While on a recent road trip through the great Hoosier state, I began to wonder about our founding fathers and their penchant for naming towns that end in "ville". Especially after living in the "City of Indiana" for most of my life! So I got out the handy AAA map and started looking further.
I counted 175 towns with a "ville" ending - from A to Z. Around Indy alone there's Allisonville (the town is gone but the road remains), Brookville, Mooresville, Noblesville, Shelbyville and Zionsville. And that's just for starters.
There's Alfordsville -were Steve's ancestors from there? There are two Clarksville's and two Lewisville's. There's a Collegeville with no university that I know of. There's Evansville and West Evansville. Lot's of "villes" with people's first names: Mary, Jason, Bruce, Craig, Dan & Dale, Eliza, Frances, Ida, Judy, Kirks, Lees, Rex and Waynes. and more with last names: Gentry, Calvert, Coates, Burns and Burnetts, Perkins, Perrys, Pike and Lincoln, plus Wades, Martins and plenty more. Rhyming towns like Millville, or working villes like Carpenters, Farmers, Porter and Butler. And in case you get lost, there's Centerville, Westville and Russiaville. There's a Pleasantville but (thankfully) no Amityville. There's the royal communities of Knightsville and Queensville. You can stake a claim in Deedsville but probably not in Freelandville, and you might have to stay awhile in the ville of Folsom unless you can sing the blues. I wonder if women are welcome in Manville? I'll bet they are in Mixerville. Colorblind? No problem - there's a ville for you too: Browns, Grays, Whites, even Plain if you have a pattern issue.
By far my favorite though is east of Muncie on the way into Ohio. Those settlers must have really had something against city folk and the urban life when they named their town "Antiville". Could it really be that bad? Are Hoosiers that unimaginative?
I wonder how many "burgs" there are?
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