This should have been easy but proved to be one of the more difficult towns named. The problem began with a book. I decided to reread the current one by Susan Orlean called On Animals because I liked it so much the first time. It surprised me because it has not been the success I expected since most people have a pet or 2 nowadays. Ruth and I listen to dogs bark all day since all of our neighbors have them. The newest animal addition has been the way cute but increasingly large dog next door.

The real problem began last evening as I was reading “The Lady and the Tigers” for the 2nd time. This tiger tale took place in Jackson, NJ. Orlean reports that, “Jackson is not a bad place to be a tiger.” She repeats the name of this town often as she tells about Jackson’s local Six Flags Amusement Park, its popularity as a place to live, and animal hoarders, persons who engage in the pathological collecting of animals. Orlean documents the fact that 2/3 of animal hoarders are female and that the average hoarder owns 39 animals but that some women collect up to 100 of them, mostly cats and dogs, before authorities step in and attempt to control the situation. When some of the cats are large ones like tigers social problems become overwhelming.

Andrew Jackson was the 7th US President. He was controversial. A very successful politician, this frontier lawyer won the popular vote 3 times and became the first President not from the original 13 colonies. He founded the Democratic Party, owned slaves, killed a man in a duel, and was the first President almost assassinated. Nicknamed Old Hickory, he preferred his home in Tennessee to Washington, DC and signed the Indian Removal Act that led to the Trail of Tears and the relocating of entire Indian tribes to Oklahoma. Most of the Jackson towns were named for him.

Most of the towns name Jackson or Jacksonville, and there are lots of them, were named for Andrew but not all of them. The town of Jackson, WY, for example, was named for David Edward Jackson, who gave his name to this Teton Mountain Valley city of more than 10,000 people that has now become a huge tourist magnet. There are 2 towns in New Zealand named Jackson River and Jacksons, one Jackson in Africa, several Jackson geographic place names in Australia, and there are at least 3 Jacksons in Canada. It is bizarre to think that all of these were named after an American President.

However, there are 32 places in the USA named Jackson or Jacksonville, and it is not a stretch to think that most of them were named for President Andrew Jackson. There are large towns named Jackson like the capital of Mississippi, the city of Jackson, TN, and the fairly large population center called Jackson in Michigan. There are also 23 counties in the US named Jackson and one Parish in Louisiana. I even found Jackson, New Jersey! It really does exist even though most map makers do not acknowledge it.

Hank

There are 14 population centers known as Ottawa in the USA. Some of them are counties only. There are actual towns named Ottawa in only about 6 states. Most of them are not too far from Canada. The largest Ottawa is in Illinois. It’s a substantial town on the Illinois River not too far from Chicago and the scene of a Lincoln-Douglas debate in the 19th century. Its only competition for size is the Ottawa in Kansas south of Lawrence. It has a population of about 13,000 people and a university. We went through it last year on our way to Wichita.

I spotted the Ottawa in Ohio, a town of about 5,000 people, while doing research about all of the towns in America that have Greek roots. There are a surprising number of them, and Ottawa, OH is near one of the few towns named Pandora. Pandora is a Greek name and an unincorporated Ohio town on Highway 12 north of big Lima not too far from yet another town with the Greek name of Delphos.

Of course, the largest town name Ottawa is the capital city of Canada. A city of 883,000 people, Ottawa is a great city on the Ottawa River north of Kingston. Wisely, Canada located its capital across the river from the French speaking city of Gatineau, Quebec. Ruth and I were there on Canada Day several years ago.

The only other towns named Ottawa are, strangely enough, in Africa. There is a suburb called Ottawa for the city of Durban, South Africa, and a tiny village in the country called Ivory Coast with this name.

There is a fairly substantial town named Ottawa in Wisconsin’s Waukesha County. Even though it contains 4,000 or so people, this Ottawa is not on maps perhaps because it is now considered a suburb of Milwaukee.

Hank

There are said to be 37 towns in the United States with Union in their names. I quickly concludes that this had something to do with either our divided nation as the result of the Civil War or labor unrest. Neither is correct. A bit of research convinced me that the use of the word union in town names had nothing to do with either The Civil War or organized labor. This name was chosen in almost every case to explain people coming together in the 1800s when most of them were named.

I quickly came to the conclusion that the selection of these many town names had to do with political unity or some other factor rather than current events. Most of the towns with Union in their names had the word followed by Gap, Point, Park, or Grove. For example, the Union City in the state of Massachusetts is more commonly referred to as the town of Naugatuck. The town of Union Bay in Canada’s BC has to do with geography rather than Confederation.

I decided to divide Union towns into 2 categories. There are several towns in the USA called Union City. There are, in fact, 9 of them. There are also 6 towns with the name Union alone. Where are these Union Cities? There are towns with this name in the following states: Georgia, California, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and New Jersey. The largest town called Union City is in the east San Francisco Bay area south of Oakland with a population of more than 66,500.

The 6 towns called Union are in Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Washington, West Virginia, and New Jersey. The state of New Jersey has both a Union and a Union City. Union, MO has a population of about 10,000 and a notable Six Flags Amusement Park. Ruth and I have been in this Union many times.

In addition there are also 17 counties in the USA with the name Union. This is probably the most common name selected to identify counties and has nothing to do with pressing political events.

Hank