Warren sheaf. [volume] (Warren, Marshall County, Minn.) 1880-current, 1894-05-10
FUNNY CONNECTICUT NAMES.
Personal, Local and Idlomatic Oddttt1
81 In,

Personal. Local and Idlomatic Oddities
Of Title in the Nutmeg State.
The Connecticut Yankee ever has
been famed as a maker of quaint, keen,
epigrammic phrases. The same fatal
gift has expressed itself in his local
names. His odd titles sometimes apply
to school districts and defined region.
Sometimes to a headland, bay or island,
but oftener to an indefinite region now
and then marked by some single char
acteristic, and frequently by no char.
acteristic at all. These funny names,
usually without rhyme or reason, fill
the state, and there is hardly town
that has not half a dozen at least.
How common they are let the case of
the single town of Stratford attest.
Within its borders are the following
local titles: Point No Point, Goose
Harbor, Ten Cent, Gold Diggings,
skunk's Tavern Wig VAN, Ham
mocks, Tins Bushes, Devils Den,
Honey Spot, Lazy Bank and Success.
Some of the names are as odd in ety.
mology as they are in sound. For ex-
ample, there is the "Abrigador," a
region near Waterbury, which, on the
authority of Yale professor means in
Spanish, ''little fort" Did ever a
Spaniard live there? and if so, what
was there in the region to justify the
title he gave? is a query for the Water
bury antiquarian.
Again, not far from West Rock is
Mad Mare hill It sounds as if named
from wild mare turned loose. But
its title. is, in fact, derived from a
Frenchman, who Loyalty named it from
Mime. Mere, referring to the mother of
Napoleon. A year or to ago it was an
nounced that Rag Hollow in Cheshire
was changed to the more poetic title
of Spring Valley. Its earlier name
didn't, as might be inferred, refer to
the poverty of the region, but to an old
factory where rags were used on pol
ishing wheels. Here are some old
puritan first names, CLEANED, for the
most part, in ancient Connecticut
graveyards: Casindana, Darkis, Vo-
dica, Hasideah, Pollycapus, Hope
STILL Waitstill, Vienna, Arlotha,
Jahleel, Archesa, Voadicea. But the
funniest string of Yankee names is,
perhaps, that taken from an old insur-
ance company's list at Hartford and
published a good while ago by one of
the papers there. Here are some OF
them: Biddle Boggs, Rumsey Rumsey,
AMI S. Popping, Wash Hands, Derrick
A. January, Artemesas Pancake, Pin
Gus Sass, o. w. Huckleberry, A. Drink
er, Robert A. Crowbar, Rene Robert,
Henry Toe Laer, Roger Pantaloon Roy,
Reflection Pepper, Liberty Lamb, Bah
cite Bopp, William Neithercoat, Rosa
Delima Briendt, Dinocher Dugas, Co.'S
mos N. Smoke; Cabbage B. Needels,
Mississippi Jones, Axel W. Binderup,
Donatus Bitter and Frank NJ Goody
KooDtz. ...3 >
Here are the names of districts in
Connecticut, most of them school dis
tricts, copied in years past from some
official report or other: Above all, APP
paquag, .Arrowanna, Ballahack, Ban.
gall, Bedlam, Bitgood, Bokum, Break.
neck, Bricktop, Buff Cap, Cat Swamp,
Chewink, Chicken Hill, Compo, Corum,
Dan Den, Devil's Back bone, Devils
Hopyard, Dividend, Equivalent, Goose
Lane, Gooslee, Halter Ridge, Isinglass,
Jabbox, Malmanack, Meshomasick,
Nayaug, Nyumphs, Nod North Brick,
Nowyaug, Obtuse Occum, Pandanarum,
Pamaecha, Peaceab BILE, Paywell, Peg
vile, Pick: PimPerwaug, Pinch street,
Podunk, Plum Trees, Pitch, Pogwauk,
Post Potato Lane, Poverty, Press Barn
Bar, Puckshire, Purgatory, Pudding
Hill, Puddle Town, Puf6ngham, Pur-
chase, .Quadic, Quill Trap, Queach,
Quaimbog,' Rattan, Roast Meat Hill,
Sabtown, Samp Mortar, Scotch Cap,
Shebetha, Shennecosser, Shippee, Siam
Shunkamaug, Spit Head, Shoonville,
-Shankey Hollow, Squabble Hollow,
SHUTDOWN, Suffrage, Tangwank, later
Hill, Tebtown, Teddy Hill, Tucker
Wallup, Wassuc, Whip Stick, Wig Hill,
and Wood Tick. = .... :.
A Connecticut country pastor is said
to have made this announcement from
his pulpit: Brethren, I shall hold
services of prayer on Tuesday in He'll
Hollow, on Thursday in Satan's King
dom and on Friday at DEVILS Kitchen"
st Louis Post Dispatch.