Deseret Evening News | 1905-04-28 | Page 9 | The Origin of "Des Moines"

TUB THE ORIGIN OP OF MOINES The of or lown Capital la III Not No of or French but bu an Indian Derivation After AUer three years of at debate Ion n philological ro 10 roc c the city of ot Des Del capital capitalor or f lown has decided that Iha I It IH Mt it of at French extraction The dI Im was Willi brought to n II crisis year ngO Ko when nn writer In a II raised railed a aJ demand that French explorers such lIah Brand and nc ni men n as all Hen Ien Henn n Pin Des M l be Je adequately represented nt the Ihl sn HI L I uis The Iowa debate had at least settled that lies Dell u not named 1 after I riel I any French explorer thoro never wall wag such a n proper name and that them thoro no good philological explanation of or tho Ihl name And yet ot It I looks French lI Is I supposed to bo Is pronounced lee Dee Moyn 1011 as 31 If It It French I Hut the name comes from the Indians It wis originally Mild and wan U given lo to the ties Del river ller by I y Koine HOlne of ot the On various French maps which hale been looked up It Il was lI put down us liS Hut Bill thu th French r wrote It Tho character 8 was used by b them it 1 t tI that I ha t to signify the sound of or on onAH AH a 1 result the early Americans who followed the Frenchmen Into the valley not having to write explain thin old French character cut tha word to Main Then when the of or development came the river known knon as the assumed to have hA been heNI I by br tho French and the le De Dewall was wall substituted uh for tor the tho article Finally tho substitutions nf ot a Il uniform uniformly I ly Iy French spelling It lies Ds Maine without changing the It originally a pure Indian mime 1111 Int Inu hilI a II series of accidental have made It apparently a n French I word ward Its In the Indian i has 1111 been utterly lost people who might have hae explained point were dead l before tho Iho Indian name mm nB sup supposed suppo posed po cd to have hll 0 had to do with the tho present of the caplin I city H It was Waa supposed ed for tal many years um r tho theory the name was French F It meant the monks but Investigation gation utterly disproved this The Tho French who came after the name wn WM adapted to French forms were the most mOlt BH All to Its It meaning In French L