What’s in a Name

With spring well under way, I am sure that many of you take the opportunity to tour the United Counties. If you do, you will encounter numerous puzzling place names such as Mountain, when there isn’t a hill in site, or Inkerman, a place in the Crimea, or my favourite Goldfield.

Here are some of the answers to these riddles.

Towns and villages were frequently named after the first settlers, family member of the local postmaster, nostalgia, politicians or in the case of Avonmore as an April Fool’s joke.

Yes you read that right. Originally name Hough’s Mills, the first postmaster renamed the village Avonmore, Gaelic for “great” or “Big River” on April Fool’s Day, 1864. The Payne River that runs by the village may be a fine stream, but when compared to Canada’s other rivers it cannot be considered to be “Big!”

Nostalgia also played a large role in the naming various settlements. Berwick for example was named after the village in Scotland where many of the first pioneers came from. Scottish names are found all throughout Glengarry County, which was named after Scotland’s Glengarry River Valley, the ancestral home of many of the County’s settlers. Dallkeith, originally known as Robertson’s Mills, received its present name in 1868, and was the “seat” of the Dukes of Buccleuch, located south of Edinburgh. Present day Dunvegan was originally called Kenyon after the township of the same name, but received its present name from the home of the Clan Macleod on the Isle of Skye.

Then there is Maxville, which from 1847 to 1852 was called Macs Corners, after the numerous “Macs,” in the area. In 1880, postmaster John McEwan renamed it Maxville with the arrival of the train station.

(PHOTO 1) This postcard shows main Street Maxville, looking south from the railway tracks, circa 1906.

Loyalist German heritage is reflected in two places in Hanover, which many pioneers derived from, Osnabruck and Luneburg.

(Photo) 2 -Lancaster’s Prison

The caption on this World War 1 era postcard states the building is Lancaster’s Prison. I have not been able to find any reference to a jail in Lancaster, and as this structure looks suspiciously like a one-room school house, I wonder if the postcard manufacturer wasn’t playing a practical joke. Any information would be welcome. As for the name, it either refers to the English County of Lancaster, or Duke of Lancaster, the future George III before he became king.

Many postmasters liked the sound of their own name, leading Malcolm Munro to name his hamlet Munroes Mills. The same holds true for Tyotown, the anglicised rendition of the French name “Taillon, by postmaster Joseph Tyo. Using family names was not restricted to Glengarry County. Loyalist Captain Duncan named the river settlement, just west of the future Morrisburg, Mariatown, after his daughter Maria. Which leads us to Morrisburg named Postmaster-General James Morris, from Brockville, famous for introducing mail cars to trains, thereby speeding up delivery throughout Canada West.

Dalhousie Mills in Glengarry, is believed to have been named after George Ramsay, 9th Earl of Dalhousie and Canada’s Governor-General from 1820-28, and of course the mill. In the same vein, Elma was named after the daughter of the Province of Canada’s Governor-General, Lord Elgin.
The mid-19th century Crimean War with Russia gave the area one name and took away another. Inkerman was named a year after the Franco-Anglo victory over the Russians in 1855. Dunbar’s name on the other hand was changed in 1865, from the Crimean city of Sevastopol, the scene of a prolonged siege.

(Photo 3 Apple Hill)

A circa 1910 postcard showing Antoine Dancause’s General Store, Apple Hill. The Village received its name in 1882 when the railway was constructed through Sandy Kennedy’s apple orchard.

Similarly postmaster Alex McKay christened the settlement he lived in, Morewood, because it was surrounded by dense forests.

Stormont County’s Goldfield received its name due to the fact that very small deposits of gold were found in the fields around this site during the gold fevered 1890s. Tests were carried out to determine if would be commercial viable to mine the fields. These dreams were dashed when the tests proved disappointing, but the name remained with the old whistle stop turning into a rich dairy farming centre.

(Photo 4 Viscount Stormont)

Stormont County was named after this British diplomat diplomat David Murray, 7th Viscount of Stormont, affirming once more the region’s connections to the United Kingdom.

(Photo 5 Finch)

An early 20th century postcard of Main St. Finch. The village was named after a family related to Stormont by marriage to Stormont.
And then there are Dundas County’s three Mountains all receiving their monikers after the Reverend Jacob mountain (1750-1825,) Lower Canada’s first Protestant Bishop.

(Photo 6)

A postcard showing South Mountain’s former railway station.

Residents of a small hamlet south of Maxville, named their settlement Dominionville to mark their new country’s first dominion day picnic in 1867.

And this is just a short sampling!