How Missouri Counties, Towns and Streams Were Named (Volume 1-5) (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text, images, or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1916. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... HOW MISSOURI COUNTIES, TOWNS AND STREAMS WERE NAMED. David W. Baton. Third Article. In Missouri streams not large enough to be navigable are called "Creeks." This was not the original usage of the term, and such streams in some eastern states are called brooks, runs and rivulets or rills. "Creek" originally meant the tidal inlet at the mouth of a small river or brook, and the term is so used in England to this day. It was a place where vessels might anchor with safety, and this idea is expressed in the Bible in connection with Paul's shipwreck. Acts 27.S9. "And when it was day they knew not the land, but they discovered a certain creek with a shore into which they were minded, if it were possible, to thrust the ship." This is the sense in which the word "creek" is applied to the numerous tidal inlets in eastern Maryland and Virginia. Afterwards the settlers extended the name to the brook or stream emptying into them, and afterward this same term was attached to other streams, altogether inland. Thus, Popes' Creek in Westmoreland, Va., on which George Washington was born, is a tidal inlet and not a stream in the sense Missourians use the term. Monroe's Creek, on which President Monroe was born, was a similar tidal inlet, the stream emptying into it being so insignificant as to be almost lost in the alders and willows bordering its banks. In the spelling of names, the postal authorities have been followed, and they are subject to the decree of the Board of Geographic names. Sometimes it is a far cry from the original spelling. "What was Goose Creek once is Tiber now," and we find the French word "Bois Brule" spelled "Babruly," which is not so bad as some others. Of course the original settler spelled it as he knew or pleased, just as "Samivel" did. Dicken...