Ever wondered how Odessa or Painted Post got their names?

By SALLE E. RICHARDS
Star-Gazette
srichards@stargazette.com

The names people give to the places they live range from the purely functional, through the nostalgic and wistful, to remembrance of past leaders and outstanding events.

“There was a time when naming places for towns in Europe was very stylish,” says Barbara Bell, Schuyler County historian.

But like any other fad, European names — like Havana, an early name for Montour Falls — could just easily become a burden.

“Anything Spanish-sounding became unpopular during the Spanish-American War,” Bells says.

The Twin Tiers has many examples of the name game. Places that started with functional names — Elmira was once known as Newtown, a fitting appellation for a village on the edge of the Indian frontier — soon wanted more colorful names alluding to legend and history — like Painted Post and Horseheads.

Montour Falls in Schuyler County is one of those places where the change of names is a mini-history on to itself. Once known as Catharine’s Landing after the great Seneca leader, Queen Catharine Montour, it was changed to Havana in the 19th century when the thriving village had aspirations of becoming the county seat.

Once that recognition was lost, the village settled on recognizing its most outstanding attribute — Chequegah Falls — and Queen Catharine, whose surname Montour came from a French grandfather, the last ruler of the Senecas.

Here are some places with names that have origins in Native American legends, local fame and even world history and how they happened to be attached to road signs in the Twin Tiers:

Odessa — It’s one of many villages in the Finger Lakes area that first was named on tract maps drawn up by a surveyor who fancied Latin names. It is why we have Lodi, Ovid, Hector, Cato and Camillus in the upstate region, Bell says.

“There’s no way to prove that’s the case, but it’s the most widely accepted explanation,” she adds.

Elmira — Local lore attributes the upgrade of functional to fanciful in the name of the Twin Tiers largest city to an innkeeper’s daughter who tripped lightly down the stairs just as founding fathers were scratching their heads over finding a more suitable name than “Newtown.”

Chemung — Also a river, a hamlet and the county where they reside, Chemung comes from the discovery of a mammoth tusk near the riverbed — a “big horn” to the Native Americans who called it “Shumounk” from the Algonquin words for horn and place — place of the big horn.

Columbia Cross Roads — While Elmira’s growth is often attributed to its location as a “cross road” of travel in the 19th century, south of Elmira was another place, once known as Cabot’s Hollow, where roads from Elmira to Williamsport and Tioga Point to Mansfield crossed. In the 1930s, community baseball teams crossed back and forth on trains often thrilling dairy farmers Saturday afternoon at Columbia Cross Roads.

Sheshequin — Across the Susquehanna River from Ulster in Bradford county, the literal translation is “place of the rattle” perhaps referring to the Sheshequin Path, a Native American route and sometimes war path connecting the Iroquois to the Shamokin area south of them. It was once also known as Indelelamookong.

Woodhull — This Steuben County community was named in honor of Revolutionary War Gen. Nathaniel Woodhull.

Erin — An early settler from Ireland in the early 1800s, Michael Robinson wasn’t satisfied with the town’s common name of Red Chalk, from the surveyors’ practice of using red chalk to mark the lines and corners of the vast tract. He wanted to call it “Erin Go Brah” but only the first part of the name stuck.

Fassett, Gillett and Snedekerville — These Bradford County communities were named by the first settlers to the area: Philo Fassett, Asa Gillett and W.H. Snedeker, who established a large lumber mill after the Civil War.

Arnot and Ansonia — The influence of men of wealth and power is still recognized by the names of these Tioga County (Pa.) villages named after Elmira capitalist John Arnot and lumber operator Anson Phelps.

Antrim — This Tioga County (Pa.) coal field town was named after County Antrim in Ireland by an early developer, Duncan Magee of Bath, N.Y., who dipped a glass of water from a crystal-clear spring at the site.

Covington — While naming towns after cities of Europe and antiquity is common, this Tioga County (Pa.) community, once the home of a distillery, was named after a Kentucky town, perhaps famous for bourbon. Like many area communities, it also once had a tannery.

Jasper — This Steuben County community is named in memory of Sgt. William Jasper (1750-1779) of William Moutrie’s South Carolina regiment.

The young sergeant is credited with retrieving the American flag in the face of British gunfire during the siege of Four Moultrie in Charleston Harbor.

Burdett — A British reformer, Francie Burdett (1770-1844) inspired the name of this Schuyler County village, once called Hamburg.

Painted Post — It’s named after a kind of totem pole where Native Americans gathered near what is now a Steuben County village.

Horseheads — Whimsical sounding, the name of this Chemung County village actually has a gruesome derivation. General John Sullivan had hundreds of war-weary horses destroyed at the place before heading down river after his scorched earth campaign against the Iroquois.

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