Place Names of Central County Originally published in The Bookpress, April 2002. Drunk Creek, formerly Moss Creek. Originally named for the variety of mosses that still grow on its shady banks, this creek is said to have been renamed when Joseph Rumbaugh, blacksmith of Hoover, waded in under the influence of a fifth of whiskey, having been run out of business by the popularity of the automobile. He was never seen again. Downstream, in Capstone County, this creek is known as Corpse Creek. Five Corners. This once semi-bustling village, now largely abandoned, stands at the crossroads of Old Route Nine (then known as Route Nine) and Peerman’s Path. It was named by local tavern owner Leonard “Pitch” Peerman, whose lazy eye may account for the extra corner. Manton. Once a bedroom community for the bachelor workers of Lake Stone Quarry, this hamlet’s only female inhabitants occupied its brothel (now demolished). Marriage and fatherhood eventually created a non-prostitute female population, but a 1930’s initiative to change the name to Peoplesburg met with failure. Ines, pronounced Inez, was called Hattiesville-o’-the-Pines until an intoxicated farmer drove his pickup truck into the sign erected at the village limit. The scrap left standing was kept in place, and the town’s name was changed by plebiscite eight months later. Henry. Not a separate municipality at all, but a remote corner of the City of Freehold. Three generations of Henry Cumminses, denizens of an isolated cabin in the Hart Woods, have declared their secession from Freehold proper and erected their own road signs. How Henry got onto local maps is unknown. Dagowachsen River. Long thought to be a Seneca Indian word meaning “Place where the waters turn toward the rising sun,” the name Dagowachsen has been proven, by a committee of folklorists and Seneca linguists, to actually be a pejorative reference to the tent communities of Italian immigrants who once did their laundry here. A movement is underway to rename the river; suggestions include Unity River and Diversity River. Soda. This village, once called Lyle, after its founder, Lyle Reeve, in 1924 changed its name to Hartman’s Baking Soda Village in exchange for a one-time payment, from the Upstate Foods Corporation, of three hundred dollars and ten cases of Hartman’s Baking Soda. After the company’s collapse in 1930, the name was shortened to Soda. Current village efforts to negotiate a similar arrangement with the Coca-Cola corporation have so far been unsuccessful. Murray. Though no fewer than fourteen Murrays appear in this hamlet’s telephone directory, all insist that the town is named after some other Murray. Sumter’s Brook. Local hero Jessup Sumter is said to have caught a giant fish in this brook; its skeleton hangs in the Sumterville Town Hall. The skeleton would appear to be that of a medium-sized saltwater shark, though local residents deny that this is so. Sumter is also believed to be the true inventor of the cotton gin and the original discoverer of the Missouri River, arriving three scant weeks before Lewis and Clark. Mosquito. So named when an early surveyor squashed said insect upon his map-in-progress. Strange Hill. The strangeness in question is the local story that the hill once migrated several feet each year, scooping up the homes of local residents. Indeed, the hill’s eastern face, which appears to be quite immobile, is littered with abandoned houses in various stages of ruin. East Antasia. This village is approximately fifteen miles east of West Antasia. However, North Antasia is southeast of both. There is a town in the far western part of the state called Antasia, but local historians point out that this town used to be called South Antasia; consequently, the location of the original Antasia, if there ever was one, is unknown. There was a brewery called Antasia Brewery in Hollins County, but it burned down. Marsh College Road. This road in southern Weir county does not lead to any college or marsh. Some local residents explain that the college shut down and the marsh was drained, but there is little evidence to support their claims. Murdersburg. The murder in question is generally believed to be Miss Emily Geiger’s stabbing of her fiancé, Ralph Gimble, in the throat with a pitchfork in 1847. Miss Geiger was hanged, and her father, Shane Geiger, who had arranged the marriage in exchange for a fee from the bridegroom, later shot himself. However, some will name other murders, particularly the Lougan shooting of 1858, the Sommers beating of 1871, the series of unsolved slashings in 1885, the McCallahan hammer killing of 1890, the Saul strangling of 1891, and the Overby trampling of 1893. Lost Valley. Now quite easy to find (it lies three-quarters of a mile off route 9), this secluded glen was once the home of post-Revolutionary settlers who built a town here (also called Lost Valley), then went out for supplies and never found their way back. The abandoned town was later inhabited by squatters, when the road went through. Badridge. Unknown. c2002 by J. Robert Lennon.