Name Origins of the United States Part III

  By Tiffany Amber Stockton

In June, I shared the second set of state name origins. I'm splitting them up into 5 groups in the name of brevity, to avoid bogging down a long post. Besides, it's summer, and most of you likely are looking for a quick, entertaining read. :) You can read last month's post if you missed it.

Today, it's time for the next 10 state name history stories. So, let's go!

STATE NAMES and their ORIGINS

One thing I found interesting with this list is it's almost a 50/50 split of the state names starting with a letter of the alphabet from either the first half or second half of the 26 letters. Montana is the 26th state out of 50 and the last one with an "M." The remaining 24 states come from the latter half of the alphabet. It would have been fun to see 25 of the states start with letters in the first half of the alphabet and the other 25 from the second half, but we're close!

Massachusetts comes directly from the Algonquian word Massachusett that references the people living in the area, and means "at the large hill."

Michigan is also based on an Algonquin word, meshi-gami, meaning "big lake."

Minnesota, like many other Midwest states, comes from a Native American language. In this case, the Dakota word mnisota means "cloudy, milky water."

Mississippi literally means "big river" in Algonquin Ojibwa, although it’s based on the French variation of the word.

Missouri relates to the Algonquin word wimihsoorita, which translates to "people of the big canoes."

Montana has some Spanish flair that links back to the Latin mons, for "mountains."

Nebraska stems from the Sioux name for the Platte River, omaha ni braska, meaning "flat water."

Nevada comes from the Spanish name of nieve or nevara for the surrounding Sierra Nevada mountain range, which essentially means "snowy mountains," or "snowcapped."

New Hampshire is the first of many states and cities named as new outposts of other parts of the world. In this case, Hampshire was a county in Southampton, England.

New Jersey was coined by Sir George Carteret of the Channel Island of Jersey.

And that's all for today. If you're like me and LOVE puzzles, download this PDF for some puzzle challenge fun. You might be able to solve it on your own without reading the rest of the blogs in this set, or you can save it and add to it in future months. :)

NOW IT'S YOUR TURN:

* Which one of these states was the most fascinating to you?

* Do you live in any of the 10 featured states this month? If so, do you have any other unique tidbits about your state?

* What do you think might be the origin of any of the other 20 states? (You'll learn about them throughout the rest of the year.)

** This note is for our email readers. Please do not reply via email with any comments. View the blog online and scroll down to the comments section.

Leave answers to these questions or any comments you might have on this post in the comment box below. For those of you who have stuck around this far, I'm sending a FREE autographed book to one person every month from the comments left on each of my blog posts. You never know when your comment will be a winner! Subscribe to comments so you'll know if you've won and need to get me your mailing information.

Come back on the 9th of August for my next foray into historical tidbits to share.

For those interested in my "fictional" life as an author and industry news about other authors, subscribe to my quarterly newsletter. Receive a FREE omitted chapter from my book, A Grand Design, just for subscribing!

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BIO

Tiffany Amber Stockton has been crafting and embellishing stories since childhood, when she was accused of having a very active imagination and cited with talking entirely too much. Today, she has honed those skills to become an award-winning, best-selling author and speaker who is also a professional copywriter/copyeditor. She loves to share life-changing products and ideas with others to help improve their lives in a variety of ways.

She lives with her husband and fellow author, Stuart Vaughn Stockton, along with their two children and four cats in southeastern Kentucky. In the 20 years she's been a professional writer, she has sold twenty-six (26) books so far and is represented by Tamela Murray of the Steve Laube Agency. You can find her on Facebook and GoodReads.

Pharr Mounds Burial Grounds in North Mississippi

Continuing my posts concerning all things Mississippi, today I’m going to share about the Native American burial mounds in my state. At first glance, the burial grounds don’t look like much, just a pile of dirt heaped up that any bulldozer worth its salt could do in a couple of hours or less.

But Pharr Mounds was not built by bulldozers, but by nomadic Indian hunters and gatherers who returned to Northern Mississippi to bury their dead.

By Unknown - Copied from this picture, shown on this National Park Service website,

Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8088977

Eight mounds sit on 90 acres of land near Tupelo, Mississippi along the Natchez Trace. And, yes, the Natchez Trace played a huge part in the reason these burial grounds are in this location. In addition to the rivers and streams in abundance in Mississippi, the old trace was the primary trail bison used to follow the ridges between the salt licks in Tennessee and the Mississippi River. It was only natural that the natives would also use the same paths cut from the forest for ease of travel as well as the game to be had.

Along this path, Native American settlements began to crop up. Pharr Mounds, estimated to have been settled during the “Woodland Period”, was one of these settlements. This is a generic term for prehistoric sites that fell between the Archaic hunter-gatherers and the more settled agriculturalist Mississippian cultures.

By Fredlyfish4 - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=44646450

Modern day farming techniques almost wiped out some of the mounds, but reports of artifacts and stories passed down through generations resulted in archaeologists swooping in to save the mounds. In 1966, the National Park Service excavated four of the mounds.

The archaeologists found fire pits and clay platforms at the base of the mounds. They also found human remains, as well as various ceremonial artifacts, many of which were made from materials not native to the area. They recovered copper that hailed from the Great Lakes area as well as greenstone, galena, and mica which proved the connection of the local people with the larger Middle Woodland people of the time.

By Herb Roe, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=12066172

Due to the work of the archaeologists in 1966, and with the confirmation that the mounds were of great historical significance, they were added to the National Registry of Historic Places on February 23, 1978, and can be seen on The Natchez Trace Parkway at Mile Marker 286.7.

www.pamhillman.com

Soulé Steam Feed Works, Meridian, MS

by Pam Hillman

Sometimes you live within a few miles of something that impacted your community-- or the world-- and don't even know the significance of it. You might not even know it exists! This happened to me since I started writing and researching interesting tidbits about my part of the country. I was introduced to the Soulé Steam Feed Works, which is about fifty miles from me in Meridian, MS.

Soulé focused on servicing the lumber industry from 1892 until the mid-1950s. I wrote a series of novellas set in the 1890s focused on the logging industry, and the main occupation of the men in my Natchez Trace Novel series is logging and lumbermills.

I found the entire place fascinating. The founder of Soulé Steam Feed Works, George W. Soulé, patented more than 20 items during his lifetime. Some of Soulé's most notable products were rotary steam engines, lumber stackers, mechanical log turners, and a cotton seed huller. Soulé's steam engines are still in operation today, deep in the forests of India and Australia.

I signed books at the Soulé Live Steam Festival and enjoyed the experience tremendously. Approximately 2000 people tour the restored buildings at the festival and watch the steam engines belch out steam and enjoy reminiscing about the industrial revolution. 

Given the nature of this event, many of the attendees are male. Late on the first day, one of the museum volunteers and a steam engine enthusiast who'd just arrived hurried into the area where we'd set up our book table next to the welcome desk. Both men looked like two kids on Christmas morning. The enthusiast had brought a steam whistle with him that was so large he hadn't been able to build up enough steam to blow it. They were making plans to connect it to a bigger steam engine so they could try it out.

I didn't get as many photos as I would have liked since I was signing books, but I hope to be back next year. In addition, there were so many people I would have loved to interview for HHHistory.

There are thousands of handcrafted mahogany patterns for large and small gears, balcony railings, andirons, etc. on display throughout the museum. This one was a manhole cover for the city of Meridian. 

A nameplate for the lumber stacker manufactured in 1897.

Technology students from the local community college demonstrate the antique equipment in the machine shop. The Soulé Steam Works Machine shop contains an operating 120' (that's FOOT) line shaft with original belt-driven equipment that dates from the turn of the 20th century.

Manual Underwood typewriter. One of the curators at the museum gave me a private tour a few months before the festival, and she said that Mr. Soulé kept everything, so a lot of the antiques are literally pieces that were used in the daily operations of the business. The vault even has copies of receipts and payroll records from the the 1890s and early 1900s.

The steam is chugging out and the wheel is in motion....

1928 Wurlitzer Caliola. Only about 300 of these were produced and this one is in working order. This one was on loan from the historic Temple Theatre, in Meridian, MS.

This building is across the brick-laden alley from the original office and machine shop where our book signing  was held. It's a huge open building with rough timbered woodwork and is host to many receptions and weddings. The upstairs houses turn-of-the-century employee locker rooms. I failed to get pictures because I needed to get back to the book signing. Next year for sure!

Several steam engines doing their "stuff" at the entrance of the  Mississippi Industrial Heritage Museum where the festival was held. The lattice truss frame sign was completed in 2013.

This is the brick-paved alley between two of the buildings that are part of the museum complex. The ambience between the buildings with the steam billowing out of the pipes was an interesting experience. The museum staff and volunteers have done an amazing job restoring the buildings and the steam engines.

Pam Hillman and a young fan who bought a book for her grandmother!

Sometimes all we have to do is get out and about to find fascinating things about where we live. I've made notes on my phone of day trips in my area as soon as I have the time. There's a cypress swamp which I'm really anxious to see and is first on my list since The Crossing at Cypress Creek releases in June 2019! And there's an old mill that's still in operation, a cafe that dates to 1884, and many others.

There just isn't enough time in my day/week/months to do it all. But I'm making plans.

What about you? What interesting historical places would you like to see or have seen that's within a day's journey of where you live?

Five Reasons to Love Mississippi AND Cover Reveal!

by Pam Hillman

Having been born and raised in Mississippi, I’d like to share FIVE reasons that make Mississippi an amazing place to set an entire series in my home state.

1) Mississippi River - The Mississippi River runs North/South all the way from Minnesota along the western border of Mississippi to the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Native Americans, mostly hunter-gatherers and Mound Builders formed agricultural societies up and down its banks.

The river was (and still is) a major transportation hub as well as a barrier and boundary for those without the means to cross. Farms, plantations, cities, shipping, barges, flatboats, riverboats all vied for a place on or near the Mississippi River.

2) Natchez Trace - The Natchez Trace, also known as the "Old Natchez Trace" and “The Devil’s Backbone”, runs roughly 440 miles from Natchez, Mississippi to Nashville, Tennessee.

The Old Sunken Trace and Cole's Creek

The trail follows a ridge line, and animals naturally followed the pathway to distant grazing lands, the salt licks in Tennessee, and to the Mississippi River. Native Americans, then European and American explorers, traders, and settlers followed in their paths, improving and widening the road with each passing year.

3) Natchez, MS - Natchez, at one time the capital of the Mississippi Territory, is one of the oldest and most important European settlements in the lower Mississippi River Valley. Changing hands from France, Spain, Great Britian and eventually becoming part of the United States of America, the city is a smorgasbord of nationalities, cultures, and architecture.

The strategic location on a bluff overlooking the Mississippi River and at the Southern end of the Natchez Trace ensured its place as a center of trade and commerce for well over two centuries from its founding.

4) Plantations - Plantations are self-sustaining and self-contained settlements. The proximity of the Mississippi River and the Natchez Trace, and later, the invention of the steamboats plying the river in conjunction with the vast tracks of fertile land in the surrounding lowlands enticed wealthy Southern planters to take up residence, growing cotton and sugarcane and to lesser degrees, indigo and tobacco. Natchez became the principal port from which these crops were exported, both upriver and downriver to New Orleans and to Europe.

5) Highwaymen - Highwaymen weren’t confined to the English countryside. Because of the high rate of traffic on the Natchez Trace before the steamboat was launched on the Mississippi River in 1811, thieves and robbers plied the trace, stealing and killing unsuspecting travelers.

With all these fascinating people, places, events within a few hours of me, how could I not write about them? So I did.

The Promise of Breeze Hill - Available for preorder from your favorite Retailer

The Promise of Breeze Hill, A Natchez Trace Novel

Natchez, MS; 1791

Anxious for his brothers to join him on the rugged frontier along the Mississippi River, Connor O’Shea has no choice but to indenture himself as a carpenter in exchange for their passage from Ireland. But when he’s sold to Isabella Bartholomew of Breeze Hill Plantation, Connor fears he’ll repeat past mistakes and vows not to be tempted by the lovely lady.

The responsibilities of running Breeze Hill have fallen on Isabella’s shoulders after her brother was found dead in the swamps along the Natchez Trace and a suspicious fire devastated their crops, almost destroyed their home, and left her father seriously injured. Even with Connor’s help, Isabella fears she’ll lose her family’s plantation. Despite her growing feelings for the handsome Irish carpenter, she seriously considers accepting her wealthy and influential neighbor’s proposal of marriage.

Soon, though, Connor realizes someone is out to eliminate the Bartholomew family. Can he set aside his own feelings to keep Isabella safe?

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Visit Pam at www.pamhillman.com

The Forgotten Graves of Mississippi's UMMC

by Pam Hillman

The headline in the January 24, 2015 edition of The Clarion-Ledger (Jackson, MS) reads UMMC bound by thousands of bodies buried on campus.

In 2013, 66 bodies were discovered when the University of Mississippi Medical Center started construction on a road on campus. In February 2014, underground radar revealed approximately 1000 bodies buried where a parking garage was to be built. More research unearthed (figuratively, at least) more than 1000 bodies North of the original location.

The medical center halted construction and moved an $11 million dollar cancer facility to a different location in order to not disturb these bodies. UMMC officials, the MS Attorney General, and other key players are doing their part to honor these unmarked graves.

But where did they come from? And why are there over 2000 graves and not much record of who they are and why they are buried there?

Turns out the UMMC campus is built on the same grounds that housed the Mississippi State Lunatic Asylum which opened its doors in 1855. The article states that patients housed in the asylum was a "far cry from the attics and jails where the mentally ill were often being chained", and history does bear that statement out.

Mississippi State Lunatic Asylum (1855)

However, my heart broke when I read that in a span of 22 years, approximately 1400 patients were admitted to the MS State Lunatic Asylum. Of those, 20% died. Researchers and historians also believe some of the grave sites contain Civil War dead, former slaves, and TB patients.

The discovery has resulted in genealogists from all over the country attempting to discover if a family member might be one of the forgotten dead. Patient documents are stored at the state archives, but are sometimes sketchy. Other records have been lost to fire and neglect.

While we in 2015 might find the fact that 2000 souls were buried without markers or permanent headstones 100-150 years ago, we have to remember that notifying the next of kin was much more time consuming than it would be today. Even if family members could be located and could afford to, it would take several days to travel to Jackson by train or by wagon. And transporting the bodies back for burial in local family plots was out of the question.

In the 1950s, 100 years after the Mississippi State Lunatic Asylum opened its doors, both of my parents worked at the Mississippi State Hospital (Whitfield) that was built in 1935 to replace the 80 year old asylum.

Sources and more reading on this topic:

The Clarion-Ledger, Jackson, MS

The New York Daily News

USA Today

The University Medical Center

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Mississippi...Believe it! - Home of the First-Ever Heart Transplant

by Pam Hillman

Several years ago, Mississippi launched a campaign called, Mississippi...Believe it! I was born and raised in Mississippi, and I didn't know about so many of the amazing events and people that have occurred in my state. As a matter of fact, I'm constantly learning new and fascinating tidbits, and each one makes me proud to be a Mississippian.

For instance, did you know...

University of Mississippi Medical Center surgeons performed the world's first human lung transplant, the first-ever heart transplant and the first-ever kidney transplant?

After serving in the U. S. Army Medical Corps in early 1944 during WWII, Dr. James Hardy, a native of Alabama, worked in Stark General Hospital in Charleston, SC. Dr. Hardy became the chair of surgery at the University of Mississippi School of Medicine in Jackson, MS in 1955.

In 1963, Hardy led the team which performed the first human lung transplant at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. The next year, in 1964, when patient Boyd Rush (age 68) was dying, Dr. Hardy and his team performed the first-ever heart transplant. No human heart was available and in a last-ditch effort to save their patient, the medical team transplanted the heart of a chimpanzee, genetically closest to human heart, into Mr. Rush. Sadly, Mr. Rush died after 90 minutes.

Understandably, Hardy and his team faced severe criticism for attempting the transplant, but the ground-breaking and courageous attempt opened the floodgates for the possibility of heart transplants throughout the medical profession. The bridge had been crossed and there was no return. Three years later, the world saw the first successful human-to-human heart transpd there was no return.

While I personally haven't had a family member to need a heart transplant, I've spent my share of days waiting to hear the results of heart caths, praying for good news during open heart surgery, and watching loved ones struggle after surgery the trauma of the surgery. But because of such heroic efforts of men like Dr. Hardy over 50 years ago, and the bravery of men like Boyd Rush, I've seem many loved ones, family and friends come home to their families.

As I type this, a friend who's had stents put in before is undergoing a heart cath. Good news! The doctor's didn't find any new blockages and believe a few adjustments to his medicine will solve his problems.

Thank you, Dr. Hardy. You changed the world.

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