Farmington Once Called Engels Mill

A View From Antioch Mountain

The ancient Romans had a saying, "Nomen est omen." It means your name is your fate.

Does this apply to the names of towns as well? I don't know, but I wonder.

For instance, Farmington ( Washington County): in 1870, William Engels founded Engels Mill. The Rev. Josiah Trout established a settlement there.

According to local legend, the name was changed because it was a “farming town.”

Umpire (Howard County): The town was originally named Busby. Just after the Civil War, residents began playing a new game called baseball. Few people knew the rules, but one player taught them about balls, strikes, outs and other things, as well as the role of the umpire. Someone, we don't know who, suggested that Umpire would be a better name than Busby, and the rest is history.

Calamine (Sharp County): The discovery of iron and zinc deposits brought settlers to Sharp County. Between 1850 and 1860, the popula- tion grew quickly. The town of Calamine was named after the discovery of zinc. Some people have guessed that since zinc oxide is pink and is used in calamine (or hemimorphite), a pink powderlike substance, the name of the town came from that source. It could have been worse. They might have called it “hemimorphite.”

Cricket (Boone County): The railroad figures in the naming of many towns all across the country.

In this case, workers were building a railroad tunnel. In the 1900s, some of them settled along Cricket Creek which was home to thousands of the noisy little insects. The town takes its name from the creek.

Hollywood (Clark County): In 1850, long before the more famous Hollywood in California was even dreamed of, a post office was established at a town called Anvil. Many native hollies grew in the area, and the name was changed to Holly Wood in 1860. Over time, the new name became one word.

Chickalah (Yell County): In the early 1800s there was an important Cherokee leader name Chil-kil-leh. He was an eloquent orator who pleaded for peace with the Osages.

An American missionary to the Cherokees, Cephas Washburn, wrote about Chilkil-leh and made him famous in the area. Washburn established a mission near what is now Russellville. When the Arkansas Cherokees moved on to Oklahoma, the name of the old mission evolved into Chickalah.

These stories came from Ernie Deane’s “Arkansas Place Names.” The destinies of these towns may or may not be tied up with their names, but it's interesting to think about anyway.

And that's the view from Antioch Mountain.