The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1894-02-23

"A Query for Antiquarians. in The EgiS of
10th Instant asks how the Gunpowder river
got its name.
The Iuilowiag attempt to solve this conun-
drum il from A Visit 10 the Fork of the Gun
powder, II paper which ] read some three or
four years ago before the Hartford Historical
society.
According to tradition it was through an I'M
sophisticated usage that the river received its
singular name. A Chief of the friendly Sus-
quchannOckS who inhabited thereabouts, wish
ing To secure IL permanent and ample supply
OF gunpowder-thc wonderful effects OF which,
in t!ic hands of the early settlers, he had Just
Witnessed for the first time-beggeu for "a few
grains just for seed" hoping i'll few years to
riiss, enough wherewith to eXtermnute his
Moral enemies, the fierce Senecas, who were
also the sworn foes of the whites fhe Chiefs
request was cheerfully complied with, and al
though the sequel has not descended to us, we
mas safely assume that h considerably
enl ghtcned before the seed came up. The
joke WAS thought good enough to be pcrpctu-
atcd in the name of the river on whose shores
the unique experiment was made. Whether
this tradition is well-toundcd or not the queer
name certainly dates back to the earliest peri
OH of the settlement.
The writer in the Union gives 1868 us the
earliest date at which the nime is used in old
records. But the tract On which Joppa was
subsequently built, ut the head OF the river,
was patented July 18th. 1861, to John Taylor :;
another tract IL mile or two distant i'll the Fork
of the Gunpowder, having been patented on
the day Immediately preceding to william
Wignell. The records, however, show that
the Seneca Indians had made Il descent Il few
months before and had pluudered the houses
of Taylor and Wignell as well as those of two
brothers Foster, living near, one of whom they
killed in fight, and wounded Wignell. The
| tobacco houses and boats of these settlers are
| also mentioned, so that they must have settled
| here, perhaps as squatters, some years before
| that date
| The Union writer's conjecture that the album
| dance of willows along the stream, from the
| charcoal of which gunpowder is made, sug-
gested the name of the river, seems rather far
| fetched, being, in fact one or two steps out OF
| the usual way of comforting names. willows,
| he woulI have us believe, suggested charcoal,
| and charcoal suggested gunpowder. by the
! by, may the writer not have COMPOUNDED the
| stream with Bush River, the next one above,
| which Capt. John Smith tell us he named will
| lowby," possibly from the great number OF
| willows by its waters?
Yet, after all, there remains to be explained
| u singular coincidence, Gf, indeed, it is mere
coincidenceJ that one of the principal tribu-
| taries of the Gunpowder on the south side, is
| "Saltpetre Creek" Now, the ingredients OF
| the best gunhOwder are willowcharcoal, salt
| petre and sulphur, (brimstone.) so that only the
last named ingredient is wanting i'll this case to
| constitute gunpowder. And who knows that
there was not once sulphur rum or a
| birthstone Creek" Whereabouts, whose name
may have been changed by some devout set.
| tier in the wilderness as too suggestive OF mol
| climate? Many of the old-tme names have
| been changed from motives far less worthy.
BE that as it may, it is a fact that long ago al
| eminent chemist made very fair gunpowdel
| have been the simple recipe by which the name
| of this river was compounded.
| GEO. W. ARCHER.
| EmmOrtOn Feb IL. 1894.