The Washington times., 1901-10-06
INDIANA'S STRANGE NAMES
Some Weird Titles of Towns in
the HO0sier State.
Santa Claus, Popcorn, Henpeck'
Big Foot, and Farmers Retreat
Are SampIes-One County Contains
Bed Bug, Wash Board, Pig Eye

SpeciaI attention Of the Census Depart
ment has been attracted to the great num-
Der of peculiar town names in lndiana'
1t Is claimed that nowhere east OF the
land of Poker Flat, Roaring Camp, and
Dead Dog is there a State that has so
many incipient cities blasted with freak
names. At the head of the list one finds
Santa Claus, Big Foot, Sleepy Eye, Pig
nut. Popcorn, Dern, Soonover, Crumtown,
Zulu, and Zipp, and a hundred more
pacemakers. such as Pinhook, Henpeck,
CLASSY Rock, and 'Possum Trot, ali OF
which have their place on the map.
| 1t has been suggested by census officers
that Indiana might, with profit, take a
suggestion from a neighbortnB state,
whose Legislature was confronted during
the past winter with petition for enact
ment making 1t a penal offence to attach
| a nickname to any citizen. 1t was urged,
and with plenty of historical citations.
that many worthy, ambitious man and
| woman had been handicapped in his or
her race for prominence by such sim
| pie milestone as Skinny" Long Bill, or
| Sleepy" and that often it finally drag
ged them under the waves of absolute de-
| feat. The discussion went so far that 1t
| was shown that even among the legiti-
| mate names there were those that carry
/
overcome such a handicap many strong
man has been forced to pitch his weak
| given names overheard, or at least save
| only the wreckage-the initials.
1t is urged that it would be well for
not only the town sites. but the resi-
dents of these freakishly named villages,
| for the Indiana Legislature to consider at
least a hundred of them. The residents of
| the towns, as rule, stand ready for the
relief. They find that many times their
| postoffice address is as great a milestone
| tied around the neck of their ambition as
| though nickname had been saddIed di-
Tectly onto them resident of Popcorn
| points out that a statesman in the
| Legislature-f he ever got that far-he
might be strong and able man and the
father of good and needed bin. But,
| involved in a fight along close partisan
lines by employing ridicule. the most po-
| tent of destructive forces when public
sentiment is factor, a iimcrow states
man of the opposition might render him
ineffective and defeat the bill with such
simple illusions as THE able statesman
from classic Popcorn, who presents this
measure" etc. Had Nicholson the author
of Indiana's present law regulating liquor
traffic, come from Corkwell instead of Ko-
komo, the association Of his town name
and his measure that restricted saloon
rights would have turned the State to
ridicule and, he could never have engi-
neered the bill through the fierce party
fight that centred around it for weeks.
Had Governor Durbin hailed from Pignut
instead of Anderson. he would have been
forced to organize against the raillery of
''Pignut Taylor
If RifpV had corna frorr, Paaohv Miro in
stead of Greenfield. he would have had to
overcome 'The Singing Bard of Beechy
Mire." or 'Beechy Mire Jim," and his
fight 'or recognition was severe enough
as it was. Even if May Wright SeweIl
who succeeded Lady Churchill as the
head of the international Association of
Women's Clubs. had come from Big Foot
when next she presided at an interna-
tonal meeting there might be those who
would call her Big Foot Mae" and she
never could have been elected to this ex-
alted position If this boomerang had been
started as g political slogan of opposi-
ton. 1t would be unfortunate for any
candidate for an Indiana State office to
come from Paradise. Dern, Crumtown, or
a hundred or more infected town sites in
the State.
1t is also pointed out that good fami-
Il
for town. A delegate to the State W.
C. T. U. Convention from Brewersville
might call down the prayers of the good
women of the entire State on the town be-
fore they could be told that it was a tenn
perance town and not community of hop
stewers- The appropriateness of the
other names for Indiana towns is also
pointed out. Rosebud is lost in rag weed;
Rosedale-named after Chauncey Rose
Is cluster of miners huts and cinder
paths, with nothing but dog fennel grow
ing in the gulley. the only dale" in sight.
Watermelons, instead of poseys. come
from Poseyville, named after the famous
Posey family. All of the crops around
Raintown dried up this summer, and the
thermometer hovered around los degrees
at level Snowhill most of the summer
In urging reform in Indiana town names
it is pointed out that it would take at
least a Golconda diamond mine, Baku
oil gusher. or ten Jumbo gas wells to an
chor real boom at Boggstown, JASON
vile, Creamburg Ijamsvine, Sweet Home.
Weed Patch Hill. Potato Creek, Steam
Centre, Makeup, Needmore, Bovine,
Buckskin. Bud. Doolittle, Snacks. Farm
ers' Retreat, Gaff, Tulip, Mixersville.
Grammar. Dean Blossom. Beecanp,
Bushy Prairie, Clay Bank, Yankeetown.
Bear Branch. Buck Creek, Dark Hollow,
Toll Gate. Cross Roads, Dogwood, Ogle-
Vile, Spraytown, Plumtree, Needham,
Young America, Sleeth, Dugger, Null
berry, Raccoon, Birdseye, Rony, Odd.
Quaker, Wild Cat, Buckstown, Chestnut.
Pinhook, or Raglesville
1t is time-honored tradition among
misinformed Indianians that Strawtown.
In Hamilton county, came within one
vote of being selected the State Capital
1t Is an assured fact that people who had
to fight the name 'Hoosier" would never
have stood for Strawtown as their seat
of existence to the rest of the world. The
first thing that would be done would be
to change the name of the postoffice If a
boom should settle down on Piketown, |
MELVILLE, Nine Mile. Fourteen Mile, Mud
dy Fork, Snowfall, Rush Creek, Tobacco !
Landing. Long Run. Marble Corner,
Greenbriar, Floyd Knobs. Crooked Creek, |
Horntown, Nulltown. Scalesville, Pigeon |
Gessie. or twenty or thirty more town |
sites that infested with names that !
would be positive detrment to institu- /
tions seeking a recognition through ad-
vertising in the commercial markets.
Sun and moon worshipers. in their way, |
have given the Indiana map such names |
as Daylight Daysville, Aurora, Bright. |
Starlight Rising Sun, Sunshine. Moon |
shine and Wakeland. One also finds Par |
adise, Rapture. Leisure. Freedom Pleas |
ant, Comfort, Rural, Pastoral Shadeland
Retreat, and Solitude and then, as oppo- |
sition to all this wealth of languor, there |
are Cyclone, Steam Corner, Progress,
Rumble, onward. and Makeup Modesto