{"id":15116,"date":"2014-07-17T18:31:25","date_gmt":"2014-07-17T23:31:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/?p=15116"},"modified":"2021-12-24T10:56:20","modified_gmt":"2021-12-24T15:56:20","slug":"delphia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/delphia\/","title":{"rendered":"Delphia"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The start for this research came from a recent tragic incident<\/a>, a drowning at Triadelphia Reservoir in Maryland. My sympathies extend to the young victim’s family and friends of course. Afterwards I began to wonder how the reservoir got its unusual name. How did a triad (a group of three) apply to “Delphia.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Philadelphia<\/a>
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Skyline<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The most common application of the suffix Delphia had to be the City of Philadelphia (map<\/a>) in Pennsylvania, colloquially known as the City of Brotherly Love<\/a>.(\u00b9<\/a>) Regardless of whether this unofficial motto should apply, and it’s open to debate, the phrase derived<\/a> from a colonial-era translation of ancient Greek. Philadelphia was “taken by William Penn to mean ‘brotherly love,’ from philos ‘loving’ + adelphos ‘brother’.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Peeling that back farther, the ancient Greek word delphus meant<\/a> womb. The same term also applied to Dolphin, essentially a “fish” with a womb. The Oracle of Delphi in ancient Greece originated from the same root<\/a>, and according to legend “Apollo first came to Delphi in the shape of a dolphin”. So that created a nice symmetry with the various word meanings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let’s set all those aside. My command of ancient Greek was even worse than my understanding of living foreign languages. I probably butchered the explanation. Let’s focus on a modern translation of the suffix to mean “brother” and return to Triadelphia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Tri(a)delphia<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"Triadelphia<\/a>
Maryland’s Triadelphia Reservoir<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In Maryland<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Triadelphia is a reservoir in Maryland that straddled the Montgomery County \/ Howard County line (map<\/a>). It derived its name from an earlier place, a town called Triadelphia. Spellings often dropped the initial “a”, and in fact the USGS listed both<\/em> Triadelphia and Tridelphia as acceptable variations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately the nearby Patuxent River liked to flood. So residents eventually abandoned the town in the later part of the Nineteenth Century to get away from the water. Then its former site disappeared beneath the waves of the reservoir at a later date. The Sandy Spring museum explained<\/a> the name,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Triadelphia (‘three brothers’) was founded in 1809 by brothers-in-law Thomas Moore, Isaac Briggs, and Caleb Bentley, who married Brooke sisters. Its water wheels powered a cotton spinning mill… Around the mills sprang up a structured little city… The town throbbed with 400 people.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

In West Virginia<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

That answered the question of three brothers. Similarly another Triadelphia, this time in West Virginia, seemed to have three men associated with its founding as well (map<\/a>). Numerous sources speculated that perhaps these men were three sons of an early resident, the town’s first mayor, Colonel Joshiah Thompson. However, research conducted in 1941 as part of the Depression-era Work Projects Administration offered a different explanation<\/a>. It attributed the name to three close friends who settled in the area circa 1800. This included the previously-mentioned Thompson along with Amasa Brown and John D. Foster who all donated the townsite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Ohio<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I discovered a final Triadelphia in Morgan County, Ohio, via the Geographic Names Information System. The “History of Morgan County, Ohio” mentioned<\/a> Triadelphia. Unfortunately it did not provide an explanation beyond “It was laid out in 1838 by A. Roberts”. That book dated to 1886 so the source of the triad was apparently already unknown or unworthy even back then. So it remained a mystery. I also found a Flickr set on the abandoned Deerfield Township school<\/a> located in Triadelphia (also Google Street View<\/a>) although that went down a bit of a tangent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Arkadelphia<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"Profile<\/a>
Speer Pavilion at Ouachita Baptist University, in Arkadelphia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The more well-known Arkadelphia had to be the one in Arkansas<\/a> (map<\/a>). It had ten thousand residents at the last Census so it certainly qualified as a meaningfully populated place. It was also the home of two universities, Ouachita Baptist University and Henderson State University. That explained the photo I selected, above.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The source of the name was uncertain<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“At the end of the 1830s, the first lots were plotted, and Blakeleytown became Arkadelphia. The name\u2019s originator and precise date of origin are lost; later accounts agree that early settler James Trigg reported, without attribution, that when Arkadelphia became the county seat and thus needed a more dignified name, locals combined two Greek words for ‘arc of brotherhood’ and changed the third letter. However, many settlers came from Alabama and perhaps borrowed the name of Arkadelphia from a town north of Birmingham.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I’ll note another option, a hunch really, since I lack definitive evidence. Perhaps the Ark portion came from a shortening of Arkansas. People did that for Texarkana just 75 miles (120 kilometres) down the road. So it seemed to be more than a passing possibility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What about the Arkadelphia in Alabama (map<\/a>)? It continued to exist albeit as nothing more than a bump in the road. Nobody really knew<\/a> its derivation; it could have come from another town or it could have incorporated the name of an early settler (seems to have some merit<\/a>). All I discovered was that it served as the home of the Arkadelphia Speedway [UPDATE: now renamed ECM Speedway<\/a><\/em>].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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(A)delphia<\/h2>\n\n\n\n