| |
THE
NAMING OF NAMES
by John Troesser
"Texas
is one of those rare state names that goes with anything."
- John Fergus
Ryan
Can you imagine Abilene, Wisconson or Lubbock, Massachucetts? |
If
you live in Texas, there are several books
on Texas place names. The most recent and one of the best is "Muleshoe
& More: The Remarkable Stories Behind the Naming of Texas Towns" by
Bill Bradfield & Clare Bradfield. We thought our piece "The Naming
of Names" would be an appropriate introduction for the Bradfields' book.
Some of these names may be old hat to our Texas readers, but there's bound to
be some you haven't heard of, and for our out-of-state readers, here's a collection
straight off The Texas Department of Transportation's Official Highway Map
for the year 2000.
Railroads were built by men, but they named many
towns after their women-folk. A sampling:
Louise,
Edna, Inez,
Sarita, Donna,
Mercedes, Maybelle
and Thalia. Pandora
sounds like a place to keep the lid on and Hedley might have been named
after a Lamar family member. (name courtesy of Mel Brooks). For people
who say bafroom or birfday, there's Marfa
as in Marfa Washington. And then there's Maud. There's Winona and
Annona, Lydia and Celeste. Idalou was named after
two girls, as was Mineola.
Desdemonia will
connect us to Iago
and our other male names:
Gordon, Vernon,
Seymour, Chester and Sidney
all have a 19th Century sound to them. There's a New Willard, but no sign
of an old one, and there's a Smiley,
Leroy and Dabney
as well. Some towns are both first and last names like George
West, who got to name the town since he built it on his ranch. Ben
Bolt, the person, has been lost to history, but he's a lyric in a song
and the town still wears his name. Tom Ball has become Tomball,
Burk Burnett has become Burkburnett
and Ed Couch Edcouch.
Tarzan was
condensed when he got here. |
Condense
Milk, Not Names!
While we're
on the subject of condensing: It's safe to say everyone's heard of Texarkana,
and maybe Lake Texoma. But unless you live close to Austonio,
you might not be aware it exists. One would think Austonio would be between Austin
and San Antonio. If one did, then one would be wrong. It's between Houston and
Dallas (Houston County).
There was a recent movie called Happy,
Texas, and indeed there is one. The movie was shot in some other state,
though. Speaking of shooting, there are towns of Gun Sight, Gun
Barrel City, Point
Blank and Cut
and Shoot.
There's the modest trio of Elysian
Fields, Utopia
and Paradise. There's Munday
and Friday and Keene's
Post Office is open on Sunday*. There's Telephone, Telegraph and Energy.
There's Coffee City, which is almost as good as Hot Coffee, Alabama,
and other food names include Raisin,
Oatmeal,
Rice and Noodle.
|
Old
foes here are not forgotten
Indian names are well represented
with Caddo, Seminole,
Comanche
and Kickapoo. While we're sure there's no Sam Houston City in Mexico, we've
got a Santa Anna in
Coleman County. Actually, the town's name comes from local mountains named after
an Indian Chief, or so we're told.
One would think Levelland,
Horizon City and Sundown would be in a straight line, but they're not.
Other names which we hope are only in Texas include: Grice, Latexo, Lazbuddie,
Wamba, and Fluvanna.
|
Texas
is not a four-letter word
But these towns are: Alto
(Cherokee Co.), Port
Alto (Jackson Co.), Acme, Best,
Buda, Bula, Buna, Cash,
Fink, Grit,
Hext, Lawn,
Lodi, Nada, Spur,
Toca, Voca, Wink
and Zorn.
|
Texas
isn't a three-letter word either
Arp,
Dew and Tow. Coy, Joy,
Hye, Guy, and Rye. |
*Since
Keene's population is mostly comprised of Seventh Day Adventists, most businesses
are closed Saturday, but open Sunday. Including the Post Office.
© John
Troesser
June 2000 |
Texas
Town Names / History - Recommended Books |
|
|
|
|
|
| |
