Little known history in your hometown

[Politesse]

The name Llano Estocado is well older than the name Texas,

That depends on whether you mean the modern spelling of "Teyas"or "Tejas," as it appeared in mid sixteenth century Spanish documents. I don't know when Anglos changed it to "Texas," but it must have been at least by the early nineteenth century. It was originally a Caddo indian word.

From "Teycha" in Caddo -- "friends". At least, allegedly. As always, accounts differ...

 

[Tharmas]

The town where I was born, and of which I have only a small handful of vague memories, was Buffalo, New York. Buffalo was not named after the Bison, which are not and never were found around or near Buffalo. Instead it was named by the French, who called it “Beau Fleuve,” which means “beautiful river,” or “big-ass river” or however you want to translate it. English speakers corrupted Beau Fleuve into Buffalo, a more familiar word to them.

Since posting this I have actually done a little internet research and the story is one of many concerning the naming of Buffalo, and is generally not accepted. The Buffalo Historical Society gives it a probability rating of "Low." I learned it from my older brother, back when I thought he knew everything.

 

[Tharmas]

From "Teycha" in Caddo -- "friends". At least, allegedly. As always, accounts differ..

And ironically, after appropriating the name, Texans exterminated to Caddo.

 

[Politesse]

From "Teycha" in Caddo -- "friends". At least, allegedly. As always, accounts differ..

And ironically, after appropriating the name, Texans exterminated to Caddo.

It was a fairly long and complicated process, and the Caddo Confederation has not in fact been exterminated, though it was certainly assaulted, reduced, and dispossessed, currently governing its people from place of long exile in Oklahoma. I've been hoping that the Caddo might be the next obsession for Pekka Hämäläinen, their political history and entanglements with Spain, France, and the US, are a singularly fascinating story.

 

[robnisch]

My mother's family were Oregon settlers. 1846 Applegate trail people. My mother was born in 1915 , so she knew of all the family history.

 

[Tharmas]

I volunteer at the federal prison in Seagoville, Texas, located southeast of Dallas. The other evening I arrived early and had time to read the historical marker at the main gate.

It turns out that “Seagoville FCI” (Federal Correction Institution) had originally been a women’s prison. In 1942 it was converted into an internment camp for U.S. residents of German and Italian descent. So it wasn’t just Japanese Americans who were incarcerated in WWII. I never knew that.

Further research shows that the numbers were quite small, compared to the tens of thousands of Japanese Americans who were incarcerated.

 

[Tigers!]

It's performative speech, emphasizing the exocitism of the perceived interior foreign.

Come again?

 

[Politesse]

It's performative speech, emphasizing the exocitism of the perceived interior foreign.

Come again?

Ie., people deliberately pronounce "foreign" words such that they will "sound foreign", more to express their emotions about the uncomfortable proximity foreign in their midst than because of any natural phonetic reason such as not being able to distinguish between relevant allophones in the other tongue.

 

[rousseau]

The actual town I grew up in is an adjunct to the nearby city so people working in the chemical plants would have somewhere to live. But if you take the entire area (city and towns) as a whole then there isn't too much notable history to speak of. The communities are along St. Clair River and the mouth of Lake Huron, which is a freshwater lake, so were a natural place for (as we call it) Chemical Valley to spring up. Yes, cancer rates are higher in the area. After we drove away the indigenous that's basically it.

Where I live now and have lived for 15 years sprung up along what came to be called the Thames River. In the early days it was a backwater town that existed somewhere between Toronto and Detroit. Over time it became a white-collar financial centre, and also a leader in healthcare. The only thing that comes to mind is that Frederick Banting invented insulin here, and won the Nobel prize in 1923. This city is about five times the size of the one I grew up in, though, so much more history overall.

The two above areas are adjacent to each other and back in the day travel between them was common.

 

[hurtinbuckaroo]

Our President was born in my hometown, but don’t tell anyone; it’s a secret.