close

Genealogical society speaker provides naming lesson

3 min read
article image -

WAYNESBURG – Greene County Senior Judge Terry Grimes shared information about how townships, boroughs and some of the small towns of Greene County came to be named as guest speaker at the March meeting of the Cornerstone Genealogical Society.

Greene County itself was formed from five southern townships of Washington County in 1796, Grimes said. The original five townships were Richhill, Morgan, Greene, Cumberland and Franklin.

It is believed Richhill was named for the rich soil in that area of the county, he said. Morgan, Greene and Franklin were named for Col. George Morgan, Gen. Nathanael Greene and Benjamin Franklin, respectively.

Most townships and boroughs in the county were named for its early pioneers and military or political figures of the day.

However, there are some less mundane reasons we now have places such as Dunkard Township and the towns of Jefferson and Brave, according to Grimes’ research.

The area that currently comprises Jefferson was at one time three separate towns known as Hamilton, Jefferson and Harmony, Grimes said. The eastern section of town was Jefferson, the western section was Hamilton and the area in between was Harmony.

As the story goes, Thomas Hughes named the eastern section of town Jefferson and his rival, Colonel Heaton, named the western section Hamilton.

Residents living in the middle of these two factions, who wished to stay out of the argument between Hughes and Heaton, chose Harmony.

Ultimately, the postal department made the decision to select Jefferson as its name.

Dunkard Township owes its name to the creek that runs through it.

That, in and of itself, isn’t all that interesting, but the creek was named for a religious group nicknamed the dunkers or dunkards.

The group was part of the German Baptist Brethern and was so named for its practice of trine immersion, or immersing a candidate for baptism three times in the names of the members of the Holy Trinity.

In Wayne Township, the town of Brave also would be named by the postal department, at least indirectly. Brave was once known as Kent’s Mill for the William Kent Farm and later was shortened to Kent, Grimes said.

When Kent, also known as Dent due to a typographical error in the 1865 Caldwell’s Atlas, was combined with the village of Shamrock, the name Brave was selected. Grimes said lore has it that the postmistress of Shamrock suggested naming it Brave for her dog.

The next meeting of the Cornerstone Genealogical Society will be held April 14 in the log courthouse, with Dave Lesako speaking on the topic of landscape art.

CUSTOMER LOGIN

If you have an account and are registered for online access, sign in with your email address and password below.

NEW CUSTOMERS/UNREGISTERED ACCOUNTS

Never been a subscriber and want to subscribe, click the Subscribe button below.

Starting at $3.75/week.

Subscribe Today