The Birmingham age-herald., 1902-08-29

I to mean '1ittle island" others think it | means "the people of the whirlpool" re- | ferring to Hell Gate, and another authori- l ty gives its origin as from the word
 Hanna-ha-ta, place of drunkenness"
 since Verrazani landed upon the lower
 extremity of Manhattan Island, and gave | the Indians liquor, on which they became l drunk
 l Massachusetts, one of the thirteen orig inal states-An Indian word, meaning ."at | or near the great hills" According to other authorities, ''the hill in the shape 1 of an arrowhead" great hill mouth," | the blue hills"
 | Nauvoo, city in Hancock county, Ill.,
 Named in obedience to a revelation
 made to Joseph Smith, one of it's Mormon | founders.
 | Newport News, city In Warwick county, | Virginia-Named for Capt. Christopher Newport and Capt. Cor Sir William) Newce.
 Ninety-six, town in Greenwood county. South Carolina-So named because it was ninety-six miles from the Cherokee Indian trading-town of Keowee.
 Penn Yan, village in Yates county, New York-The name is formed by a com | pound of the names of the two classes of settlers-PennsyIvania and Yankees. | Shenandoah, county and river in Vir- l ginia, city in Page county, Iowa, borough
 in Schuylkill county, Pennsylvania, and
 town in Page county, Virginia-An h. I dian word said by some to mean 'the
 sprucy stream" by others, "a river
 flowing alongside of high hills and moun- 1 tains' and still another authority states
 that 1t means daughter of the stars" l Tarrytown, village in Westchester
 county, New York-Modif1cation of it's i, former name of Terwen, wheat town"
 given on account of it's large crops of | that cereal
 l Tombstone, two in Pima county, Ari-
 zona-So named by it's founder, because when starting out on his prospecting
 tour he was assured he would find his l tombstone"
 l Tombstone, town in Pima county, Ari- | nois-Giving name to city in Missouri | and village in Cass county, Michigan,
 the town in Illinois having been so
 named at the suggestion of a wag, who l told the story of the Goths and Vandals
 to the commissioners, jokingly giving | them to understand that the selected
 town site was the scene of their encoun- | ters.
 Ypsilanti, city in Mlchigan-Named for I a Greek prince.
 l It is doubtful in any other country in 1 the world has derived it's geographic
 names from sources so diverse and so in- l teresting. The way that names have | been passed around is remarkable. A | pioneer may give his own came to an inn | or camp, and that in turE ecscends to a | town, and then, perhaps, te the railroad | line. Settlers from that region going into | other states will carry the name along | with them, with results that are strik- | ing The least satisfactory names seem I to be those directly transferred from l other countries, although this may have l meant vast deal of affection for an | older home at the time the selection was
 made. Onr Indian words have greatly en-
 riched the language. An interesting
 study might also be made of the propor- l tions in which the desire to do honor to | some famous parsonage and the prefer 1 ence for an easy and melodious name l have been combined.
 MT. Gannett's book necessarily tells only | a part of the story, extensive as are its | pages. Every reader could supplement
 it. by reeollections from his reading of | from the traditions of the locality of 1 which he may be acquired In a collec- l tion of antiques at Terre Haute may be | found target rifle which was the means
 1t is said, of giving Logansport. in the
 same state, it's name. The story, as Mau< | rice Thompson tells it, Is that when a | number of names were proposed for the | new settlement the frontiersmen decided | to shoot at a target to see which name 1 should prevail. The rifieman who pros l posed "LoganSport" hit the bull s-eye. | It Is often related that, in like man- ner, a man from Portland, Me, and one l from Boston pitched pennies to see whether their new settlement on the | Willamette should be named Portland oi l Boston. The namesake has since greatly | outgrown in population the old Portland l on the Atlantic coast.
 | Denver possesses the distinction of hav' | ing been named for a man who lived to eAA -s4x. l yer died about ten years ago. when the l town named in his honor had reached (
 population of nearly 10000. l