcort D2catu r-evan Adams and
jefferson, vhp diet thi; year.
what can | do, tton:' inquired the
anxious officer. II can name one after my
self. aud three after MY wife and sisters
And then? Well, Ill see"
SEARCHING THE SCRIPTURES.
H went 4 me hat night and thought it
over. He began with the names Of his
family. Then he took the Bible and found
Hebron, Canaan, Glboa, Jerusalem and
Sharon wrote the7e dowl on vacant towns
on the great map sgroad out before him and
then STOPPED there bacaue these Bible
names are mo tly such jawbreakers.o Then
Ia naD4pi ut 1aT
Fiori II, Maryland AMI Alabama, AMI three
after large Cities Boston. Richmond and
Charleston, an went to led tired In the
III rnin- h found lie had named sixtsen
t.yFns, anl the e bs reported to the legis-
atura rs "'2f pie They did not show
great orig, H4}.t-. nut taeY were accepted,
an tie commend sent bacl, to go aheaI.7
Il can't think % anything more aid
poor De Witt. Every town aul locality
hal an Indian mann, AMI many of tho g
were sirnific2nt. eGploHu5 aul musical;
but tho chrjstenag, like uO t foolish Amer
cans, discarda thefa AMI sought 70: some
thing that sounds Ike something
FROM FOREIGN LANDS.
Tie got an atlas. an applied t. his plat Of
vacant towns tho names Of most of the
count les be sSw-S;cetIanl. Russia, Nor
way. Mexico, Call, Sweden, Hanover.
Wales Holland, Poland, italy; AMI the:e
were all solem1ly adopted as the names Of
towns in New York. Then he adopted the
names Of cities, rivers and iSlanIs-Pari,
T. ttardam, Am5ter lam, Malta GALWAY,
Bath. Edinburgh, Perta Danube, Carlisle,
Frankfort, Verona Vienna, Btemen. Pa
lermo, Parma. B.-j. E!ba. Bergen, Ham
bur-, Sardinia. Warsaw Castillo Avon,
LIMA, Gen0va, N2p,os, Venice Genoa,
Watarloo. Eo..e. An3 those were al nc
cepte! ty tbe legislature, AMI make e'e-
m9nt' Of our local geography Still thaT.,
was muttitg Ia Of ramayr Us towns ..
Witt distributed am0ng them tn, names o.
all the Ii tingu:shel writer's. orators and
discoveries he c1ul think of-Franklir.
Fulton. Volncr. GaIel Clay. Cicoro. Mil,
ton. Byron, Sheri Han. DRYDEN. II MGR,
Scion. fully, Virgil AMI tAo1 he restal
AM w0II ayaI what Ha,-.
ANCIENT HISTORY.
Ealf in despair. he uuteI in the garnet
AMI found an ancient history, and that
proved to him a mine OF wealth H r. are
the solid nu@ga IS which lie dug out and dis
tributad among the still forlorn township: |
Rome, Greece, Utica. Troy. Corinth, Svra-
cuse, Babylon, Palmyra, Macel7n Attica, |
Sparta, Ithica, Pharsalia, Marathon, |
Smyrna, Delhi, Erutu<, Sc!pto. Moreau,
CamillUs. Lysanier, Hannibal, Cato, Alex |
andar, Aurelius. Nero Fabus, Ssmprouius, |
Pompay, Marcellus' Thee, too, the le-is- /
lItgre adopted. But q month later the |
town to which Nero had been attached !
sent W. very angry protest against tho |
name. CT tho groun! that Nero was an /
eX9crable tyrant, WHO murdered both |
his wife AMI his mother" A com
mitt7e % tho assembly Investigated |
and :ouni that Nero was really { hard /
case, AMI r'P7rcaI to Do Witt That |
town puts ol q goo many airs" SAIL the |
diszustei Oil e. VINO presided at the over
wor;eI blpt,snei font; let it be called |
f len" >al Eden j. wa, and is to this |
day.
ONERtDOkED.
When tho legislature had al journed II was
found tAat ouo town on the borders of Penn /
sylvaria hal h''u overlooked. Name your .
own town.! sail the fatigueI D. Witt /
They I. 80 About half the settlers were
feun~y ivanIanS AMI the other half Yankees. !
an from Ii, first syllable OF both these /
words tEev Hr1Ilool that n1me Of Chinese /
look AMI -o,u l-"Pen-Y Van" And lol New
~..E