TOWN NAME TIDBITS
Unknown Newspaper Source
Unknown author & Unknown Date
Transcribed by Kathy S Bentley
Everybody knows where CERES is in the Town of Genesee, but where’s MAIN SETTLEMENT?
If it isn’t belaboring the obvious, why was it named that? Who settled it and why and what’s it known for today?
Others by township are:
ALFRED – TINKERTOWN and FIVE CORNERS. Who tinkers with what? Are there really five roads or corners there or what?
ALLEN – ARISTOTLE. Named after the famous Greek? If so, by whom and why?
ALMA – PIKEVILLE. Was there a pioneering Mr. Pike?
ALMOND – BISHOPVILLE and KARRDALE.
AMITY – Everybody knows BELVIDERE, but what and where is TUCKER’S CORNERS?
ANDOVER – ELM VALLEY and FULMER VALLEY. An Elm is a tree, as even the column knows; but what about that FULMER?
BELFAST – TRANSIT BRIDGE and ROCKVILLE. There is a bridge, but why call it TRANSIT? And wasn’t there a settlement where ROCKVILLE LAKE is now?
BIRDSALL – NORTON CORNERS.
BOLIVAR – In addition to SOUTH BOLIVAR, which seems to explain itself, how about KOSSUTH? Was it named after the famous historical figure, Kossuth? If so, when and by whom?
BURNS – WHITNEY CROSSING. What does it cross?
CENTERVILLE – HIGGINS. Who?
FRIENDSHIP – NILE. Same question.
GENESEE – MAIN SETTLEMENT.
HUME – They get mad if you try to say WISCOY and ROSSBURG are small, out of the way places, but what about MILLS MILLS?
INDEPENDENCE – SPRING MILLS.
NEW HUDSON – Likewise, it irritates them to have to say that RAWSON isn’t well known, but what can they say when you ask about LYONS CORNERS and how about NORTH VALLEY.
SCIO – PETROLIA. Sounds like the oil business again.
WARD – PHILLIPS CREEK. Self explanatory?
WILLING – YORK CORNERS and SHONGO are on everybody’s map, but what about PAYNESVILLE?
WEST ALMOND – BENNETTS. Bennett’s what?
If County Historian William Greene Jr. of Belmont is too wrapped up in getting Moses Van Campen on a postage stamp and working for that county museum, the town historians might have some answers for you.
Here they are [note: these listed were town historians at the time the original article was published]: Allen, Mrs. Miona L. Sylor; Alma, Mrs. Emma Lou King; Almond, John Reynolds; Amity, Mrs. Mary Jordan; Andover, Mrs. Bessie Mulconery; Angelica, Mrs. Lucille Newsman; Belfast, Miss Pauline Weir;
Birdsall, Miss Martha Gelser; Bolivar, Katherine Campbell; Burns, Mrs. Ernestine Luce; Caneadea, Dr. Freida Gillette; Centerville, Miss Lois Fiegl; Clarksville, Mrs. Marie Fitzgerald; Cuba, Mrs. Grace Wadsworth; Friendship, Mrs. Martha Merriam;
Genesee, Mrs. Mary Cudahy; Hume, Mrs. Anne Burgess; Independence, Russell Wildman; New Hudson, Mrs. Ella Van Fleet; Rushford, Mrs. Angus Norris; Scio, Mrs. Phyllis Young; Ward, Mrs. Abbie McGuirl;
Wellsville, Mrs. Albert D. Howe; West Almond, Barbara Jennings; Willing, Ada House; Wirt, Mrs. Beth Thompson.