Coffee-holics Rejoice

As caffeine lovers, we were delighted to discover that today is National Coffee Day. It seems that despite the early hour when we usually imbibe the world's most flavorful drink, we've managed to come up with quite a few names for it. According to the Oxford English Dictionary and The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang, here are just a few other names for coffee:

For Mississippi coffee lovers, we've found a fun trivia nugget for you! The town of Hot Coffee, Mississippi was apparently named after--you guessed it--everyone's favorite morning beverage. There are two slightly different stories as to who gave the town its name:

According to Hometown, Mississippi, the town:

was supposedly formed in 1870 when E. L. Craft built a lunch counter to serve the people who traveled the road to market. The people did their marketing either in Mobile or Ellisville, so Craft built his lunch counter on the road which served both places. The Craft Lunch Counter specialized in the making of good coffee and became famous for miles around (as) the place to get real good hot coffee. The settlement finally took the name Hot Coffee and a big coffee pot was erected as a sign to let travelers know they had reached the place. 124

Mississippi: The WPA Guide to the Magnolia State has a different account:

According to James Street, immediately after the War between the States, J. J. Davis of Shiloh swapped a sabre for a sick horse, swapped the horse for a wagon, swapped the wagon for another horse, and after a week of such swapping found himself with enough cash to start a store. He gathered his possessions and came here, building a store by the old Taylorsville-Williamsburg Road. He hung a coffee pot over his door, and served hot coffee that was both hot and good, made of pure spring water and New Orleans beans. He used molasses drippings for sugar and the customer could have either long or short sweetening; he refused to serve cream, saying it ruined the taste. Politicians from Taylorsville and Williamsburg patronized the store, serving coffee to their constituents and anyone else who happened to be around. Travelers coming by on their way from Mobile to Jackson drank Mr. Davis's coffee while eating the food they brought with them. Old Mr. Davis died in 1880... 499

No cream? No matter. We invite you to drop by the Mississippi Library Commission, with coffee, if you so choose. Pick up a book and a coffee-scented bookmark and have a caffeinated day!
 







Brieger, James. Hometown, Mississippi. 1980. Print.
Federal Writers' Project of the Works Progress Administration. Mississippi: The WPA Guide to the Magnolia State. Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi, 2009. Print.

Happy birthday, Mr. Kossuth!

My dad is in the market for a new dog. A Vizsla puppy, to be exact. Because Vizslas are a Hungarian dog breed, he's been brainstorming on traditional, Hungarian names for his pet. During a recent conversation about his pet name ideas I learned that the town where my dad grew up is named after a very famous Hungarian. That town is Kossuth, MS and today is their namesake's birthday!

Kossuth, Mississippi is a small town located in Alcorn County right outside of Corinth. The community was first established in 1847 and was called New Hope. In 1852 the name was officially changed to Kossuth in honor of Louis (or Lajos) Kossuth. Here's a little about Louis from The History of Alcorn County by the Alcorn County Historical Association: "Kossuth was a Hungarian patriot who was exiled for the stand he took in regard to Vienna's intervention in Hungary. Mr. Kossuth, a man of inestimateable [sic] character, visited Mississippi and was much admired by the community. Colonel Polk and Major Wallace, the postmaster, wrote to the United States Post Office Department requesting that the name be changed. The change was made April 23, 1853."

The town didn't forget about Kossuth even 100 years after the name change! According to The History of Alcorn County, a stamp was released in Kossuth's honor on his birthday in 1958 and the official release was held in Kossuth! "In 1958, a Mr. Dunch from Milltown, New Jersey, along with a Mr. Gayer, a Hungarian refugee, came to visit the town of Kossuth. Their visit was in connection with a new stamp commemorating the Hungarian patriot Louis Kossuth, for whom the town was named. This stamp was released in the town of Kossuth on September 19, 1958. To promote relations between the two countries, Mr. Gayer's sister, postmaster of a small town in Hungary behind the Iron Curtain, sent a miniature flag of Hungary and a book on the life Louis Kossuth. She also sent many pictures of the buildings and homes as well as street scenes of Hungary to Kossuth."

Kossuth, MS isn't the only place named for the great Hungarian. There's a Kossuth County in Iowa. There's also bust of Kossuth in the United States Capitol. According to the American Hungarian Foundation, Kossuth's bust is one of the only two busts in the Capitol honoring non-Americans! You can read more about the bust here. 

Happy Birthday, Louis!

Alcorn County Historical Association (1983). The History of Alcorn County Mississippi. p. 91-92
Original photo here. Birthday rendering by me, the blogger.

What's In A (Mississippi) Name?

Mississippi, like any other state, has towns named for a grab-bag of things: last names (McComb was named for a Colonel H.S. McComb, President of the New Orleans, Jackson, and Great Northern Railroad), other towns (Kilmichael was named for Kilmichael, Ireland), Native American names (Pascagoula means bread eater or bread people), and a various other odds and ends.


Here are a few of our favorites:

Bogue Chitto, in Lincoln County, is a Choctaw phrase meaning "big creek" (307).

Veto, in Franklin County, asked its citizens to submit name ideas when it applied for a post office. The postal authorities nixed all the names its citizens suggested and named it Veto (143).

Mahrud, in Humphrey's County, was settled by a man named T.F. Durham. He named the town after himself, but spelled it backwards (195).

Deovolente, also in Humphrey;s County, was an African-American settlement established in 1865. It means "God willing" in Latin (194).

Tallaloosa, in Marshall County, is a Native American name meaning "black rock" (336).

Buttahatchie, in Monroe Coumty, is also a Native American name. It means "river which comes from the hills" (339). I think that's downright poetic.

Locopolis, in Tallahatchie County, was a combination of two root words, loco, meaning "place", and polis, meaning "city"(467). Apparently, it was a fine place for a city.

Bovina, in Warren County, was named by a pair of comedian settlers, Cowan and Bullen (507). Get it?

Brozville, in Holmes County, was named for its first settler, Zoo Broy. Apparently the hand-written request for Broyville was a bit too messy for the short-sighted postal officials (185).

D'Lo, in Simpson County, is a shortened version of the French De Leau. It seems that the French named the Strong River this, meaning "deep water" (439).

Want to know where your town got its name? We'd be happy to oblige! Drop us a line in the comments and we'll try to track it down.

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mississippi_90.jpg
Brieger, James. Hometown, Mississippi. 1980. Print.

Weather Whether It's Blue Skies Or Grey

Last week while I was helping a patron with some genealogy research, I ran across a woman named Tornado. Was it a fluke? Ah, no. It turns out that many people's parents thought to name their children after weather phenomena. Check out these names I found in the US Federal Census:

Rain and lightning in Mississippi

• Rain Jett, F
  Kentucky, 1910
• Rainey Bacon, F
  Maryland, 1940
• Flood Edmonds, Sr. and Jr., M
  West Virginia, 1940
• Storm Moore, F
  Texas, 1900
• Tornado Harrison, F
  Pennsylvania, 1940



Tornado in Missouri

• Hurricane Smith, M
  West Virginia, 1930
• Cyclone Fox, M
  Michigan, 1940
• Blizzard Schneider, F
  New York, 1930
• Monsoon Peckham, M
  North Carolina, 1820
• Thunder Hatcher, M
  North Carolina, 1930
• Lightning Hightower, M
  Illinois, 1930



Blizzard in Minnesota

• Snow Baker, F
  Georgia, 1940
• Freeze Quick, M
  Pennsylvania, 1940
• Ice Lane, M
  Tennessee, 1940
• Frost White, M
  Maryland, 1910
• Milford Hail Acres, M
  Tennessee, 1940
• Sunshine Anderson, F
  Mississippi, 1940
• Breeze Huffman, F
  California, 1940



Flooding in Indiana

• Cloud Bagwell, M
  South Carolina, 1940
• Donna Fog Commett, F
  Kentucky, 1940
• Hot Brandon, M
  Mississippi, 1930
• Drought Davis, M
  New York, 1940
• Stark Weather Stevenson, M
  Arizona, 1940
• Climate Gaines, M
  Texas, 1940

When I have kids, I'm naming them Sleet and Mist. What do you think?

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http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Residents_boat_down_a_main_street_in_Munster,_IN.jpg
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I Dub Thee... Fido

The One and Only Rover

We always owned a dog while I was growing up. There was Duchess, a beautiful dachshund. Carmen, a frou-frou poodle. Molly. Lady Jane. Annie. Perhaps because we always adopted females, we never took one of my father's repeat suggestions. His two favorite names, suggested whenever we acquired a new dog, were Rover and Fido. (I suspect that you're getting some insight into Dad's sense of humor.) While there is now a Rover living with dear ole Pop, there is yet to be a Fido. After I ran across a particularly interesting nugget yesterday, I almost regret that we never let Dad name the dogs.

In Virgil's epic poem Aeneid, the main character Aeneas has a best friend named Achates. He is referred to as Fidus Achates, or "faithful Achates" and is regarded as the most slavishly devoted and doggedly steadfast bosom buddy of all time. The moniker Fidus (with the connotation of an excellent friend) stuck, and is the origin of the canine name of Fido.

So there you go. Fido turns out to be a literary name. Maybe we'll let Dad name another dog.

"Achates." Benet's Reader's Encyclopedia (1996): 5. Literary Reference Center. Web. 6 Mar. 2013.
"Achates." Bloomsbury Dictionary of Myth (1996) Credo Reference. Web. 6 Mar. 2013.

You're Named Where?

People name their children all sorts of things. Some choose a more traditional route with age-old standbys like Mary and George or John and Sue. Other people opt for a more unique name by changing an older name's spelling or adding punctuation marks or creating a new name entirely. The brilliant few, in my humble opinion, have chosen to name their offspring after actual things: plants, bodies of water, and, of all things, the United States. It appears this trend has been going on for some time. Check out this chart enumerating state names appearing in the US Federal Census over the years:

Name	Most Popular Census Year for State Name	Number with State Name That Year
Alabama	1880	1,682
Alaska	1930	177
Arizona	1930	2,158
Arkansas	1880	363
California	1880	518
Carolina (North and South)	1910	26,030
Colorado	1900	61
Connecticut	1930	8
Dakota (North and South)	1930	205
Delaware	1900	324
Florida	1930	5,576
Georgia	1930	108,629
Hawaii	1900	10
Idaho	1920	87
Illinois	1920	334
Indiana	1870	2,772
Iowa	1920	1,541
Kansas	1920	873
Kentucky	1900	69
Louisiana	1900	1,833
Maine	1920	3,152
Maryland	1940	3,314
Massachusetts	1900	2
Michigan	1910	33
Minnesota	1880	138
Mississippi	1870	105
Missouri	1900	9,035
Montana	1930	615
Nebraska	1930	358
Nevada	1930	2938
Hampshire (New)	1880	18
Jersey (New)	1900	343
Mexico (New)	1910	89
York (New)	1880	1,415
Ohio	1940	286
Oklahoma	1910	145
Oregon	1900	282
Pennsylvania	1900	53
Rhode Island	1920	4
Tennessee	1880	4,476
Texas	1900	1,445
Utah	1940	419
Vermont	1920	609
Virginia (Virginia and West)	1940	473,973
Washington	1870	21,977
Wisconsin	1920	14
Wyoming	1930	70

Have you ever met anyone actually named, for instance, Pennsylvanian Bullard? Real lady--she appears in the 1920 US Federal Census with her husband Jeff. Here are a few other real people we've come up with who are named after US States:

• Dakota Fanning is a child acting star from Georgia.
• William Faulkner named his first daughter Alabama after his aunt Alabama (Minter 127).
• Nevada Barr is an author whose father named her after a character in a book he liked (MWP).
• Montana McGlynn was a member of the reality TV show The Real World season six.

And because fiction can be more satisfying than real life, here are some fictional characters with US State names:

• Alaska Young in John Green's Looking for Alaska
• Nevada Smith in Harold Robbins' The Carpetbaggers
• Montana Wildhack in Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five
• Wyoming Knott in Robert Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
• Arizona Ames in Zane Grey's Arizona Ames.
• The daughter named KIM in Edna Ferber's Showboat:
  

  And as Kim Ravenal you doubtless are familiar with her. It is no secret that the absurd monosyllable which comprises her given name is made up of the first letters of three states - Kentucky, Illinois, and Missouri - in all of which she was, incredibly enough, born - if she can be said to have been born in any state at all (Ferber 1).

My favorite "stumble upon" in this search is by far this family:

Were they just patriotic? Or were the parents so pleased to find a like-named soul that they chose to continue the tradition? I suppose we'll never know.

Ferber, Edna. Showboat. G. K. Hall & Co., 1981.
Minter, David. William Faulkner: His Life and Work. Baltimore, MD: John Hopkins University Press, 1980.
http://www.olemiss.edu/mwp/dir/barr_nevada/index.html

How Patriotic Are You?

I've once again dipped into the fascinating world of the United States Federal Census. I can always find something fun to share while scrolling through the thousands upon thousands of names and people.
For instance, President George Washington died in 1799. By the year 1900, 101 years later, 1,012 people have the given names of George Washington. One of my favorites? This man from the 1940 US Federal Census:

George Washington Funk and family
Chester Co., PA 1940

Do you suppose Mr. Funk was a fearless leader of style? I like to think so.

I also ran across Betsy Ross.

Betsy Ross Bacon
Hamilton Co., OH 1940

That is, Betsy Ross Bacon.

I also managed to find:

• Independence Smith (La Porte Co., IN, 1920) I'm sure she was a fine patriot. Speaking of patriots...
• Patriot Green (Frederick Co., VA, 1940) I wonder if he liked football?
• Benedict Arnold Ocho (Philadelphia Co., PA, 1920) Think his patriotism was ever called into question?
• Honor America Beahl (Sangamon Co., IL, 1930) This is kind of a pretty name once one overcomes her parents' overblown enthusiasm.
• United States Cook Nicholas (Essex Co., NJ 1930) He was actually a grocery store clerk.
• Democracy Tinnon (Giles Co., TN, 1880)

Happy Fourth of July!

http://www.ancestry.com/
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