Strange Origins of Pennsylvania Place Names

 

From Scalp Level to Puzzletown, Pennsylvania has an abundance of unique place names, along with hundreds of other names that are shrouded in mystery. It's really fun to discover how some of these names came to be, and this fascination with name origins is not something new; in 1925, Penn State etymologist Abraham Howry Espenshade published Pennsylvania Place Names, which was the culmination of fourteen years of research. Interestingly, Espenshade never planned on writing a book; being professionally interested in language, researching the origins of Pennsylvania place names was a personal hobby by which he satisfied his own curiosity.

Whether you're interested in the origins of names or just a fan of Pennsylvania trivia, here are the origins of some places you may have stumbled across in your travels. Some of these origin stories appear in Espenshade's 1925 book, while others are the result of my own research.

Ambridge (Beaver County). This borough on the Ohio River isn't named for a stately English manor or British nobleman, but for a large corporation. Situated on the site of an earlier settlement named Economy, much of the land was purchased between 1900 and 1903 by a civil engineering firm from Coraopolis who established a company town on the site. It was Chester Besterling, a traffic manager for the company, who suggested the name for the town, which is a contraction of the name of his employer-- the American Bridge Company.

Axemann (Centre County). In 1750, Thomas Mann came to America from Ireland and made axes in Massachusetts in New York. He taught his children the trade, which was passed down to his grandchilden, William and Harvey, who settled in Centre County. In 1828, William and Harvey started the Mann Axe Factory near Bellefonte, and their descendants established axe factories at Mill Hall, Tyrone and Yeagertown. By 1880, the Mann factory at Tyrone was turning out four hundred axes a day and by 1886 the Yeagertown factory was turning out fourteen hundred axes per day. These famous axes were sold everywhere from Europe and South America to China, Australia and South Africa. The Manns were considered the greatest axe makers in the world, so it seemed only fitting that someone should name a town after the family and honor their contributions to Pennsylvania industry.

Buckhorn (Columbia County). Prior to the arrival of white settlers, Indians marked an important trail through this area by placing deer antlers between the forked branches of a tree which once stood at the edge of a swamp three miles from Catawissa (the remnants of this ancient swamp can still be seen near the junction of Schoolhouse and Frost Valley roads). Years later, when white settlers in Fishing Creek Valley blazed a trail to the forts along the Susquehanna River, their trail bisected the Indian path at this precise spot, and the "Old Buckhorn Tree" came to be used as a resting spot for weary travelers. Interestingly, modern-day Buckhorn, which sits at the intersection of I-80 and Rt. 42, still serves this purpose, as it is the location of a large truck stop and several restaurants and hotels.

Burnt Cabins (Fulton County). The first settlers were squatters who built their cabins on land owned by Native Americans, in defiance of a treaty between the colonial government and Indians which limited white settlement to lands east of Kittatinny Mountain. In response to complaints by the Indians, the colonial government ordered the offending cabins burned down in May of 1750.

Duryea (Luzerne County). The fact that this borough was named for coal baron Abram Duryea isn't particularly interesting, but the story behind the town's original name certainly is. It was formerly known as Babylon because of the "Babel of tongues" spoken by the large number of immigrants who settled there. This is also how the Perry County ghost town of Pandemonium got its name.

Enola (Cumberland County). It's widely known that this town was named for Enola Miller, the daughter of the village's founder. However, Wesley Miller chose this name for his daughter as a tribute to Enola Underwood (Miller was related to the Underwoods through marriage), whose mother, Amanda Gingrich Underwood, named her after a character in Isaac Kelso's 1854 religious romance novel, Danger in the Dark.

Hatboro (Montgomery County). This town took its name in 1749 from the trade of John Dawson, who worked as a hatter in the old stone house which later became the Crooked Billet Tavern.

Kinderhook (Lancaster County). Located north of Columbia, the tiny village of Kinderhook was founded by an eccentric physician, Dr. George Kline, around 1840. An ardent supporter of President Martin Van Buren (a native of Kinderhook, New York), Dr. Kline named the village in his honor. At the time, Kline was the only Democrat living in a region dominated by Whigs, and his neighbors made several unsuccessful attempts to change the name of the village. Eventually, however, Kinderhook became a Democrat stronghold in Lancaster County. The nearby village of Klinesville (now part of Columbia) was named after Dr. Kline.

Lampeter Township (Lancaster County). According to local legend, Lampeter Township was named in memory of an early settler named Peter Yeordy. Because Yeordy was crippled, the locals began referring to the region as Lame Peter. This, however, is just one of many folk etymologies common in Pennsylvania place names; in all likelihood, the township was named for the Welsh town of Lampeter.

Mount Joy (Lancaster County). There aren't many mountains in Lancaster County, so if you guessed that the etymology of this borough has nothing to do with geography, you'd be correct. Mount Joy is named, indirectly, for the Viscount Mountjoy, a title of nobility in Ireland and Great Britain dating back to the 15th century. This noble name was later applied to an armed merchant ship dispatched by King William's commander-in-chief to breach the boom on the River Foyle and send provisions to besieged Scots in Derry who were under attack from the army of James II in 1689. Long story short, this fracas kicked off the Williamite War, which saw many Scots-Irish flee to America in order to escape religious persecution, with many of them settling in Lancaster County. And, according to the Mount Joy Historical Society, this explains why there is a replica of an old-timey wooden ship in the middle of town. This would be a replica of the siege-breaking merchant vessel, Mountjoy.

Palmyra (Lebanon County). Although Palmyra is also the name of an ancient city in Syria, the name of this Lebanon County borough was named for its founder, John Palm, who originally named his settlement Palmstown.

Pennypack Creek (Philadelphia County). Appearing as Dublin Creek on some early maps, many people erroneously believe the name of this stream comes from the prominent Pennypacker family of southeastern Pennsylvania (Matthias Pennypacker was a member of the state legislature, while his grandson was our 23rd governor). However, the name is a corruption of the Lenape word pemapeck ("lake land"). Proof of this can be seen in a document from 1672, which mentions Pennypack Creek-- decades before the Pennypacker family arrived in America from Germany. The family name at the time of their arrival was actually Pfannebecker.

Salona (Clinton County). Sometime around 1840, the citizens decided to hold a meeting to choose a new name for their village, which was then known as Mudtown. Betsy Wilson, a devout Methodist, had recently read a Christian Advocate article about the Methodist mission in Salonica, Greece, and proposed the name. Unfortunately, she couldn't recall the actual name of the Greek city, and by the time she discovered her error, Salona had already been put on the sign. Since Salona was also the name of an ancient Croatian city, the townsfolk saw no need to fix the error.

St. Thomas (Franklin County). Originally named Campbellstown in honor of Thomas Campbell, who laid out the village in 1790, the name was changed because it was often confused with the Lebanon County village of Campbelltown. Since Campbell was a pious man, the locals took to calling their place of residence Saint Thomas, and the name stuck.

Shinglehouse (Potter County). When a French settler named Jaundrie built a cabin here in 1806, he covered it with shingles (not just the roof, the entire dwelling). This curious sight inspired the name of the community that sprung up around it.

Surveyor Run (Clearfield County). The name of this stream originates from the misadventure of directionally-challenged surveyor Samuel Fulton, who, along with his men, got hopelessly lost in the wilderness near this spot in 1805.

Temple (Berks County). The name of this Reading suburb has its roots not in religion, but liquor. It was once the site of a tavern known as Solomon's Temple. Solomon was the name of the man who owned the establishment, but it was the name "Temple" that stuck.

Ursina (Somerset County). Those who studied Latin know that ursina is an adjective meaning "belonging to a bear". Though it's not clear who made the suggestion, this name was humorously bestowed in honor of the town's founder, Judge William J. Bear.

Windber (Somerset County). When the Pennsylvania Railroad decided to establish a station in this location in 1897, coal company executive E.J. Berwind, in tribute to himself, suggested the name by transposing the syllables of his last name.