Towns, Towns & Way More Towns
Towns, Towns & Way More Towns
534 found to date. An unbelievable number! Well, it is when it relates to the number of towns (communities, whistle stops) found in Montgomery County! This was a project started for the Montgomery County INGenWeb page back in about 2000 and with a wonderful group of people helping (Suzie Zach Baldwin, Jerry Turner, Bill Boone, Ron Keedy, Dellie Craig, the Rushes, Chris Hayes and many more, along with the Crawfordsville Library’s (databases and workers) and reading hundreds of old newspapers catching town names, the number now totals 534.
Just when we think there is no way we could find anymore, here comes one, or two, or three in the most recent case of Onion Town, Poverty’s Knoll and Vinegar Hill (suburbs added to Darlington in 1890). So many funny names, names indicating an area, those named for people, religious aspects and much more.
Colors are big with Blue Eyes in Franklin Township, Black Swamp near Parkersburg, Brownsville (Browns Valley) and Whitesville and White Church. Speaking of Church there were several Chapels (Kingsley; Liberty; Salem; Union; Walnut; Youngs) along with Faithville and Heaven’s Garden in that line.
Not sure how many corners would be in MoCo, but there were several towns and – just put Corner behind these names – Cowan; Council; Fruits; Hickory; Hyten; Ingersoll; Kimler; McBee; McCabe; McCrea; McDowell; Oswalt; Pickett, Uncle Sam’s and Utterback. There is also a feel of the Irish flair there as well, as you can tell.
The lay of the land was found in some of the abandoned towns and present as well. Bunker Hill, Clore’s Grove, Flowing Springs, High Bluff, High Point, Leiter’s Ford, Boulder Valley and Prairie Edge are examples.
Believe it or not, we had some named for states and such here as well – Oklahoma, Kentuck, California, Idaho, Texas and even an Ireland.
There were many with a fun flair such as “Merry Widow” which was an Interurban cross-road stop. The town was also called Akers so perhaps Mrs. Akers was the Merry Widow? Milligan was not the Milligan south of Waveland (our family’s hometown for five generations – see mom, Kate Smith Bazzani by the sign) just into Parke County nor where Milligan Park is but in Section 5, Union Township probably in the Highland area. Muddy Lane could have been about anywhere in the county up until the roads were improved in the 1920s-30s or so, but in truth it was in Ripley Township. Another corner, was Musical Corner which is thought to have been (names Goble, Lollis, Davidson, Howard) in lower Clark Township at the turn into the 1900s. Not sure if the people were extremely musical but you’d think so, at least. Needmore – what did they need more of anyway – but this was north of where Beckville is today and families in the area were Bruce, Payne, Perry, Mount, Spohr.
Lots of numbers – Nine Mile Prairie in Coal Creek Township literally ran across the top of the county for nine miles (County Road 1200 North). Number 13 was west and north of New Richmond until the late 1800s. Number 35 in Union Township was right near the Ripley Township line – names being Keller, Lewellen, and Vancleave. Speaking of numbers, all the county schools had numbers, some names too but #4 in Ripley Township may have simply been that whereas there was also a #4 in each township. Talk about confusing!
We all love food and there were quite a few towns reflecting such. Buttermilk Town, near New Market; Cherry Grove where most of you will know the area although the original Cherry Grove would be a couple miles north of the current elevator. Coffeeville, sadly, is one of the few we just found a name for and no location. PawPaw Bend isn’t much better but it is thought it may refer to a bend in Sugar Creek in the upper Union - Sugar Creek area. Two Pumpkins blessed our midst. Pumpkin Butter X Roads – note it is not spelled out but had the X for Cross. This dated back to the 1880s and although we’re not sure where it is we need to check out the families mentioned in the old newspapers- Hurd, Ammerman, Templer, Burson, Huff and Wisehart. Pumpkin Ridge was also in the 1880s and not completely sure where it was but by the names, it was likely near New Richmond. Potato Creek Station was in Sugar Creek Township and in the 1870s had a daily mail delivery clear up to the late 1890s. You may have heard of the Potato Creek Church – it was there! Trout or Troutman or Troutman Mills was also called Metropolis Mills, found in the 1878 atlas and was located near where the Country Club is today.
Trees reflected a number of towns – Ash Grove, Beech Grove, Cypress, Hickory Corner, Lone Tree, Magnolia Mills, Maple Grove (and Maple Hill); Oak Grove; Pine Bluff; Sycamore Ford.
Then there were a lot of odd ones such as Gallagher’s Gas Well; Loverhill; Ghostville; Scatterville; Tattler’s Corner; and Tramp City to name a few.
Duplicates were a few such as Paddack Corner in both Sugar Creek and Madison. Fairview in Brown and Union; Martin’s Crossroads, Coal Creek and Walnut; Turnipseed Corner (Madison and Sugar Creek).
Now, it seems that animals was likely the big topic for naming towns in MoCo. Blue Heron Rookery; Buffalo Ridge; Deer Ford; Dogtown; Duck Pond Corner; Fish Pond Corner; Frog Pond; Hog Heaven; Opposum Ridge and Tiger Valley to name some.
For sure, several places did not sound at all appealing to live such as Ash Pile; Bald Hill; Bed Bug Corner (and yep, it was named because the homes in that corner had so many Bed Bugs); Boot Hill; Hard Scrabble; Mossy Dell and Wringneck.
Whitlock, Offield, Manson Hill, Lane, Elmore Corner, Wingate were named for famous Montgomery Countians, of course.
Could talk about the towns for five articles, likely, but suffice to say if you’re interested, you can visit the lengthy list at ingenweb.org/inmontgomery and go to Towns using the “Get-Around Links”– if you use it in any way, just ask that you give the site credit as many wonderful volunteers did the great work on it. Thanks ! ---kbz