“History is so boring!” “I hate history!” Since I taught history for forty years in Junior High School, High School and for a community college, those words came from students from time to time. More often than not, I saw this attitude as I looked out on a class, of which most had eyes glazed over as I tried to pump up some enthusiasm for the subject. Through the course of my career, I used visual aids, trivia of the day, computer searches and work on projects, humor and interesting anecdotes to generate some interest in class. Most of those efforts met with stony silence, especially my jokes!
Yet frequently, years later, some of those same students would greet me in a store or on the street and lament, “I wish I had paid more attention in class”, as they would admit to a newfound interest in history.
And if you want to take a leisurely trip into history, there is no better place to start than a map (or a road trip), because many of the place names remind us of our past. To begin our trip into history, the area where I spent my teenage years is as good a place to start as any. My experience in high school began in Madison, Missouri, a town named for our fourth president, James Madison. We lived in Monroe County, and, you guessed it, named for our fifth President. As a senior in high school, we moved to Randolph County, and its namesake was one of the famous Randolphs of Virginia. Edmund was the first U. S. Attorney General, and John was a long-time politician from the Old Dominion. Our basketball conference took us to Paris and Philadelphia, obvious references, and just a few miles from Palmyra, which was a wealthy and famous city in what is now Syria. Another familiar name was attached to the capital city, which is Jefferson City.
But now we call Illinois home. That, of course, is a name derived from a Native American tribe that lived in the northern part of the state. Many other place names honor Native Americans. Kickapoo State Park harks back to the tribe that roamed across Eastern and Central Illinois. Shawneetown and Shawnee National Forest are found in the southern part of the state, also named for a noted group of indigenous peoples. Mississippians lived in Cahokia near Collinsville. Even the great river, the Mississippi, comes from a native word meaning “father of many waters”.
In the area where we live, the names of the counties remind us of the early history of Illinois and the central U. S. One, Cumberland County, may come from the Gap of the same name that allowed pioneers to breech the Appalachian Mountains to gain access to Ohio Valley. Coles County and Edwards County bear names of early governors of the state.
Ours, Edgar County, is a little different in origin. A land speculator, one who bought and sold large tracts of land for profit gave his name to where we live. John Edgar, a land speculator, “owned” all of the county at one time, selling tracts, buying them up again, and reselling them. As was usual with people of that ilk, it was rumored that he was not entirely to be trusted.
Paris is the county seat of Edgar County, but not named specifically for the French capital. Settlers from Kentucky, from the environs of Paris, Kentucky, dubbed their new town after that. Of course, with many states having this name, we know that the original designation was from the European city.
If you are reading this and live in this area, several place names hark back to the beginnings of Paris and Edgar County, in 1823. Blackburn Cemetery and Blackburn Street got their designation from one of the earliest settlers, one who came before the county and town were “born”. Vance School and Vance Street honored Cyrus Vance, who gave the 26 acres, which would become Paris. If you are interested in local history, the Carnegie Library (wonder where they got that name?) has copies of a late 19th century book that gives much detail into the early days of Paris and Edgar County. Warning — it is not an easy read. One detail that may be hard to confirm is that Grandview, in the western part of the county, was named for the cemetery, which, located on a small hill, had a “grand view” toward the southwest.
Early Illinois history is enshrined in the names of early explorers — Marquette (a park); Joliet and LaSalle. Those were French, so such names were placed on several sites around the states. There is the Embarrass River (and cemetery), although not pronounced like the French do. Same with Marseilles, derived from the southern port of France on the Mediterranean. Across the Wabash River, Terre Haute, a phrase meaning “high ground” came into being because of French traders. Further south from there, the city of Vincennes got its name from a French city.
We are not sure about Champaign, but perhaps it derived from the Champagne area of France. Other interesting names are Toledo (Spain), Albion, an ancient name for Britain, Vienna, from Austria, and Hidalgo, which seems to have gotten the name from one of the towns where the treaty ending the Mexican War was signed (dictated, really).
Decatur was named in honor of Stephen Decatur, the hero of the Barbary Coast War, and Monticello was the name of Jefferson’s home in Virginia.
There are many other place names of towns, cities, rivers and parks across the landscape here in the center of the country that remind us of our past and are worth exploring. Perhaps this trivia blog will encourage some to look around and realize that the past does impact the present. And it is a fascinating study to find out about what has happened before.
To paraphrase George Santayana “those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it”. Do not forget history. And see that it is all around us.