Name Origins

Name Origins
Arsenal Street - Columbia Street

Adams - Smith's Mills

Adams Center - Adams Five Corners, Adams Centre

Black River - called by Indians Ka-hu-ah'-go meaning great or wide river

Carthage - Long Falls

Chaumont River - Catfish Creek

Clayton - Cornelia (1823), French Creek

Depauville - Catfish Falls

Dexter - Fish Island (Dexter was named after S. Newton Dexter of Whitesboro)

Ellisburg - Ellis Village

Felts Mills - Mid Road

Four Corners - Shantyville

Fulton - Oswego Falls

Wolfe Island - Gannin-k-not (Indian name; meaning straw, wheat, or grain?), Grand Island, Isle Buade

Heart Island - Hemlock Island, then Hart Island

Henderson - named for William Henderson

Henderson Harbor - Naples

Henderson Bay - Hungry Bay

LaFargeville - Log Mills

Lake Bonaparte - Lake Diana

Lorraine - Malta

Lyons Falls - High Falls

Mill Street (in Watertown) - where it crossed the river was called North Street

North Massey Street (in Watertown) - Madison Street

Oxbow - name derived from the large bend in the Oswegatchie River

Philadelphia - first called Elizabethtown, then Friends Settlement and also contained a area called Pogeland.

Pamelia - named after General Jacob Brown's wife

Plessis (also see below) - Flat Rock

Point Salubrious named because it was the only known point free of malaria.

Rodman - Harrison

Rome - Fort Stanwix

Big Sandy Creek - Burr's Mills

Sandy Creek - called by Indians Teka'daoga'he meaning sloping banks

Stone Mills - Collins' Mills

Theresa - High Falls, named for the daughter of James LeRay de Chaumont

Thousands Islands - The Indians called the 1000 Islands man-i-to-anna, which means the 'Garden of the Great Spirit'

Toronto - York

Utica - Old Fort Schuyler

Watertown - Great Falls, High Falls, Jefferson Village

Wellesley Island - Wells Island

Wilna - A location in Russia, original translation name - Vilnia (Vilenskaj)

{Most of the above from Marc's History of Jefferson County}

Also See
Old Watertown Street Names