August 19, 2020

Towns Named Milton

By roads-rus

There are supposedly more than 20 towns named Milton in the world, but I can find only about a dozen of them that are of any consequence and 3 or 4 of them have been absorbed into larger cities. For example, the largest Milton in the world, Milton, Ontario, has become part of the Toronto megalopolis. Milton, Georgia, a community of about 33,000, is now part of the Atlanta area; and Milton, Massachusetts, a city of about 27,000, is now in Boston.

Sixteen of the Miltons are said to be in different states, but some of them are so small that they aren’t listed as having populations. In a couple of cases, states like New Jersey and Indiana have Milltowns but no Miltons, yet one of them is listed among the states having a Milton. There is only one state that has both a Milton and a Milltown. Wisconsin is that state.

There are 2 Miltons in Canada. The other one is in Nova Scotia. There is a small Milton in New South Wales, Australia and another in Queensland. There’s a Milton on New Zealand’s South Island that was once known as Tokomairiro. The historic town of Milton, Florida, came to life as Scratch Ankle. The town changed its name to Milton to honor a local lumber company, an important employer. There is also a village in Scotland named Milton. It’s a mile east of larger Dumbarton.

There is no one named Milton who is responsible for all of these communities. The Milton in Ontario was named for the poet John Milton. Milton, MA was named for Milton Abbey in Dorset, England. There is a Milton, PA; but it isn’t near and probably wasn’t named after famous Pennsylvanian Milton S. Hershey, who founded a candy bar company.

To add to the confusion, a town in Oregon was named Milton-Freewater. A town of about 7,000 people, Milton-Freewater is considered the pea capital of the world. Neighboring state Washington has a pure Milton, but it has become a virtual suburb of Tacoma. Some would say that it’s in the Seattle area.

The Milton name lives on in a variety of ways. There’s an academy named Milton for 9 through 12th graders in Milton, MA. There’s a play written by 2 women about towns named Milton. There’s a big investment company in Australia named Milton and a corporation with that named in Chicago that makes 1,400 products.

Hank

About roads-rus

Since the beginning, I've had to avoid writing about the downside of travel in order to sell more than 100 articles. Just because something negative happened doesn't mean your trip was ruined. But tell that to publishers who are into 5-star cruise and tropical beach fantasies. I want to tell what happened on my way to the beach, and it may not have been all that pleasant. My number one rule of the road is...today's disaster is tomorrow's great story. My travel experiences have appeared in about twenty magazines and newspapers. I've been in all 50 states more than once and more than 50 countries. Ruth and I love to travel internationally--Japan, Canada, China, Argentina, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, etc. Within the next 2 years we will have visited all of the European countries. But our favorite destination is Australia. Ruth and I have been there 9 times. I've written a book about Australia's Outback, ALONE NEAR ALICE, which is available through both Amazon & Barnes & Noble. My first fictional work, MOVING FORWARD, GETTING NOWHERE, has recently been posted on Amazon. It's a contemporary, hopefully funny re-telling of The Odyssey. View all posts by roads-rus
This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 19th, 2020 at 11:26 pm and posted in Town Names. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

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