Old and Lost Vermont Town Names
October 31, 2024
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On any digital or paper Vermont map, you can easily find Vermont’s 252 cities and towns. But what you won’t find as easily are lost Vermont town names like Vineyard or Mansfield.
Vineyard is now Isle La Motte and Mansfield is now Stowe. Dig a little deeper and you’ll find that Medway is now Mendon, Turnersburg is now Chelsea, Ely is now Vershire, and Two Heroes is now North and South Hero.
There is even the lost Vermont town name of Philadelphia, located near Mount Horrid, which was annexed to nearby Chittenden and Rochester.
“Lost, changed and relic place names are just one of many examples of things there are to explore about Vermont history and geography,” says Steve Farrow, of Newport. He now teaches geography at Community College of Vermont.
-A Vermont map from 1789 shows Elysiana (circled), what is now Holland. Main photo is of Holland Pond, courtesy of Holland’s Hidden Haven Instagram account.
Names to Reflect Paradise or Greek Mythology
Farrow attended UVM in the 1980s, and his master’s thesis focused on Vermont place names. He grew up in Holland, near the Canadian border, and his hometown was once called Elysiana.
He says Vermont’s early surveyors, including Ira Allen, sized up new towns and lands as prospects that could be sold. One way to attract settlers seeking land was to give the town a desirable name.
Elysiana is a perfect example as it was likely named after the Elysian Fields in Greek mythology, Farrow says. In Greek mythology, if the gods chose you, you would go to the Elysian Fields.
“A name like Elysiana was thought to be a place of greenery, flowing cool waters and shaded restful places,” he says. “It’s easy to imagine that people thought they could draw folks to this magical place.”
Other names, like the existing towns of Athens, Troy and Eden, shared the same purpose—to attract settlers.
“Those are classic examples of commendatory names,” Farrow says. “Classical names and biblical names were also very popular.”
-The base of Mount Horrid in Brandon Gap. The nearby area was once known as Philadelphia, a lost Vermont town name.
Happy Vermont Podcast: Lost Vermont Town Names and Place Names
In this podcast episode of Happy Vermont, Erica Houskeeper meets with Steve Farrow at Wheeler Pond in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom to talk about lost Vermont town names, place names and Vermont geography.
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