ORIGIN AND MEANING OF WISCONSIN PLACE-NAMES; 
WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO INDIAN NOMEN¬ 
CLATURE. 
HEMY E. LEGLER. 
In the names of water-ways and other geographical features 
may be traced the history of colonization. Sometimes the 
study is hindered by reason of complex transformations from 
the primary simple form, rendering the origin and significance 
of terms doubtful; sometimes the meaning is so obscure! as to 
lead to unsatisfactory controversy; but despite incongruities 
and etymological guesswork, the study of the geographical 
nomenclature of any country or political division is suscepti¬ 
ble of valuable result to the student of philology and of his¬ 
tory. This is especially true of the Western continent, where 
the local names preserve, though often hidden by successive cor¬ 
ruption of the original terms, the migratory history and legend¬ 
ary lore of Indian tribes. 1 
The study of local names in America is attended, as in 
Europe, with the difficulties that naturally arise from dialectic 
changes. The Frenchmen, Dutch, Englishmen and Spaniards 
altered the forms to make the meanings applicable to themselves 
or to render the sound familiar to their own ears. The yel¬ 
lowed mjaps of the early cartographers become invaluable in this 
connection, as the names there recorded indicate in chrono¬ 
logical sequence the displacement of the aborigines, by races 
from the continent of Europe, who in turn gave, way to each 
i “Local names—whether they belong to provinces, cities and villages, 
or are the designations of rivers and mountains,—are never mere arbi¬ 
trary sounds, devoid of meaning. They may always be regarded as 
records of the past, inviting and rewarding a careful historical inter¬ 
pretation.” Rev. Isaac Taylor’s Words and Places, London and Cam¬ 
bridge, 1865. 
