New York investor Francis Skiddy wanted to have a Kansas town named after him.
Skiddy promised to build a town hall in exchange for his becoming the namesake of Skiddy, a community founded in 1869 on the boundary line between Morris and Geary counties in north-central Kansas.
But Skiddy reneged on his promise, and residents in 1879 changed the community’s name to Camden, according to the website legendsofkansas.com.
Then, in August 1883, “The town name reverted back to Skiddy because there were too many other Camdens in the nation,” that site said.
Skiddy’s post office closed in 1953, it said.
Skiddy is among the Kansas communities with interesting monikers that are no longer incorporated, or never were.
Here are eight others:
Tonovay was initially called Ton of Hay
Tonovay is located in Greenwood County in southwest Kansas. Its residents initially called it “Ton of Hay,” after a wagonload of hay they thought weighed a ton, Sondra Van Meter McCoy and Jan Hults wrote in their 1989 book, “2001 Kansas Place Names.” Tonovay’s post office opened in 1886 and closed in 1912, they said.
Swamp Angel is thought to have been named after a Civil War cannon
Swamp Angel is an unincorporated community in western Pottawatomie County, east of Manhattan and west of St. George, according to Wikipedia. It is thought to have been named after a historic Parrott Cannon known as the “Swamp Angel,” which the Union Army used in 1863 to bombard Charleston, South Carolina. Herman Melville, best known for his 1851 novel “Moby Dick,” wrote about the cannon in a poem called “The Swamp Angel.”
Smileyberg was named after business owners Smiley and Berg
Smileyberg is an unincorporated community south of El Dorado in Butler County in south-central Kansas. It got its name as a result of being founded by Thomas Smiley, who established a grocery and dry goods store there, and Barney Berg, who established a blacksmith shop there, according to a history of that county published in 1916, with details being available at ksgenweb.org.
May Day got its original post office designation on May Day
May Day, in northern Riley County, got that name after its original post office designation was secured on a May Day, according to legendsofkansas.com. That post office actually opened on April 13, 1871, that site said. It said only one structure, a school, remains standing from the original city, where the post office closed in 1954 and the last remaining business building, a store, shut down in 1969.
Buttermilk got its name from a blacksmith who loved buttermilk
Buttermilk is an unincorporated community in Comanche County in south-central Kansas. A blacksmith with the last name of “Winningham” lived there and loved consuming buttermilk in large quantities — so much that he was given that nickname and the community was given that name, according to a video posted on YouTube as part of John Wise‘s series, “Travel With a Wiseguy.”
Water availability may have precipitated creek and city’s name of Happy
The city of Happy was founded on the banks of Happy Creek in Graham County in northwest Kansas. “Possibly the availability of water in this high, dry country influenced travelers to call the creek Happy,” said the 1989 book, “2001 Kansas Place Names.” Happy in 1883 was issued a post office, which was discontinued in 1906, according to the Kansas Historical Society.
Canada was a city in Kansas
The city of Canada in Marion County in central Kansas was given that name to attract Canadians, who were told the winters there were “short and mild,” said 2001 Kansas Place Names. Canadians began arriving in 1873 in Canada, which got a post office in 1884. That was discontinued in 1954. The shoe company New Balance in a 2015 ad campaign gave away a pair of a type of sneakers available only in the country of Canada to residents of Canada, Kansas.
Stull has been dogged by demonic rumors
Its name may not be as odd as some of the others, but western Douglas County’s tiny community of Stull has been dogged for decades by rumors that its cemetery is the “Gateway to Hell” and that the community was formerly called Skull. Actually, Stull was called Deer Creek before being named after its only postmaster, Sylvester Stull. It maintained a post office for four years, from 1899 to 1903. Stull Cemetery was the site of a battle between good and evil in a 2010 episode of the superhero TV series “Supernatural,” which aired on the CW.
As reported in the Topeka Capital Journal
