Legler—Wisconsin Place-Names. 
25 
In the reminiscences of Augustine Grignon, a, grandson, of 
Charles de Langlade 1 , Wisconsin’s first permanent settler, oc¬ 
curs the following explanation of the word Milwaukee: “I 
was once told by an old Indian that its name was derived from 
a valuable aromatic root used by the natives for medicinal 
purposes. The name of this root was ‘manwau,’ hence Man- 
a-waukee, the land or place of the man-wan. The Indians rep¬ 
resented that it grew nowhere else', to their 1 knowledge, and it 
was regarded as very valuable among them. The Chippewas 
on Lake Superior would give a beaver skin for a piece as large 
as a man’s finger. It was not used as a medicine, but was 
for its fine aroma put into all their medicine taken internally. 
I have also understood, though without placing so much con¬ 
fidence in it as in the other definition, that Milwaukee meant 
simply ‘good land.’ ” 8 
Grignon’s explanation would be a good one, but for the fact 
that the aromatic root concerning which he speaks in his 
memoirs seems to have existed largely in imagination. If it 
ever existed, it must have become extinct, for Dr. Lapham and 
others found no trace of it, and certainly none of it is to be 
found in this vicinity now. 
Most of the Indian names that dot the map of Wisconsin 
are of Ojibwa or Winnebago origin, with scattering additions 
attributable to the Pottawatomies, Sauks and Menomonees. 
In the following list of Wisconsin place-names and their mean¬ 
ings, the initials in parentheses are given for convenience of 
reference to authorities cited in the bibliography which follows: 
Ablemian’s—In honor of Col. S. Y. P. Ableman, who settled 
there in 1851. (History of Sauk Co., p. 631.) 
Ahnapee (Ah-nup-pee)—When or at what time. (W) 
Altoona—Platted as East Eau Claire in 1881; changed to 
Altoona. (Chip 1 . Valley, p. 184.) 
Aniwa—Corruption of Aniwi, “those.” (Hist. Colls., v. 12, 
p. 390.) 
® Mr. Benjamin Suite, of Ottawa, Can., writes me concerning a curious 
coincidence: “If I remember well what an Algonquin told me one 
day, the word Milwaukee means good land, bonneterre, or Terrebonne. 
Solomon Juneau was a native of Terrebonne seigneurie, in the province 
of Quebec.” 
