When my parents relocated our family to Southern California in September of 1960, we moved in with my aunt, uncle and two cousins. My aunt and uncle had rented a four-bedroom, two-bath home in Garden Grove, California. The quarters were tight for two families especially since my family was twice the size of my aunt and uncles' family.
The house at that time was owned by the State of California because it was in the right of way for the Garden Grove freeway that was planned to be built. The planning and execution of this kind of project often took years to complete so the state would rent the properties for short periods of time that were ultimately destined to be torn down. The house on Hope Street was one such house.
We lived together to the end of the school year. My parents, still awaiting the sale of their house in Minnesota, looked for rental house to which we could move just after the school year ended in June. This house was also a "state house."
In June, 1961, we moved to a house on Hebard Place. Although it only had three bedrooms, it was a much nicer house than the Hope Street house. The Hope Street house was a tract house that was built to be affordable to the thousands of families that were moving to Southern California from other states in the late 1950s.
That house was a "tinny" house. At that time, anything that was described as tinny meant cheap or of poor quality. I remember the first night that the Santa Ana winds blew when we were in the Hope Street house. I thought the house was going to be lifted into the air like the Kansas house in the Wizard of OZ movie.
The Hope Street house was called a slab house because it was built on a cement slab. It had no basement, nor did it have a crawl space under the house. The Hebard Place house did have a crawl space under the house. It had hardwood floors and a more interesting U-shaped footprint as compared to the rectangular footprint of the Hope Street house.
The bedrooms were separated from the kitchen, dining and laundry room by the livingroom. The second bathroom was by the laundry room and was accessible from the backyard. The huge garage was detached and at the end of a long driveway. The backyard was very large.
My mother had a clothes line in the backyard and there was a huge fig tree in the very back. The fig tree was a magnet for kids who loved to climb. None of the houses on Hebard Place looked alike. The Hebard Place houses were not tract houses.
Before that next June, my parents had sold the house in Minnesota and looked for a house to buy. The State of California was offering the houses on Hebard Place for sale for almost nothing as long as you moved the house to another location. My parents weren't interested in purchasing that house so periodically some people would show up to see the house.
When that would happen my mother would be very upset because she had not had the time to clean the house. There was Saturday morning when the real estate sales person showed up unannounced with a prospective buyer. Toys were everywhere--not surprising in a home with six children. My mother apologized profusely for the dirty house. I remember the woman who was looking at the house told my mother that toys didn't make a dirty house.
The Garden Grove freeway was built. The Hope Street house survived but all of Hebard Place did not. I have often wondered what ever happened to that house.
The wife of my mother's cousin died a little over a week ago. I began thinking about days when my mother's sister and her aunt moved to California and how close we lived to one another. I thought about the Hebard Place house and couldn't remember the address of the house we rented.
Google searches for maps of the area about 1960 turned up fruitless. I did find Hebard Place in Precinct 50 in the California Voters Registrations of September in 1958, 1960 and 1962. My parents had moved to the house they purchased in June 1962 so are not found in Precinct 50 in 1962. I found many addresses but none of them triggered an "aha."
I know that we lived on the eastside of the street and that we lived within one or two houses from Euclid Street. It would appear that the Hebard house was at 11011 or 11021 Hebard Place.
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Monday, June 6, 2011
What If San Antonio, Texas Was Called Yanaguana Part 4
This is the final part of a four part blog based on a map entitled, "If U. S. Cities had kept their original names." If you read the previous three postings, you realize that in several cases the name of a city on the map was a town or village that was annexed to the city with the name we currently call it.
Crow Creek Crossing (Cheyenne, WY)
General Grenville M. Dodge platted a site on July 5, 1867, in the Dakota Territory where the Union Pacific Railroad crossed Crow Creek. Dodge called this area Crow Creek Crossing. Others who were with Gen. Dodge decided to name the site Cheyenne after the Cheyenne Nation.
Montana City (Denver, CO)
Montana City was established in the summer of 1858 as a mining and supply settlement by a group of gold-seekers from Lawrence, Kansas. The Russell group from Georgia at the same time established a settlement named Auraria. That winter Montana City was abandoned and the group created the St. Charles townsite on the east bank of Cherry Creek. However, in November 1858, General William Larimer staked out a claim at the confluence of the South Platte River and Cherry Creek. This claim was across the creek from Auraria. He and others of the Denver City Land Company sold parcels of the land. They chose the name of their town to garner favor of the Kansas territorial governor, James W. Denver in hopes that their town would become the county seat of Arapaho County.
Little London (Colorado Springs, CO)
General William Jackson Palmer came to the area in 1870 from Pennsylvania. He envisioned the site as a resort area. A year later, he formed the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad and founded the city of Colorado Springs. Because of the number of visitors to the resorts who came from England, the city was nicknamed “Little London.”
Last Chance (Helena, MT)
The Four Georgians were a group of gold prospectors that opened the Last Chance Placer in 1864. They called it Last Chance because they had been prospecting in Montana without success and this was going to be their last attempt. Having been successful at finding gold, they saw the population grow to 200 by fall. A group of men met on October 20, 1864 to name the town and build a city. Tomah, Pumpkinville, Squashtown and Winona or Rochester, cities in Minnesota. John Summerville proposed Helena after Helena in Scott County, Minnesota.
Great Salt Lake City (Salt Lake City, UT)
Situated near the Great Salt Lake, when the site was organized as a city on January 6, 1851, it was called the City of the Great Salt Lake. When the territorial capital was moved from Fillmore to Salt Lake City in 1856, the name of the city was officially changed.
Stonewall (Phoenix, AZ)
Jack Swilling visited the area in 1867 and saw the vestiges of canals built by an earlier civilization. He believed that the land could be cultivated with the availability of water. He organized the Swilling Irrigation Canal Company and moved into the Salt River Valley. The company built canals and diverted water from the Salt River. In 1868, a small settlement had formed. It was first known as Swilling’s Mill, then Helling Mill and Mill City. As a former Confederate soldier, Swilling wanted to name the settlement Stonewall after the Confederate general, Stonewall Jackson. Darrell Duppa suggested the name Phoenix since he saw the new city raising from the ruins of a previous civilization. On May 4, 1868, Phoenix was organized.
San Augustin (Tucson, AZ)
The Spanish built a walled fortress on August 20, 1775, Presidio San Augustin de Tucson. Mexico gained independence from Spain in 1821 and the town was called Tucson and the small garrison was called Fort Tucson.
Lake's Crossing (Reno, NV)
Charles William Fuller came to the Truckee Meadows in 1859 and occupied land on the south bank of the Truckee River. He constructed a bridge and a small hotel. The site was known at Fuller’s Crossing. In 1861, he sold the bridge and hotel to Myron C. Lake, who renamed the area Lake’s Crossing and made the bridge a toll bridge. In 1868, the Central Pacific Railroad crossed the Sierra Nevada Mountains from California into the Truckee Meadows. By a joint agreement a town was laid out and was named Reno in honor of General Jesse Lee Reno.
New Helvetia (Sacramento, CA)
In 1808, Gabriel Moraga explored the area and saw a very large river that he named Rio de los Sacramentos. Johann (John) Augustus Sutter arrived in Alta California in August 1839 and was given land by the Mexican governor Juan Bautista Alvarado. He established a trading and farming colony and a stockade (Sutter’s Fort) in 1840 named Nueva Helvetia or New Helvetia (New Switzerland). With the discovery of gold at his mill in Coloma causing hundreds of prospectors and miners to arrive, his New Helvetia was ruined. The wharf that he built at the confluence of the American and Sacramento Rivers prospered. Sutter put his son, John, in charge of constructing a city at the wharf that he intended to be named Sutterville. The city instead was named after the larger of the two rivers. Flooding and fires were persistent problems. These were overcome and the city of Sacramento was selected at the state capital in 1854.
Encinal (Oakland, CA)
Luís María Peralta was given a land grant for his Rancho San Antonio by the Spanish government on August 3, 1820. The grant of 44,800 acres encompassed the current cities of San Leandro, Oakland, Alameda, Emeryville, Piedmont, Berkeley and Albany. An area of the ranch contained a “woodland of oak trees.” This part of the ranch was called encinal, which in Spanish mean “oakland.” The town of Oakland was incorporated on May 4, 1852.
Porciuncula (Los Angeles, CA)
El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de Los Angeles de Porciúncula was founded September 4, 1781. This translates to The City of Our Lady the Queen of the Angels of Small Portion. Porciúncula is derived from the Italian word, porziuncola, which means very small parcel of land.
Fresno Station (Fresno, CA)
In the 1860s a few people settled in a cluster in this site but the area was not considered a town or a village. In 1872, the Central Pacific Railroad laid track through the San Joaquin Valley and called this cluster of dwellings Fresno Station from the name of the county. The railroad builders laid out a town by the station. Millerton, a town 25 miles south was the Fresno County Seat. The inhabitants voted to move the county seat and themselves to Fresno Station. Fresno was incorporated in 1885.
The Clearing (Portland, OR)
Traders and trappers who traveled between Oregon City and Vancouver in the 1830s and the early 1840s had found a small stopping place on the west bank of the Willamette River. They called it “The Clearing.” William Overton and Asa Lovejoy filed a 640-acre claim in 1843 that encompassed “The Clearing.” Lovejoy sold his half of the claim to Francis W. Pettygrove in 1845. Pettygrove wanted to name their new town after his home town of Portland, Maine.
Dewamps (Seattle, WA)
David Denny, John Low and Lee Terry were at the mouth of the Duwamish River in Washington on September 25, 1851 to scout the area. The remainder of the Denny party who had stayed in Portland arrived at Alki Beach (West Seattle) that November. The Denny party settled at Elliott Bay and called their village Dewamps or Duwamps. Dr. David S. Maynard by October 1852 convinced the others to call their village Seattle after the chief of that name. The Duwamish Indians (Dkhw’Duw’Absh) inhabited this area for generations. I haven’t found any proof but I wonder if Dewamps was not derived from Duwamish.
Daniel Geduld, the creator of the map, admits that he took some license when he selected some of the names he included on his map. In some cases, the original name and the current name are so similar that there was little challenge in recognizing it. However, reading the history of the city and something about the early settlers or explorers of the area was interesting.
If Mr. Geduld had included the full name for the city of Los Angeles on his map, the name would have covered all of Southern California. As a former resident of Los Angeles, I am not sure why he shortened the name to Porciuncula. No Angeleno uses that word to identify Los Angeles. LA is often called the City of the Angels or Our Lady Queen of the Angels.
Cahokia (St. Louis) was so interesting that I included a link on to one of the sources of the information I found about Cahokia. Finding source information about Dewamps (Seattle) was most difficult until I viewed a map of Washington and found the Duwamish River near Seattle.
Sources:
If I listed the sources I used in writing this 4-part entry, I would need to add a fifth part. These are the types of resources I used for this article.
Crow Creek Crossing (Cheyenne, WY)
General Grenville M. Dodge platted a site on July 5, 1867, in the Dakota Territory where the Union Pacific Railroad crossed Crow Creek. Dodge called this area Crow Creek Crossing. Others who were with Gen. Dodge decided to name the site Cheyenne after the Cheyenne Nation.
Montana City (Denver, CO)
Montana City was established in the summer of 1858 as a mining and supply settlement by a group of gold-seekers from Lawrence, Kansas. The Russell group from Georgia at the same time established a settlement named Auraria. That winter Montana City was abandoned and the group created the St. Charles townsite on the east bank of Cherry Creek. However, in November 1858, General William Larimer staked out a claim at the confluence of the South Platte River and Cherry Creek. This claim was across the creek from Auraria. He and others of the Denver City Land Company sold parcels of the land. They chose the name of their town to garner favor of the Kansas territorial governor, James W. Denver in hopes that their town would become the county seat of Arapaho County.
Little London (Colorado Springs, CO)
General William Jackson Palmer came to the area in 1870 from Pennsylvania. He envisioned the site as a resort area. A year later, he formed the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad and founded the city of Colorado Springs. Because of the number of visitors to the resorts who came from England, the city was nicknamed “Little London.”
Last Chance (Helena, MT)
The Four Georgians were a group of gold prospectors that opened the Last Chance Placer in 1864. They called it Last Chance because they had been prospecting in Montana without success and this was going to be their last attempt. Having been successful at finding gold, they saw the population grow to 200 by fall. A group of men met on October 20, 1864 to name the town and build a city. Tomah, Pumpkinville, Squashtown and Winona or Rochester, cities in Minnesota. John Summerville proposed Helena after Helena in Scott County, Minnesota.
Great Salt Lake City (Salt Lake City, UT)
Situated near the Great Salt Lake, when the site was organized as a city on January 6, 1851, it was called the City of the Great Salt Lake. When the territorial capital was moved from Fillmore to Salt Lake City in 1856, the name of the city was officially changed.
Stonewall (Phoenix, AZ)
Jack Swilling visited the area in 1867 and saw the vestiges of canals built by an earlier civilization. He believed that the land could be cultivated with the availability of water. He organized the Swilling Irrigation Canal Company and moved into the Salt River Valley. The company built canals and diverted water from the Salt River. In 1868, a small settlement had formed. It was first known as Swilling’s Mill, then Helling Mill and Mill City. As a former Confederate soldier, Swilling wanted to name the settlement Stonewall after the Confederate general, Stonewall Jackson. Darrell Duppa suggested the name Phoenix since he saw the new city raising from the ruins of a previous civilization. On May 4, 1868, Phoenix was organized.
San Augustin (Tucson, AZ)
The Spanish built a walled fortress on August 20, 1775, Presidio San Augustin de Tucson. Mexico gained independence from Spain in 1821 and the town was called Tucson and the small garrison was called Fort Tucson.
Lake's Crossing (Reno, NV)
Charles William Fuller came to the Truckee Meadows in 1859 and occupied land on the south bank of the Truckee River. He constructed a bridge and a small hotel. The site was known at Fuller’s Crossing. In 1861, he sold the bridge and hotel to Myron C. Lake, who renamed the area Lake’s Crossing and made the bridge a toll bridge. In 1868, the Central Pacific Railroad crossed the Sierra Nevada Mountains from California into the Truckee Meadows. By a joint agreement a town was laid out and was named Reno in honor of General Jesse Lee Reno.
New Helvetia (Sacramento, CA)
In 1808, Gabriel Moraga explored the area and saw a very large river that he named Rio de los Sacramentos. Johann (John) Augustus Sutter arrived in Alta California in August 1839 and was given land by the Mexican governor Juan Bautista Alvarado. He established a trading and farming colony and a stockade (Sutter’s Fort) in 1840 named Nueva Helvetia or New Helvetia (New Switzerland). With the discovery of gold at his mill in Coloma causing hundreds of prospectors and miners to arrive, his New Helvetia was ruined. The wharf that he built at the confluence of the American and Sacramento Rivers prospered. Sutter put his son, John, in charge of constructing a city at the wharf that he intended to be named Sutterville. The city instead was named after the larger of the two rivers. Flooding and fires were persistent problems. These were overcome and the city of Sacramento was selected at the state capital in 1854.
Encinal (Oakland, CA)
Luís María Peralta was given a land grant for his Rancho San Antonio by the Spanish government on August 3, 1820. The grant of 44,800 acres encompassed the current cities of San Leandro, Oakland, Alameda, Emeryville, Piedmont, Berkeley and Albany. An area of the ranch contained a “woodland of oak trees.” This part of the ranch was called encinal, which in Spanish mean “oakland.” The town of Oakland was incorporated on May 4, 1852.
Porciuncula (Los Angeles, CA)
El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de Los Angeles de Porciúncula was founded September 4, 1781. This translates to The City of Our Lady the Queen of the Angels of Small Portion. Porciúncula is derived from the Italian word, porziuncola, which means very small parcel of land.
Fresno Station (Fresno, CA)
In the 1860s a few people settled in a cluster in this site but the area was not considered a town or a village. In 1872, the Central Pacific Railroad laid track through the San Joaquin Valley and called this cluster of dwellings Fresno Station from the name of the county. The railroad builders laid out a town by the station. Millerton, a town 25 miles south was the Fresno County Seat. The inhabitants voted to move the county seat and themselves to Fresno Station. Fresno was incorporated in 1885.
The Clearing (Portland, OR)
Traders and trappers who traveled between Oregon City and Vancouver in the 1830s and the early 1840s had found a small stopping place on the west bank of the Willamette River. They called it “The Clearing.” William Overton and Asa Lovejoy filed a 640-acre claim in 1843 that encompassed “The Clearing.” Lovejoy sold his half of the claim to Francis W. Pettygrove in 1845. Pettygrove wanted to name their new town after his home town of Portland, Maine.
Dewamps (Seattle, WA)
David Denny, John Low and Lee Terry were at the mouth of the Duwamish River in Washington on September 25, 1851 to scout the area. The remainder of the Denny party who had stayed in Portland arrived at Alki Beach (West Seattle) that November. The Denny party settled at Elliott Bay and called their village Dewamps or Duwamps. Dr. David S. Maynard by October 1852 convinced the others to call their village Seattle after the chief of that name. The Duwamish Indians (Dkhw’Duw’Absh) inhabited this area for generations. I haven’t found any proof but I wonder if Dewamps was not derived from Duwamish.
Daniel Geduld, the creator of the map, admits that he took some license when he selected some of the names he included on his map. In some cases, the original name and the current name are so similar that there was little challenge in recognizing it. However, reading the history of the city and something about the early settlers or explorers of the area was interesting.
If Mr. Geduld had included the full name for the city of Los Angeles on his map, the name would have covered all of Southern California. As a former resident of Los Angeles, I am not sure why he shortened the name to Porciuncula. No Angeleno uses that word to identify Los Angeles. LA is often called the City of the Angels or Our Lady Queen of the Angels.
Cahokia (St. Louis) was so interesting that I included a link on to one of the sources of the information I found about Cahokia. Finding source information about Dewamps (Seattle) was most difficult until I viewed a map of Washington and found the Duwamish River near Seattle.
Sources:
If I listed the sources I used in writing this 4-part entry, I would need to add a fifth part. These are the types of resources I used for this article.
- Wikipedia and links to the sources used
- National Parks Service Website
- Historical Societies Websites
- Official and and City Websites
- Museum Websites
- Google Books
Sunday, June 5, 2011
What If San Antonio, Texas Was Called Yanaguana Part 3
You've been waiting to hear about San Antonio for a few days. The wait is over as this post includes midwest cities west of the Mississippi. The cities named below can be found on the map at Crasstalk.
Fort Dearborn (Chicago, IL)
Two of Pierre LaSalle’s men built a stockade on the Chicago River in the Winter of 1682-83. A series of wars prevented any extensive settlement by the Europeans. The French controlled the region until 1763 when France ceded the area to England. Britain subsequently ceded the region to the United States in 1783. Fort Dearborn was built in 1803 on the Chicago River at the site that is Chicago. Parts of the fort were destroyed when the Chicago River was widened in 1855 and by fire in 1857. The last of the fort was burned in the Great Chicago Fire of 1872.
St. Anthony (Minneapolis, MN)
In 1849, St. Anthony was platted as a townsite on the east side of St. Anthony Falls and was incorporated in 1855. Minneapolis was founded in 1856 on the west side of the falls. It was incorporated as a city in 1867. In 1872, Minneapolis and St. Anthony merged. Minneapolis was named by the city’s first school teacher who combined the Dakota word for water (mni) and the Greek word for city (polis).
Pig's Eye (St. Paul, MN)
The settlement was originally established at a landing that marked the furthest point up the Mississippi River that steamboats could travel. Prior to this settlement, the Dakota people called the area I-mni-za Ska Dan (little white rocks) because of the white sandstone that was visible. A one-eyed Frenchman, Pierre Parrant, established a saloon at the landing. Both the saloon and Parrant were called Pig's Eye and soon the area was known by the same moniker. Father Lucien Galtier established the Log Chapel of Saint Paul nearby. The settlers saw Saint Paul as a more appropriate name for the growing community.
Fort Raccoon (Des Moines, IA)
In 1843, Captain James Allen constructed a fort at the confluence of the Des Moines and Raccoon Rivers. He wanted to name it Fort Raccoon but the War Department's choice for the name prevailed. Fort Des Moines was abandoned in 1846 when the Sauk and Meskwaki Indians were removed from Iowa. Settlers moved into the abandoned fort and then settled around the fort. In 1851 Fort Des Moines was incorporated as a city and the name shortened to Des Moines.
La Petit Roche (Little Rock, AR)
In 1722, French explorer, Bènard de LaHarpe navigated up the Arkansas River and noted two rock formations that he used as landmarks. The larger formation he termed La Grande Roche (the big rock) and the smaller, La Petit Roche (the little rock). In 1820 the location near the little rock outcropping was surveyed for the town and called Little Rock.
Cahokia (St. Louis, MO)
Pierre Laclede Liguest found a site for a trading post on a bluff above the Mississippi River in 1763. He began clearing the site in February 1764. However, by the Treaty of Paris (1763), France had ceded the lands east of the Mississippi to the English. The French in residing in the villages, Cahokia and St. Philippe, on the east bank of the river moved to the west bank near Laclede’s settlement. Laclede named his village St. Louis in honor of King Louis IX of France. Cahokia, the earliest French settlement that still exists, was founded in 1699. St. Louis is also known as the “Mound City” because of the numerous mounds that once were part of the city’s landscape. These mounds were built by the Cahokia tribe of Native Americans between 600 and 1400 CE. The Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site is near Collinsville, Illinois, a short distance from St. Louis.
Westport Landing ( Kansas City, MO)
The French, the first European settlers in this area, built a fort on the Missouri River in 1723 and called it Fort D’Orléans after the Duke of Orléans. The fort was abandoned by 1726 and its precise location is not known. Lewis and Clark on their way to the Pacific in 1804 camped at the confluence of the Kansas and Missouri Rivers near an area of Kansas City known as Quality Hill and suggested it as a site for a fort. In 1808 Fort Osage was built, not at Quality Hill, but twenty miles above the confluence of the two rivers. Although Missouri was part of the United States at this time, the region around Kansas City was settled by the French. In 1821, François Gesseau Chouteau established a permanent trading post and called it the village of Kansa. Gradually farmers began to settle in the area. Settlers seem to have a preference to being near the river or in the hills. In 1833, John Calvin McCoy opened a trading post in the hills south of the river and called it West Port. He also built a landing on the river that he named Westport Landing. It supplied his trading post at West Port, the last place to get supplies before heading to the west. McCoy, Chouteau and merchants formed the Town of Kansas Company and purchased Gabriel Prudhomme’s farm that bordered Westport Landing. They considered calling their town Port Fonda, Rabbitville or Possum Trot. The Town of Kansas City was incorporated in 1850. The City of Kansas was incorporated in 1853. In 1889, West Port was incorporated into the City of Kansas and the city’s name changed to Kansas City.
Centralia (Fargo, ND)
The village of Centralia was founded on the Red River in 1871. It began to flourish after the arrival of the Northern Pacific Railway in 1872. When the city was incorporated in 1875, it was renamed Fargo in honor of William Fargo, founder of Wells Fargo Express Company and director of the Northern Pacific Railway.
Hay Camp (Rapid City, SD)
The discovery of gold in the Black Hills in 1874 induced a large influx of people looking for gold to camp in the area. The camp on the Rapid Creek was called Hay Camp. By 1876 a group of disenchant miners founded a village at the camp promoting it as the “Gateway to the Black Hills.” When, in 1882, the village was incorporated as a city, the name was changed to Rapid City for the Rapid Creek that flows through it.
Cutler's Park (Omaha, NE)
August 1846, this area became the headquarter camp of 2500 Mormons who were headed to the Rocky Mountains. It was named in honor of Alpheus Cutler who founded the site. The Mormons hoped to stay at the camp for one to two years, but the Mormon leaders were not able to resolve a dispute between the Omaha and Oto Indians and were forced to move their camp to another location a few miles away. They called this camp Winter Quarters. Two years later the group moved west. The town of Florence was built on the site using whatever was left by the Mormons. Florence is one of the oldest cities in Nebraska having been platted in 1854 and incorporated on March 10, 1857. In 1917 the town was annexed by the City of Omaha.
Lancaster (Lincoln, NE)
Founded in 1856, the village of Lancaster became the county seat in 1859 of the newly created Lancaster County. The capital of the Nebraska Territory was Omaha but the more heavily populated area south of the Platte River was considering annexing to Kansas to the south. The territorial legislature voted to move the capital to the south and west of Omaha and the village of Lancaster was selected. Those who wanted Omaha to remain the capital tried to have Lancaster named after the recently assassinated president, Abraham Lincoln. They had hoped that the residence in the southern part of the territory who largely supported the Confederacy would be opposed to the capital being in Lincoln.
Waterloo (Austin, TX)
Anglo Americans began settling in the area of Austin in 1835. Village of Waterloo was founded in 1837 on the Colorado River. Edward Burleson laid out a town in 1838. Mirabeau B. Lamar, the vice-president of the Republic of Texas visited Waterloo and decided that it should be the capital of the republic. Although some, like Sam Houston, opposed the site, Lamar prevailed and the republic purchased several hundred acres of land in and around Waterloo to establish the capital. In honor of Stephen F. Austin, in 1839, Waterloo was renamed Austin.
Franklin (El Paso, TX)
Spanish explorers who first came to this region of Texas from Mexico in the 17th called the area between two mountain ranges El Paso del Norte (pass of the north). Benjamin Franklin Coons purchased a rancho in the area from Juan María Ponce de León. Coons leased some buildings on six acres of the rancho to the US Government as a military post. He then established a hotel, store, warehouse, and tavern near the post in hopes that the presence of the military would attract settlers to his property. The settlement established in 1849 was called Franklin. The name was changed in 1873 when El Paso was incorporated.
Yanaguana (San Antonio, TX)
Yanaguana was the Native American name for the area where San Antonio sits today. Spanish explorers and missionaries arrived at Yanaguana on June 13, 1691. As this was the day of the Feast Day of St. Anthony of Padova, Italy, they named the area San Antonio in honor of St. Anthony.
Tomorrow, I will post information about the remaining fourteen cities found on the map.
To Be Continued...
Fort Dearborn (Chicago, IL)
Two of Pierre LaSalle’s men built a stockade on the Chicago River in the Winter of 1682-83. A series of wars prevented any extensive settlement by the Europeans. The French controlled the region until 1763 when France ceded the area to England. Britain subsequently ceded the region to the United States in 1783. Fort Dearborn was built in 1803 on the Chicago River at the site that is Chicago. Parts of the fort were destroyed when the Chicago River was widened in 1855 and by fire in 1857. The last of the fort was burned in the Great Chicago Fire of 1872.
St. Anthony (Minneapolis, MN)
In 1849, St. Anthony was platted as a townsite on the east side of St. Anthony Falls and was incorporated in 1855. Minneapolis was founded in 1856 on the west side of the falls. It was incorporated as a city in 1867. In 1872, Minneapolis and St. Anthony merged. Minneapolis was named by the city’s first school teacher who combined the Dakota word for water (mni) and the Greek word for city (polis).
Pig's Eye (St. Paul, MN)
The settlement was originally established at a landing that marked the furthest point up the Mississippi River that steamboats could travel. Prior to this settlement, the Dakota people called the area I-mni-za Ska Dan (little white rocks) because of the white sandstone that was visible. A one-eyed Frenchman, Pierre Parrant, established a saloon at the landing. Both the saloon and Parrant were called Pig's Eye and soon the area was known by the same moniker. Father Lucien Galtier established the Log Chapel of Saint Paul nearby. The settlers saw Saint Paul as a more appropriate name for the growing community.
Fort Raccoon (Des Moines, IA)
In 1843, Captain James Allen constructed a fort at the confluence of the Des Moines and Raccoon Rivers. He wanted to name it Fort Raccoon but the War Department's choice for the name prevailed. Fort Des Moines was abandoned in 1846 when the Sauk and Meskwaki Indians were removed from Iowa. Settlers moved into the abandoned fort and then settled around the fort. In 1851 Fort Des Moines was incorporated as a city and the name shortened to Des Moines.
La Petit Roche (Little Rock, AR)
In 1722, French explorer, Bènard de LaHarpe navigated up the Arkansas River and noted two rock formations that he used as landmarks. The larger formation he termed La Grande Roche (the big rock) and the smaller, La Petit Roche (the little rock). In 1820 the location near the little rock outcropping was surveyed for the town and called Little Rock.
Cahokia (St. Louis, MO)
Pierre Laclede Liguest found a site for a trading post on a bluff above the Mississippi River in 1763. He began clearing the site in February 1764. However, by the Treaty of Paris (1763), France had ceded the lands east of the Mississippi to the English. The French in residing in the villages, Cahokia and St. Philippe, on the east bank of the river moved to the west bank near Laclede’s settlement. Laclede named his village St. Louis in honor of King Louis IX of France. Cahokia, the earliest French settlement that still exists, was founded in 1699. St. Louis is also known as the “Mound City” because of the numerous mounds that once were part of the city’s landscape. These mounds were built by the Cahokia tribe of Native Americans between 600 and 1400 CE. The Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site is near Collinsville, Illinois, a short distance from St. Louis.
Westport Landing ( Kansas City, MO)
The French, the first European settlers in this area, built a fort on the Missouri River in 1723 and called it Fort D’Orléans after the Duke of Orléans. The fort was abandoned by 1726 and its precise location is not known. Lewis and Clark on their way to the Pacific in 1804 camped at the confluence of the Kansas and Missouri Rivers near an area of Kansas City known as Quality Hill and suggested it as a site for a fort. In 1808 Fort Osage was built, not at Quality Hill, but twenty miles above the confluence of the two rivers. Although Missouri was part of the United States at this time, the region around Kansas City was settled by the French. In 1821, François Gesseau Chouteau established a permanent trading post and called it the village of Kansa. Gradually farmers began to settle in the area. Settlers seem to have a preference to being near the river or in the hills. In 1833, John Calvin McCoy opened a trading post in the hills south of the river and called it West Port. He also built a landing on the river that he named Westport Landing. It supplied his trading post at West Port, the last place to get supplies before heading to the west. McCoy, Chouteau and merchants formed the Town of Kansas Company and purchased Gabriel Prudhomme’s farm that bordered Westport Landing. They considered calling their town Port Fonda, Rabbitville or Possum Trot. The Town of Kansas City was incorporated in 1850. The City of Kansas was incorporated in 1853. In 1889, West Port was incorporated into the City of Kansas and the city’s name changed to Kansas City.
Centralia (Fargo, ND)
The village of Centralia was founded on the Red River in 1871. It began to flourish after the arrival of the Northern Pacific Railway in 1872. When the city was incorporated in 1875, it was renamed Fargo in honor of William Fargo, founder of Wells Fargo Express Company and director of the Northern Pacific Railway.
Hay Camp (Rapid City, SD)
The discovery of gold in the Black Hills in 1874 induced a large influx of people looking for gold to camp in the area. The camp on the Rapid Creek was called Hay Camp. By 1876 a group of disenchant miners founded a village at the camp promoting it as the “Gateway to the Black Hills.” When, in 1882, the village was incorporated as a city, the name was changed to Rapid City for the Rapid Creek that flows through it.
Cutler's Park (Omaha, NE)
August 1846, this area became the headquarter camp of 2500 Mormons who were headed to the Rocky Mountains. It was named in honor of Alpheus Cutler who founded the site. The Mormons hoped to stay at the camp for one to two years, but the Mormon leaders were not able to resolve a dispute between the Omaha and Oto Indians and were forced to move their camp to another location a few miles away. They called this camp Winter Quarters. Two years later the group moved west. The town of Florence was built on the site using whatever was left by the Mormons. Florence is one of the oldest cities in Nebraska having been platted in 1854 and incorporated on March 10, 1857. In 1917 the town was annexed by the City of Omaha.
Lancaster (Lincoln, NE)
Founded in 1856, the village of Lancaster became the county seat in 1859 of the newly created Lancaster County. The capital of the Nebraska Territory was Omaha but the more heavily populated area south of the Platte River was considering annexing to Kansas to the south. The territorial legislature voted to move the capital to the south and west of Omaha and the village of Lancaster was selected. Those who wanted Omaha to remain the capital tried to have Lancaster named after the recently assassinated president, Abraham Lincoln. They had hoped that the residence in the southern part of the territory who largely supported the Confederacy would be opposed to the capital being in Lincoln.
Waterloo (Austin, TX)
Anglo Americans began settling in the area of Austin in 1835. Village of Waterloo was founded in 1837 on the Colorado River. Edward Burleson laid out a town in 1838. Mirabeau B. Lamar, the vice-president of the Republic of Texas visited Waterloo and decided that it should be the capital of the republic. Although some, like Sam Houston, opposed the site, Lamar prevailed and the republic purchased several hundred acres of land in and around Waterloo to establish the capital. In honor of Stephen F. Austin, in 1839, Waterloo was renamed Austin.
Franklin (El Paso, TX)
Spanish explorers who first came to this region of Texas from Mexico in the 17th called the area between two mountain ranges El Paso del Norte (pass of the north). Benjamin Franklin Coons purchased a rancho in the area from Juan María Ponce de León. Coons leased some buildings on six acres of the rancho to the US Government as a military post. He then established a hotel, store, warehouse, and tavern near the post in hopes that the presence of the military would attract settlers to his property. The settlement established in 1849 was called Franklin. The name was changed in 1873 when El Paso was incorporated.
Yanaguana (San Antonio, TX)
Yanaguana was the Native American name for the area where San Antonio sits today. Spanish explorers and missionaries arrived at Yanaguana on June 13, 1691. As this was the day of the Feast Day of St. Anthony of Padova, Italy, they named the area San Antonio in honor of St. Anthony.
Tomorrow, I will post information about the remaining fourteen cities found on the map.
To Be Continued...
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