USA towns named after people

Please post messages about USA towns named after people here in this thread. This could be either discussions about who a town was named after or just letting others know that your hunting down a profile that is a USA town namesake.

You could also document that you've added a profile to the project but that it needs to be added to the project's index on the main page.

--Randy

Leesburg, VA named for Thomas Lee- needs added to project index

This is a county instead of a town, but I live in Mt. Vernon (named for George Washington's Mt. Vernon) in Knox County, OH named for General Henry Knox.

Knox and Lee have been added to the index.

Houston, TX- Samuel Houston-add to index

I found one for CT! Monroe, CT was named for President James Monroe. I'll keep looking.

Trumbull, CT- named for Gov. Jonathan Trumbull
Sherman, CT- named for Roger Sherman (signer)
Orange, CT- named for King William III of England, Prince of Orange

I added to the index:

# Samuel Houston
# James Monroe
# Jonathan Trumbull
# Roger Sherman
# King William III of England, Prince of Orange

Downey, CA - named for John Gately Downey 7th governor of California. He does not seem to have a profile on Geni.

Here are links for Downey, CA. I am not good at wiki formatting and don't want to mess a beautiful looking project so hopefully someone will enter them.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Downey,_California
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_G._Downey
I will try to find time to put John Downey on Geni as soon as I have time, have 3 major projects going on at home today. Maybe tonight.

I've added these profiles, so they can be added to the index (unless you want us to edit the index ourselves?):

* General Israel Putnam, namesake of Putnam, Connecticut
* General Joseph Warren, III, namesake of Warren, Connecticut
* Sachem Uncas, Mohegan, namesake of Uncasville, Connecticut
* Daniel Webster, U.S. Senator and Secretary of State, namesake of Webster, Massachusetts
* Paul Dudley and William Dudley, Hon., joint namesakes of Dudley, Massachusetts

You can also add Franklin, Connecticut for Benjamin Franklin, Signer of the "Declaration of Independence". He's already in the project for the Franklin stove.

Perhaps a curator can add George III of the United Kingdom, the namesake of Georgetown, Connecticut? I'm going to request editing privileges for Jeffery Amherst, 1st Baron Amherst, namesake of Amherst, Massachusetts and Amherst College.

For any of my projects I welcome users active editing of the introduction page including thehttp://www.geni.com/projects/Namesakes project.

So yes edit away:)

Basic format for cities added to the index:

cities wikipeida link followed by city, state -- person's geni link followed by first name, last name. (birth-death). Very brief blurb about the person.

For example:

* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denver,_Colorado Denver, Colorado] -- [Brig. General James W. Denver (USA) James Denver] (1817- 1892) An American politician, soldier, lawyer, and esteemed actor.

Good to know. :) I just added a slew.

Is anyone already collaborating on Alexander Hamilton, Signer of the US Constitution? Hamilton, Massachusetts (and many other places) are named for him.

These wil all need to both be added to the project and index:

Kearny Mesa, San Diego, CA: named after Brevet Maj. General Stephen W. Kearny, Military Governor of California

Brewster, MA named after "Elder" William Brewster, "Mayflower" Passenger

Wheeler County, George named after Maj. General Joseph "Fightin' Joe" Wheeler (CSA; and USA [post Civil War])

Morgantown, North Carolina named after Brig. General Daniel Morgan (Continental Army)

Ypsilanti, Michigan named after Demetris YPSILANTIS. Does anyone collaborate with his profile manager?

Marshall, Virginia named after Brig. General Daniel Morgan (Continental Army)

Wintrhop, MA named after John Winthrop, Gov. of Massachusetts Colony

Peekskill, NY named after Johannes Peek

Fillmore, UT named after Millard Filmore, 13th President of the USA

Clark Counties in the following states are all named after Gen. George Rogers Clark (Virginia Militia): Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, and Virginia.

McKinleyville, California named after William McKinley, 25th President of the USA

New Orleans, is named after

Tallmadge, Ohio is named after Col. Benjamin Tallmadge

New Oreans is named after http://www.geni.com/people/Philippe-II-Duke-of-Orl%C3%A9ans/6000000...

Webster, New York is named after Daniel Webster, U.S. Senator and Secretary of State

Harrisville, Utah is named after Martin Harris

Dallas, TX purportedly named after George Mifflin Dallas, 11th Vice President of the USA

Lefors, TX is named after George Mifflin Dallas, 11th Vice President of the USA

Everett, MA is named after Edward Everett, Governor, U.S. Senator and Secretary of State

Downe Township, Cumberland County, New Jersey named after Elizabeth Downes Franklin

Wise County, Virngina is named after Brig. General (CSA) & Governor Henry A. Wise

Lewisburg, West Virginia is named after Brig. General Andrew Lewis (Continental Army)

I'm skipping adding Dallas, TX as even the Dallas Historical society doesn't know for sure who the city was named after. It seems that the county however was named after George Mifflin Dallas, 11th Vice President of the USA

SOURCE: http://www.dallashistory.org/history/dallas/topics.htm#dallas_name

Lewisburg, Wise County, Downe Townhip, Everett, Lafors Harrisville and Webster are all added.

Added all of the Montgomery towns, which are named for Maj. Gen. Richard Montgomery (Continental Army). Montgomery County, Alabama is named for Lemuel P. Montgomery, if someone can track him down.

Randy: From your list, I added "Elder" William Brewster, "Mayflower" Passenger, Johannes Peek, Millard Filmore, 13th President of the USA, Brig. General Daniel Morgan (Continental Army), William McKinley, 25th President of the USA, John Winthrop, Gov. of Massachusetts Colony, Col. Benjamin Tallmadge, and http://www.geni.com/people/Philippe-II-Duke-of-Orl%C3%A9ans/6000000....

Montgomery County is a county located in the U.S. state of Iowa. As of 2000, the population was 11,771. It was named in honor of Richard Montgomery, an American Revolutionary War general killed in 1775 while attempting to capture Quebec City, Canada. Its county seat is Red Oak.
General Montgomery does not seem to be profiled on Geni

SS Red Oak Victory, named after Red Oak Iowa.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Red_Oak_Victory

Purcell Oklahoma-
Purcell Indian Reservation
I am looking for Indian heritage on the Purcell side of my family and not having much luck. Joseph Burr Purcell was my Great Grandfather.
His Wife Was Bertha Miller Her father was Manuel Miller and I don't know of a town Miller but there are Miller Gion Rolls. for the indian reservation rolls

@Tammy Jean Gehie, what tribe are you looking for? We do have a couple projects for chiefs- Choctaw and Cherokee- there may be more, I can't remember without looking. There are connections sometimes through marriage to other tribes, as well.

Not sure which tribe. Have been told that the Indian Blood is there but when we asked our Great Grandmother Bertha Purcell(Miller) about a picture that looked like a indian woman that she had she ripped it up and said what is in the closet stays in the closet. I have found both Purcell and Miller names on the Dawes rolls and The Miller Guion rolls under about 4 different tribes. So many in our family look indian and have the indian traits its scary. Most of the names are on the Choctaw and Cherokee tribes but some on the White Apache and some on the Souix. If you look on the census records and it is listed as Emmigrant instead of with and I they were Indian and were already here. It may also be listed as an Old Settler. I have done all I know to do to find this connection and Any information on the would be great.

Tammy

My suggestion is to post the public profile of the ancestor with the rumored Indian ancestry on our "public" discussions, with a good title like "seeking more details of ancestry for Joseph Burr Purcell (dates, location)

Newbury Park, California was named after @Egbert Starr Newbury I [Egbert Starr Newbury, I, founder of Newbury Park, CA].

Private User

I added Newbury Park, CA to the index and linked it to the profile and sent a collaboration request to the profile manager so that I could add it to the project.

Seattle named for Chief Seattle

If anyone collaborates on Alexander Baring, 1st Baron Ashburton's profile, the town of Alexander, Maine is named for him.

The actual name of "Chief Seattle" is "Sealth". However, Duwamish tribal belief is supposed to be that if you say the real name of the dead, it's supposed to somehow disturb them. (Source, by memory, is Bill Speidel's book "Doc Maynard"... couldn't give a page number as my memory isn't that good...)

The town I grew up in, near Seattle, is called Auburn, named after Auburn, New York, but at one time, it was named Slaughter, after Lt. Williams Slaughter who died in the northern part of town during the 1855 Indian War (when pretty much the entire Salish coast tried to evict the newly arrived white settlers).

I see in the Wikipedia page that someone included the name of the town's hotel, "Slaughter House", supposedly just off the town's railroad station (not far from the present commuter rail station).

Apparently some other settlers who were perhaps a bit more marketing-oriented led the effort on the name change to the New York town.

Other Green/White/Duwamish River Valley (South King County, North Pierce County) locations named for people:

Kent's original name was Titusville, after early settler James Henry Titus.

Renton is named after Captain William Renton, who financially backed the town and the coal company associated with it. (Shattuck Street is named for Charles D. Shattuck, who operated the Renton Coal Mine.)

Burien is named for Gottlieb von Boorian, who originally called his town "Sunnydale". He apparently came from somewhere in present Germany (guess that would be the German Empire or the Kaiserlich Deutsches Reich) to the Seattle are in 1880.

Georgetown District of Seattle is named for George M. Horton, son of Julius Horton who platted the original town (it was swallowed up by a growing Seattle early in the 20th century).

Unincorporated community of Christopher (between Kent and Auburn) named for Thomas Christopher, who established a post office there.

Unincorporated community of Thomas (also between Kent and Auburn) named for former Kentucky settler John M. Thomas, who called the land on which his community grew as "Pialsche" - named for a Native American friend that lived nearby.

Unincorporated community of O'Brien (near the present Kent Boeing plant) named for Morgan and Terence O'Brien, who led a community of Irish Catholics who settled at that location. They called their community the "White River Post Office." O"Brien eventually stuck.

Dieringer, between Pacific and Sumner on the East Valley Highway, apparently named for a Joseph Dieringer. Not at all sure if he was the engineer involved with the Dieringer Power Station (hydro power, generates electricity from water draining out of Lake Tapps to the White River in the valley below). There are a bunch of Dieringers that relocated to nearby Buckley from Wisconsin in the late 1800s, so he could be just the farmer who owned the most land near the power station (the town had a high school, which has recently been converted to a commercial building, though it is a historical landmark). Apparently the Dieringer School District was formed in 1890, and the power station and Lake Tapps were created in 1911, so that seems to support the latter idea.

Sumner, south of the county line, was named for U.S. Senator Charles Sumner from Massachusetts, who was assaulted by South Carolina Representative Preston Brooks in the midst of growing tensions between North and South prior to the Civil War.

Buckley - named for J. M. Buckley, Northern Pacific Railway superintendent.

Ravensdale - to the east of the Valleys, originally named Leary for John Leary, who sponsored the Leary Coal Company that was located near the town (renamed for a flock of ravens that fed on grains spilling from boxcars on the nearby Northern Pacific tracks).

Franklin - I want to say that this was named for Benjamin Franklin, but to be honest, I've not found anything to confirm that. It was a ghost town, one of my favorite places to walk around the woods, next to a huge gorge, and with a mine shaft that took about 10 minutes for a rock to hit bottom (they say 1,300 feet depth), and an abandoned overgrown graveyard (since cleared).

Oh, and the counties:

King County: Named for William Rufus DeVane King, who was Vice President for 45 days under President Franklin Pierce, but it was during those 45 days that Washington Territory was created.

Pierce County... will let you guess that one.