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Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780252090707 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | University of Illinois Press |
| Publication date: | 10/01/2010 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 456 |
| File size: | 2 MB |
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PLACE NAMES OF ILLINOIS
By EDWARD CALLARY
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS PRESS
Copyright © 2009 Board of Trustees of the University of IllinoisAll right reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-252-03356-8
Chapter One
A
ABINGDON [A bing duhn]. Knox. City (1857, 1920) eight miles south of Galesburg. Founded in 1836 by Abraham D. Swartz and named for his former home, Abingdon, in Harford County, Md., itself named for Abingdon, Oxfordshire, England (Perry, History of Knox County, 419). Post office established June 30, 1837, as Oregon; changed to Hartford Aug. 12, 1839; changed to Abingdon May 12, 1852.
ABSHER. Williamson. Nine miles west-southwest of Harrisburg. Alternate name for Dykersburg. Named for William A. Absher, the first postmaster (Adams, comp., Illinois Place Names; Hubbs, Pioneer Folks and Places). Post office established July 27, 1892.
ADAIR. McDonough. Nine miles east-southeast of Macomb. Laid out in 1870 as Reedyville, a station on the St. Louis, Rock Island and Chicago Railroad, by site owners John Reedy and Jacob Grimm. The community later took the name of the Adair post office. The source of the name is unknown (Chenoweth and Semonis, comps., The History of McDonough County, 108). Post office established May 22, 1867.
ADAMS. County. Created Jan. 13, 1825, from Pike County. Named for John Quincy Adams, at the time a candidate for president of the United States. The name was probably suggested by John Wood, a future governor of Illinois. After Adams was elected by the U.S. House of Representatives in February 1825, the name for the county seat was discussed, and someone in the audience reportedly remarked, "Let us take another slice from the President's name and call our County Seat 'Quincy.'" A local story claims that Adams's name was fully appropriated when the first town park was called John's Square; thus, in the words of an early county historian, the "learned and popular John Quincy Adams [was given] all that was coming to him" (Wilcox, Quincy and Adams County, 106; Genosky, ed., People's History, 49, 50, 250).
ADAMS. Adams. Ten miles east-southeast of Quincy. Founded about 1838 and named for early settler Elias Adams and for its location in Adams county (Genosky, ed., People's History, 696). Post office established Feb. 21, 1850.
ADAMS CORNER. Wabash. Six miles north of Mount Carmel. Named for early settler Daniel Adams (Combined History of Edwards, Lawrence, and Wabash Counties, 283).
ADAMSBURG. Adams. Laid out about 1835 near the center of Adams County. The founders thought Adamsburg would become the county seat, but it never materialized beyond a town plat (www.rootsweb.com/~iladams/places/ placenames.htm).
ADDIEVILLE [AD ee vil]. Washington. Village (1896) six miles northwest of Nashville. Founded in 1870 by Col. James Lowery Donaldson Morrison (q.v. Morrisonville), a lawyer and land developer, and named for his wife Adele, known as Addie (History of Washington County, 27). Post office established Dec. 12, 1870.
ADDISON. DuPage. Village (1884). Previously known as Duncklee's Grove, named for first settler Hezekiah Duncklee. Formally established about 1840 and probably named by settlers from Addison, Steuben County, N.Y., itself named for English author Joseph Addison (1672–1719). The choice of the name may have been influenced by other notable Addisons, especially Dr. Thomas Addison (1793–1860), the British physician best known for his description of a disease of the adrenal glands now called Addison's Disease and for whom Addison Street in Chicago is named (Hayner and McNamee, Streetwise Chicago; Richmond and Vallette, A History of the County of DuPage, 149; Vasiliev, From Abbotts to Zurich). Post office established April 4, 1839, as Dunkley's [sic] Grove; changed to Addison May 28, 1842.
ADELINE [AD uh leyen]. Ogle. Village (1882) seven miles northwest of Mount Morris. Founded in 1845 and named for Adeline Turner, wife of Thomas J. Turner of Freeport, U.S. representative in the late 1840s (History of Ogle County, 296). Post office established March 31, 1841, as Mt. Morris; changed to Leaf River March 13, 1844; changed to Adeline Dec. 29, 1848.
ADEN [AYD uhn]. Hamilton. Ten miles north-northeast of McLeansboro. Formerly known as Lower Hills. The name was changed to Aden about 1890. The source of the name is unknown (Hamilton County, 37). Post office established Dec. 1, 1875.
ADRIAN. Hancock. Eight miles north of Carthage. Founded in the early 1870s and named for Adrian, Lenawee County, Mich., by Arthur Rice, a postal clerk on the Burlington Railroad (Bateman and Selby, eds., Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and History of Hancock County, 1096). Post office established May 24, 1870.
AETNA [ET nuh]. Logan. Township. Named from Aetna Station, a stop on the Illinois Central Railroad. Probably named by officials of the IC for Mount Aetna in Sicily about the time of a particularly destructive eruption of the volcano in 1852 (Ackerman, Early Illinois Railroads, 128).
AFRICA. Williamson. Established in the northeast corner of Williamson County by Robert McCreery as a settlement for freed slaves. McCreery, upon inheriting his father's slaves in the slave state of Missouri, brought them into the free state of Illinois, manumitted them, and settled them on land next to his own, which he called Africa. The area was later known as Willow Bend Farm (Hale, comp. and ed., Williamson County, 121; Hubbs, Pioneer Folks and Places).
AFTON [AF tuhn]. DeKalb. Township. Named by John A. Hayden, who called Little Rock Creek, which ran through his property, Sweet Afton after the Scottish river popularized by Robert Burns's poem, "Flow Gently, Sweet Afton." Coincidentally, Burns's poem was set to music in Illinois in 1836 by Jonathon Edwards Spilman, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Carmi (Boies, History of DeKalb County, 496).
AGNEW [AG noo]. Whiteside. Four miles west of Sterling. Originally known as Rock Island Junction. Named for Lord D. Agnew, station agent for both the Burlington and Chicago and North Western railroads in the 1910s (Bastian, A History of Whiteside County, 470).
AKIN [AY kin]. Franklin. Eight miles west of Benton. Laid out about 1875 and named from the Akin post office, itself probably named for postmaster George W. Akin. Possibly named for local land owners Walter S. Aiken and/or Aiken McLean (Adams, comp., Illinois Place Names; Aiken, Franklin County History, 96; History of Gallatin, Saline, 363). Post office established June 15, 1860.
AKRON [AK ruhn]. Peoria. Nine miles north of Peoria. The Chicago and North Western station was established about 1901 as Akron, taking its name from the Akron post office, itself named for Akron Township, which was named by early settlers from Akron, Ohio. Ultimately from the Greek akron (summit) (Bateman and Selby, eds., Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and History of Peoria County, 647; Stennett, A History of the Origin, 35). Post office established Sept. 23, 1858.
ALBA [AL buh]. Henry. Township. Early county historians were at a loss to explain the name. One went so far as to call it "one of the unaccountable inventions of the Commissioners selected to give baptismal names to the ... townships.... It is a case, perhaps, of purely poetic fancy." Alba Township, however, was established as Elba, a name transferred by settlers from Elba, Genesee County, N.Y. The spelling Alba probably represents a local pronunciation of "Elba" (Portrait and Biographical Album of Henry County, 764).
ALBANY [AWL buh nee]. Whiteside. Village (1869, 1877) three miles south of Clinton, Iowa. Founded about 1837 as Port Newbury. The name was changed in 1838 by settlers from Albany, N.Y., itself named in 1664 in honor of the Duke of York and Albany, later King James II. Albany is also a poetic name for Scotland. There were also short-lived Albanys in Greene and Logan counties and New Albanys in Scott and Douglas counties (Davis, History of Whiteside County, 68; Stewart, American Place-Names). Post office established Feb. 7, 1837, as Port Newbury; changed to Albany July 6, 1838.
ALBANY PARK. Cook. North Chicago community. Founded in the early 1890s by a consortium of land developers that included Chicago streetcar magnate De Lancey Louderback, who named the community for his former home, Albany, N.Y. (Hayner and McNamee, Streetwise Chicago).
ALBERS [AL berz]. Clinton. Village (1954) four miles east of New Baden. Established about 1860 by J. W. Dugger as Damiansville Station on the Air Line Railroad. The name was changed to Albers Station for site owner F. H. Albers in the early 1890s (Commercial History of Clinton County, 5). Post office established May 25, 1893.
ALBION [AL bee uhn]. Edwards. City (1869, 1908) fifteen miles west of Mount Carmel. Formerly known as Edwards Courthouse, English Settlement, and New Albion. Founded in 1818 by George Flower and Morris Birkbeck, well-todo Englishmen who sought to establish in America a progressive community built upon modern methods of farming and animal husbandry. Birkbeck may have been attracted to Illinois through a meeting in London with Edward Coles about 1817. Coles, as governor, appointed Birkbeck Illinois secretary of state in 1824. Birkbeck was also the founder of Wanborough (q.v.). Flower named the colony Albion, an ancient and poetic name for England derived from Latin albus (white) (Harper, ed., History of Edwards County, 7–8). Post office established Aug. 5, 1819.
ALDEN [AWL duhn]. McHenry. Five miles northeast of Harvard. Founded about 1844 and named by settlers from Alden, Erie County, N.Y. (Nye, ed., McHenry County Illinois, 348). Post office established June 21, 1843, as Wedgewood, named for first postmaster Thomas Wedgewood; changed to Alden Jan. 30, 1844.
ALEDO [uh LEE do]. Mercer. City (1855). Established in the mid-1850s as DeSoto, a station on the Great Western Railroad. By one account, letters of the alphabet were placed in a hat and drawn at random until an acceptable combination was found. More likely, however, the name was chosen by John S. Thompson, one of the founders of Aledo, who is reported as saying that he took a Webster's Dictionary, opened it to the section on geographic names, and was favorably struck by the name Aledo (presumably Aledo, Spain) (Bassett and Goodspeed, Past and Present of Mercer County, 376). Post office established Sept. 24, 1856.
ALEXANDER. County. Created March 4, 1819. Named for (and probably by) Dr. William M. Alexander, who was instrumental in the formation of the county. Alexander was a physician with a practice at America who served as an Illinois state representative and speaker of the Illinois House in the early 1820s. The seat of Alexander County was established at America, moved to Unity in 1833, to Thebes in 1843, and to Cairo in 1860 (Alexander County, 8).
ALEXANDER. Morgan. Nine miles east of Jacksonville. Founded about 1857 by site owner John T. Alexander (History of Morgan County, 433). Post office established July 15, 1857.
ALEXIS [uh LEK sis]. Mercer, Warren. Village (1873) ten miles north-northeast of Monmouth. Founded in 1870 as Alexandria, a station on the St. Louis branch of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad and named for J. E. Alexander, one of the site owners. The name was changed in 1872 in honor of the visit to the United States of the Russian Grand Duke Alexis, who spent part of the winter of 1871–72 in Illinois (Bateman and Selby, eds., Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and History of Warren County, 993; Portrait and Biographical Album of Warren County, 742). Post office established Dec. 30, 1870, as Alexandria; changed to Alexis Jan. 22, 1872.
ALGONQUIN [al GAHNG kwin]. Kane, McHenry. Village (1890). First known as Denny's Ferry and later as Cornish's Ferry and Cornishville, named for Andrew Cornish, who operated a ferry across the Fox River near the site in the early 1840s. The community was organized about 1847 as Osceola. To avoid duplicating an existing Osceola post office, the name was changed at the suggestion of Samuel Edwards, a local land owner, who proposed the name Algonquin, claiming that this was the name of a ship on which he had served (Nye, ed., McHenry County Illinois, 365). Post office established July 12, 1839, as Denny's Ferry; changed to Cornish's Ferry July 23, 1840; changed to Cornishville Jan. 3, 1842; changed to Algonquin Dec. 23, 1847.
ALHAMBRA [al HAM bruh]. Madison. Village (1884) twelve miles northeast of Edwardsville. Founded in 1849 by Louis F. Shep(p)ard and Levi Harnsberger and named by their wives, who took the name from Washington Irving's Tales of the Alhambra. The Alhambra was the citadel of the Moorish kings of Grenada, Spain (Alhambra, 7; Norton, ed., Centennial History of Madison County, 462). Post office established April 9, 1850, as Lowryville; changed to Alhambra March 25, 1851.
ALLADIN. Perry. Founded in 1921 by the Alladin Coal and Mining Company. Now part of Cutler (q.v.) (Perry County, 6).
ALLEN. LaSalle. Township. Formed from Bruce Township about 1858 and named for Allen Stevens, who immigrated from Scotland to Canada about 1857 and from there to LaSalle County (History of LaSalle County, 32). The Allen post office was established and discontinued several times between July 13, 1866, and July 18, 1876.
ALLENDALE. Wabash. Village (1917) eight miles north-northeast of Mount Carmel. Platted in 1869 and named for Col. C. M. Allen, a contractor for the Cairo and Vincennes Railroad (Wabash County, 25). Post office established Dec. 25, 1829, as Armstrong, named for first postmaster Abner Armstrong; changed to Allendale July 19, 1870.
ALLENS SPRING. Pope. Two miles southeast of Dixon Springs State Park. Named for George M. Allen, the first postmaster and an early proprietor of the springs (Allen, Pope County Notes, 68). Post office established April 6, 1857, as Allen's Springs.
ALLENTOWN. Tazewell. Three miles southeast of Morton. Named for James Allen of Pekin (Adams, comp., Illinois Place Names). Post office established Jan. 27, 1879.
ALLERTON [AL er tuhn]. Champaign, Vermilion. Village (1902) sixteen miles west-southwest of Georgetown. Founded in 1887 by Samuel A. Allerton and William G. Herron, partners in the Allerton Herron Grain Company. Allerton was a principal stockholder in the First National Bank of Chicago and founder of the Chicago Union Stock Yards (Morris, Allerton, Illinois 1887–1987, 2). Post office established Dec. 5, 1877, as Broadlands (q.v.); changed to Allerton Dec. 15, 1887.
ALLERTON PARK. Piatt. Four miles southwest of Monticello. Part of the estate of Samuel A. Allerton; donated to the University of Illinois by his son, Robert, in 1946 (Adams, comp., Illinois Place Names; West, A Heritage Reborn, 17).
ALLIN. McLean. Township. Named for James Allin, the founder of Bloomington. Previously known as Mosquito Grove (History of McLean County, 320). Post office established Jan. 7, 1868, as Allin Station.
ALLISON. Lawrence. Township. Named from Allison's Prairie, itself named for the Allison family. Samuel, Jonathan, and Ezra Allison filed for 160 acres of land in 1815. The name was changed from Thompson in 1857 (Bateman and Selby, eds., Illinois Historical Lawrence County Biographical, 629). Post office established Aug. 30, 1827.
ALMA. Marion [AL muh]. Village (1855, 1897) eight miles north of Salem. Laid out in 1854 by John S. Martin as Rantoul, named for Robert Rantoul (q.v. Rantoul). The name was changed in 1855 at the suggestion of John B. Calhoun, a land commissioner for the Illinois Central Railroad, for the Alma River, a stream in the Crimea where allied forces had defeated a Russian army the year before. Largely because of the news coverage given to the Crimean War, Alma became popular both as a place name and as a fashionable name for girls in the middle of the nineteenth century (Ackerman, Early Illinois Railroads, 131; Brinkerhoff, Brinkerhoff's History of Marion County, 200). Post office established Dec. 22, 1884, as Grand Mound City; changed to Alma April 13, 1855.
ALMORA [al MOR uh]. Kane. West of Elgin. Originally a milk shipping station called Spring Valley, established by the Chicago and North Western Railroad in the early 1880s. The nearby Milwaukee Road station was Dumser, named for site owner Simon Dumser. About 1885 officials of the post office and the railroads agreed on the name Almora, perhaps for Almora, a city in Uttar Pradesh in northern India. As a place name Almora occurs only in Illinois and Minnesota (www.elginhistory.com). Post office established Feb. 28, 1881, as Padell; changed to Spring Valley Feb. 14, 1882; changed to Almora Dec. 16, 1885.
ALORTON. St. Clair. Village (1944) south of East St. Louis. Formerly known as Alcoa, the trade name of the Aluminum Company of America, a major local employer. Alorton is probably a shortening of "Aluminum Ore Town." This is the only Alorton in the United States (Fitzgerald, "Centreville Pushes for Alorton Annexation"; Illinois Gazetteer).
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