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Show NAME TELLS STORY Pennsylvania Towns and Streams Indicate Origin. Welsh Colony Left Its Impress Upon Territory Near Philadelphia Along the Delaware River Crossing over to Carbon county through the Pennsylvania highlands, you meet scores of Indian names that bespeak the topography of the country. coun-try. Some of them are Mauch Chunk, Bear mountain and Towamencin, the wilderness, a name though Indian, was given the forest north of the Blue mountains bv the Jesuit fathers, the first Shenewackes, or pale faces, to invade in-vade it. Nesquehoning, black lick waters. wa-ters. Lick was the Indian name for coal and Nesquehoning is stream from the glen. Nescopeco, now Nescopeck. coal washed by waters, indicates that the Indians were the. original discoverers discov-erers of coal and knew what it was, for, according to Roschil, historian of the United Brethren, they worked it into pipeheads and built pit fires with it on which they cooked food in pots made from the trunks of the gumberry tree. upper ana Luwer uuoiin. Philadelphia. Few states have such peculiar names as Pennsylvania, and Lhe vicinity of this city contributes a complement of them, besides telling as correctly as history itself of the nationality na-tionality of early settlers and the places whence they came. These, in many instances, show the philology of the language to which they belong; others have been transplanted trans-planted from beyond the seas, and some, such as those of Indian origin, designate the topography of the localities lo-calities they name. Early Welsh settlers left their impress im-press on territory contiguous to Philadelphia Phila-delphia by naming their settlements after towns, hills and valleys in their native Gwalia. Bryn Mawr, is one of the places they named. Bryn means hill and Mawr is great or big, and Pencoyd is the Welsh for head of the woods. Pen means head and coyd is woods. Bala, across the Schuylkill from Manayunk, in the Welsh is town. It was named after the birthplace of the late George B. Roberts, one time president presi-dent of the Pennsylvania Railroad company. Bala is also the Gaelic of town, and is one of the evidences of the similarity between the tongues. Gladwyne, which was included in the old Welsh tract on the west side of the Schuylkill, means white or clean section, while Bethryn means broad or open place, and Uchlyn is the upper lake. Uch is upper and lynn is lake. Some say that Upper Dublin and Lower Dublin, both suburban places, were not named by Irish settlers but by Welsh colonists, and the reason claimed for this is that the name Dublin Dub-lin is Welsh as well as Irish. The Welsh for Dublin is dark pool or pwll Du, while the Irish for Dublin is Dubh Lin, or black pool. Dubh Lin was originally that part of the River Liffey on which the city of Dublin now stands. Our Dublin may be Irish, but, like the Welsh names, it was transplanted trans-planted and has no bearing whatever jpon the topography of the northern tier of this city. There are North Wales and Gwy-ledd, Gwy-ledd, on the North Penn branch of the Philadelphia & Reading railway. They ire on a tract of land "bought by lames Penn" and transferred to the Welsh colony, which named it Gwy-nedd. Gwy-nedd. The land was divided later and ;ach of the two 6ets of colonists wanted want-ed the name Gwynedd retained, but hnfh TOtintpd it for their resnective section. There was a compromise on he northern part being named North Wnles and the lower part was permitted permit-ted to be Gwynedd, which means white land, or northland, in old Welsh. To live in ' Wales was an aspiration of :hese sturdy colonists. In the same territory as Upper Dublin Dub-lin is the hamlet of Kincora. Kin is the Gaelic or old Celtic for head and cora is sweet scented. There is nothing noth-ing in the locality which calls for such a cognomen; no knolls, hills of flowers or ferns scent it at any period of the year. Cornwell is from the old Celtic name corn wail, which means horned cliffs, such as are on the coast of Cornwall, and from where it got its name in the early ages of the British Isles. Tullytown is half Celtic also, but when you reach Tacony and hear the conductor shout "Tack-oo-nee," then you should know he is giving you a touch of the Indian dialect of the Delawares tribe. The Delawares are credited with doing the christening in Ihvir tongue alter a swamp near the rivrr. There are many Indian names ilong the Delaware all the way up to I'ocono, big hills, and Manunka Chunk. igbcM iron.'.tain spoL |