Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1893-03-23
HISTORY OF SOME DELAWARE NAMES.


A Plea for Their Correct Spelling in Order
That Future Generations May Know
Something of Their Origin.
1t is little hard to see and somewhat
difficult to understand why any respon-
sihle journal, such as the Baltimore
Sun, would give its countenance to such
condemnable corruption of an old his
toric name as was seen the other day in
its use Of "Third Haven" for "Tred-
avon" The latter is the rightful term.
1t has properly substantiated ancestral
and historic rights, while its COMPETE
tor is the result of ignorance, Of viii
ated corrupt pronunciation, and finally
Of the phonic spelling Of that corrupt
pronunciation. "rrcdavon" from the
Welsh words, tired, town or village,
and "ayou" water or river, would be
value for our "Rivertown" or "Riyer-
ton" or, what would be similar water
town" or "Waterton." This is far away
from the current monstrosity "Third
Haven" or its ownly slightly less con-
demnable progenitor "Troadhaven."
The question may be asked why make
such fuss over little name?
There is the best of reasons for the
plea. Most of all the more reliable his
tory of nations, of the world, including
that OF our own country, finds its surer
authorization in names. Without it
recorded history would be next to value
less. The more faithful we are to origi.
nal Technology and names the surer
and more reliable is history. If a name
be spelt out of recognition it follows
that when the existing generation passes
away then also will all the evidence so
far as history is concerned of the exist
ence of such family, race or nation.
All that is left is what may be learned
of the monuments of the community
and all experience teaches that the like.
lihood of the existence of such evidence
Is very poor among Il people so careless
of its literature.
The case under consideration makes
good test illustration. The point will
arise at some future time on the ques-
ton of the early settlers of "Third
Haven" On the face of it the name is
purely modern English. The natural
deduction following is that the words
being of that language, the first settlers
were English. But that is not the case
they were Welsh and they gave the
Welsh maine "1redavon" TO the settle
ment.
No excuse can be given for such care.
less Technology, not even that of find
ing Third Haven" on the map. Who
was authority for that mistake? Just
such carelessnesS as the writer is in.
Weighing against, The people of the
locality, the newspapers, and others fol-
lowing, including tne map makers who
are very properly included among the
most vicious Of history killers.
Another instance, although not quite
SO condemnable as the above, comes to
mind. 1t is in regard to the spelling of
New Castle" this county, and also thu
name OF the county town. According
TO common history the place was settled
by people from Newcastle-on-Tyne in
the county of Northumberland, Eng
land. For several centuries, at least the
assertion may be ventured. that the
people of that place spelt it Newcastle,
lin one world. 1t may be taken for
granted that the original English set
tiers called 1t by the same name and SO
spelt it. To spell the name in two words
will in the future arouse the question as
to whether the settlers came from that
English town, in other words question
its history. New Castle in two words
infers the suggestion that at one time
there was an old castle on that site and
that New Castle is built on its ruins.
The facts of course are that there was
never either an old or q new castle
within 5000 miles of it. The ridiculous
ness of the spelling and its entire lack
of warrant is only too apparent.
Talking on the subject Of the etymol-
ogy of local names, a member of the
bench told the writer that being struck
with the popularity of the name Pen
cader,N he asked Welsh clergyman,
who has recently come here, what its
origin is. The gentleman who can
speak the Welsh language gave it as
"pen" a hill, and "cader" seat or
raised chair. This tigurative term was
applied by the early Welsh settlers,
many of them engaged in the iron mines
of what is now Iron Hill. Their
imaginary sentimental temperament saw
probably q Welsh chieftain's throne,
just as their fathers did in Cader Idris,
after Snowden, the loftiest mountain in
Wales.
incidentally in the last mentioned
etymology it will be noticed that
"cader," meaning chair, throne or seat,
bears close relationship to the root of
the word cathedral" which is the seat,
or chief church of the diocese, and
where the bishops throne is. Also a
certain person is quoted as speaking ex-
cathdra, or from authority, that is from
the highest seat The trap that one is
liable to fall into, when thoughtlessly
accepting the pronunciation given by
careless people, and as too often seen in
United States maps, is well illustrated
in the story of the "Picketwire" river in
Southern Colorado. The name given
the stream by the carly Spanish settlers
was "Purgatoire. This was too diff
cult pronunciation for the western
settlers to twist their tongues around, so
they just called it Picketwire. And that
settled it also, so goes the story for
Uncle Sans map.makers.