Congressman Samuel F. Vinton, of Ohio, is the most likely source of the name of Vinton, Iowa.[/caption]
I was starting to write about Vinton, Texas, which I had recently visited, and I realized I had never really known where Vinton, Iowa got its name.
So I began reading about this part of our history.
The official Benton County web site says this: "The name of the county seat was soon changed from Northport to Fremont, in honor of General John Charles Fremont (1813-1890). However, there was another town in Iowa named Fremont so, on February 12, 1848, the name of the county seat changed again-this times to Vinton, after Ohio Congressman Plynn Vinton who paid $50 (to be invested in town lots) for the honor."
Just about any story about how our town earned the name "Vinton" mentions Congressman Plynn Vinton of Ohio. That includes newspapers, local history books, and even government publications.
The Cedar Valley Times on my dad's third birthday, Dec. 1, 1946, had this front page report:
“'What’s in a name?' Shakespeare asked, and Congressman Plynn Vinton, of Ohio, who flourished in the national legislature about 100 years ago, replied: About $50. At any rate that’s what Vinton shelled out to have the town named for him. Vinton, according to the Iowa Journal of History and Politics, sent $50 her in the winter of 1848 for investment in town lots, provided the community, then called Northport, should bear his cognomen.”
The article continues: “Today there are also Vintons in Ohio, Louisiana, Virginia and California and a Vintondale in Pennsylvania. Ohio also has a county in the southern part of the state called Vinton. Plynn may have planked out money for that and the other towns too. Man’s eternal quest for immortality sometimes takes strange forms."
The Cedar Rapids Gazette also repeated a similar story a few times.
Another historical resource, the 1875 A.T. Andreas Illustrated Historical Atlas of the State of Iowa, declares: "It was organized early in the spring of 1846, in accordance with an act of the Territorial Legislature passed the previous winter, and the county seat located on section 21 by commissioners, who named it Vinton, in honour of Hon. Plynn Vinton, a former member of Congress from Ohio, who sent a considerable amount of money to be donated to the county if the commissioners would name the county town Vinton."
"The History of Benton County, Iowa," published in 1878, says that County Commissioners Samuel Lockwood, Loyal F. North and Thomas Way chose the name Vinton “in honor of a Member of Congress from Ohio who was anxious to perpetuate his name in this way.”
Even Wikipedia says Vinton has its name because of Congressman Plynn Vinton.
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but every single one of of those reports mentioned above is wrong.
Vinton Iowa was not, and could not have been, named after Congressman Plynn Vinton of Ohio, and it's certain that Plynn Vinton of Ohio never donated any money for the honor.
The main reason I can declare this with such authority is that there never has been a Congressman Plynn Vinton. In fact, there is only one person named "Vinton" to ever serve in Congress, according to the official Biographical Record of the Congress of the United States: Samuel Finley Vinton, who was, indeed from Ohio.
A 1905 book called Congressional Edition, Volume 4864 also says Vinton got its name from Hon. Plynn Vinton. It says Vinton, Ohio was named after S.F. Vinton, a congressman from that state.
I started, there, in Ohio, with S.F. Vinton.
Samuel Finley Vinton was, indeed, a congressman from Ohio; the only congressman ever named Vinton. He is buried in the town of Gillipolis, Ohio, a small town along the southeastern edge of Ohio, not farm from the Ohio River that separates Ohio and West Virginia border.
Mary Lee Marchi has been a long time leader of the Gallia County Historical Society; in fact she was its director for 17 of the 20 years she was associated with the society.
The Gallipolis newspaper staff referred me to Mary Lee, who has often been a source of historical information for the Daily Tribune. She probably knows more than anyone else about Samuel Finley Vinton, and his family.
After sharing with Mary Lee my quest for the true origin of our Vinton's name, Mary Lee, who lives not far from S.F. Vinton's grave site, did some more research.
This is what she had to say: Samuel Vinton, the Congressman, had a brother named Pliny. One of Pliny's sons was named Plin (not Plynn), who was born in 1844.
It's pretty safe to say that Vinton, Iowa, did not get its name in 1848 because a 4-year-old offered city leaders $50 dollars.
Another report states that Vinton got its name from an Iowa legislator named Vinton. That too, is impossible. The only legislator named Vinton in Iowa history was Harry Clarence Vinton of Chickasaw County. He was born in 1838, and served just one two-year term in the Iowa House. And like Plin Vinton, Harry would have been pretty young at age 10 to offer a city $50 to name itself after him.
So, in conclusion:
It seems that, based on the date that Vinton became an official incorporated city, the only person named Vinton who could have inspired its name is Congressman Samuel Finley Vinton. Many cities and counties in Iowa (and other states, as well) adopted names of military leaders or members of Congress: Benton, Polk, Buchanan, Grant, etc. So with hundreds of new towns and counties choosing names, it was normal in that era for a member of Congress to find himself the inspiration for the name of a city, village, township or county. And there is no record that S.F. Vinton paid anything for that honor; it is highly unlikely he even heard of Vinton, Iowa, which was nearly 700 miles away, in the pre-railroad transportation era.
S.F. Vinton was well-known for his career in public service. He had been in Congress for 22 of the 28 years between 1823 and 1851; it's not hard to accept the premise that local leaders knew his name well. Known for his "patriotic unselfishness," Vinton first ran for Congress because at the urging of his community, and had been offered, but turned down, the chance to be Speaker of the House in 1847.
Mary Lee also shared some of the stories about how well-respected Vinton was in his hometown.
"I think that most people remember his as serving in Congress, he also ran for the governorship of Ohio at one time but lost by a small number of votes," she said. "Many think of him as walking each morning from his home on First Avenue to his law office on Second Avenue through an alley which was later named Vinton Place. All that I have read has him as being of small frame and fragile but being very kind."
Mary also remembers a story that H.M. Brackenridge told of when he was a young boy.
"Brackenridge being a young boy became friends with a young lady 18 or 20 years old and they would meet fairly often and discuss things of the day. The relationship was purely platonic. One day Brackenridge was on First Avenue and a young man who had gone into the river to bathe and had got beyond his depth without being able to swim. He began to struggle for life, and in a few seconds would have sunk. Brackenridge raced down the bank, leaped into a canoe and pushed it towards the young man, as he rose, perhaps for the last time. The young boy grabbed him with such a tight grip that afterwards the skin that had pressed against the side of the canoe came off parts of the drowning mans arm. The young man who was drowning later married the young woman who the boy was friends with. The drowning man was Samuel F. Vinton and the woman was Romaine Madeline Bureau Vinton," she says.
So, naming Vinton after Congressman Samuel F. Vinton of Ohio, would have made sense to the people who named their town Vinton, Iowa, in 1848.
This column, and my correction of what many of us had accepted as true history, is in no way a criticism of anyone who has ever attributed Vinton’s name to Plynn Vinton.
Finding what actually happened a century and a half ago is not an easy task.
In fact, the publishers of the 1878 history referenced above also acknowledged the challenges of accurately recording history that occurred just 25 or 30 years earlier.
“In the absence of written words, it has often occurred that different individuals have given honest but nevertheless conflicting versions of the same event; and it has been a task of extreme delicacy to harmonize these diverse judgments, and arrive at the absolute truth as nearly as possible for human judgment to do. How thorough and well this task has been performed is for the intelligent reader to judge. It is not to be expected that the work is beyond criticism, or that, in all its numerous and varied details, it is absolutely correct; but it is hoped and believed that it will be fund measurably correct, and in the main, accurate and reliable. Studious care has been constantly exercised in the preparation of the text, in the hope of making a standard work of reference, as well as a volume of interest to the general reader.”
I always tell students, when I talk about media, to challenge and double-check everything they read or see in the news. It's not skepticism; it's healthy curiosity. We still, despite our best efforts, end up giving "honest but nevertheless conflicting" versions of events. It's up to you, the reader, to carefully study and compare those stories and find out which seems most accurate.
It's hard work, and demands more than Googling, or forwarding a Facebook post. But everything you read -- including and especially everything by this writer -- deserves and demands a scrutinous second look. Both you, and your society, will be better with that approach to reading news.
Or city history.
[caption id="attachment_22300" align="alignright" width="217"]
Congressman Samuel F. Vinton, of Ohio, is the most likely source of the name of Vinton, Iowa.[/caption]
I was starting to write about Vinton, Texas, which I had recently visited, and I realized I had never really known where Vinton, Iowa got its name.
So I began reading about this part of our history.
The official Benton County web site says this: "The name of the county seat was soon changed from Northport to Fremont, in honor of General John Charles Fremont (1813-1890). However, there was another town in Iowa named Fremont so, on February 12, 1848, the name of the county seat changed again-this times to Vinton, after Ohio Congressman Plynn Vinton who paid $50 (to be invested in town lots) for the honor."
Just about any story about how our town earned the name "Vinton" mentions Congressman Plynn Vinton of Ohio. That includes newspapers, local history books, and even government publications.
The Cedar Valley Times on my dad's third birthday, Dec. 1, 1946, had this front page report:
“'What’s in a name?' Shakespeare asked, and Congressman Plynn Vinton, of Ohio, who flourished in the national legislature about 100 years ago, replied: About $50. At any rate that’s what Vinton shelled out to have the town named for him. Vinton, according to the Iowa Journal of History and Politics, sent $50 her in the winter of 1848 for investment in town lots, provided the community, then called Northport, should bear his cognomen.”
The article continues: “Today there are also Vintons in Ohio, Louisiana, Virginia and California and a Vintondale in Pennsylvania. Ohio also has a county in the southern part of the state called Vinton. Plynn may have planked out money for that and the other towns too. Man’s eternal quest for immortality sometimes takes strange forms."
The Cedar Rapids Gazette also repeated a similar story a few times.
Another historical resource, the 1875 A.T. Andreas Illustrated Historical Atlas of the State of Iowa, declares: "It was organized early in the spring of 1846, in accordance with an act of the Territorial Legislature passed the previous winter, and the county seat located on section 21 by commissioners, who named it Vinton, in honour of Hon. Plynn Vinton, a former member of Congress from Ohio, who sent a considerable amount of money to be donated to the county if the commissioners would name the county town Vinton."
"The History of Benton County, Iowa," published in 1878, says that County Commissioners Samuel Lockwood, Loyal F. North and Thomas Way chose the name Vinton “in honor of a Member of Congress from Ohio who was anxious to perpetuate his name in this way.”
Even Wikipedia says Vinton has its name because of Congressman Plynn Vinton.
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but every single one of of those reports mentioned above is wrong.
Vinton Iowa was not, and could not have been, named after Congressman Plynn Vinton of Ohio, and it's certain that Plynn Vinton of Ohio never donated any money for the honor.
The main reason I can declare this with such authority is that there never has been a Congressman Plynn Vinton. In fact, there is only one person named "Vinton" to ever serve in Congress, according to the official Biographical Record of the Congress of the United States: Samuel Finley Vinton, who was, indeed from Ohio.
A 1905 book called Congressional Edition, Volume 4864 also says Vinton got its name from Hon. Plynn Vinton. It says Vinton, Ohio was named after S.F. Vinton, a congressman from that state.
I started, there, in Ohio, with S.F. Vinton.
Samuel Finley Vinton was, indeed, a congressman from Ohio; the only congressman ever named Vinton. He is buried in the town of Gillipolis, Ohio, a small town along the southeastern edge of Ohio, not farm from the Ohio River that separates Ohio and West Virginia border.
Mary Lee Marchi has been a long time leader of the Gallia County Historical Society; in fact she was its director for 17 of the 20 years she was associated with the society.
The Gallipolis newspaper staff referred me to Mary Lee, who has often been a source of historical information for the Daily Tribune. She probably knows more than anyone else about Samuel Finley Vinton, and his family.
After sharing with Mary Lee my quest for the true origin of our Vinton's name, Mary Lee, who lives not far from S.F. Vinton's grave site, did some more research.
This is what she had to say: Samuel Vinton, the Congressman, had a brother named Pliny. One of Pliny's sons was named Plin (not Plynn), who was born in 1844.
It's pretty safe to say that Vinton, Iowa, did not get its name in 1848 because a 4-year-old offered city leaders $50 dollars.
Another report states that Vinton got its name from an Iowa legislator named Vinton. That too, is impossible. The only legislator named Vinton in Iowa history was Harry Clarence Vinton of Chickasaw County. He was born in 1838, and served just one two-year term in the Iowa House. And like Plin Vinton, Harry would have been pretty young at age 10 to offer a city $50 to name itself after him.
So, in conclusion:
It seems that, based on the date that Vinton became an official incorporated city, the only person named Vinton who could have inspired its name is Congressman Samuel Finley Vinton. Many cities and counties in Iowa (and other states, as well) adopted names of military leaders or members of Congress: Benton, Polk, Buchanan, Grant, etc. So with hundreds of new towns and counties choosing names, it was normal in that era for a member of Congress to find himself the inspiration for the name of a city, village, township or county. And there is no record that S.F. Vinton paid anything for that honor; it is highly unlikely he even heard of Vinton, Iowa, which was nearly 700 miles away, in the pre-railroad transportation era.
S.F. Vinton was well-known for his career in public service. He had been in Congress for 22 of the 28 years between 1823 and 1851; it's not hard to accept the premise that local leaders knew his name well. Known for his "patriotic unselfishness," Vinton first ran for Congress because at the urging of his community, and had been offered, but turned down, the chance to be Speaker of the House in 1847.
Mary Lee also shared some of the stories about how well-respected Vinton was in his hometown.
"I think that most people remember his as serving in Congress, he also ran for the governorship of Ohio at one time but lost by a small number of votes," she said. "Many think of him as walking each morning from his home on First Avenue to his law office on Second Avenue through an alley which was later named Vinton Place. All that I have read has him as being of small frame and fragile but being very kind."
Mary also remembers a story that H.M. Brackenridge told of when he was a young boy.
"Brackenridge being a young boy became friends with a young lady 18 or 20 years old and they would meet fairly often and discuss things of the day. The relationship was purely platonic. One day Brackenridge was on First Avenue and a young man who had gone into the river to bathe and had got beyond his depth without being able to swim. He began to struggle for life, and in a few seconds would have sunk. Brackenridge raced down the bank, leaped into a canoe and pushed it towards the young man, as he rose, perhaps for the last time. The young boy grabbed him with such a tight grip that afterwards the skin that had pressed against the side of the canoe came off parts of the drowning mans arm. The young man who was drowning later married the young woman who the boy was friends with. The drowning man was Samuel F. Vinton and the woman was Romaine Madeline Bureau Vinton," she says.
So, naming Vinton after Congressman Samuel F. Vinton of Ohio, would have made sense to the people who named their town Vinton, Iowa, in 1848.
This column, and my correction of what many of us had accepted as true history, is in no way a criticism of anyone who has ever attributed Vinton’s name to Plynn Vinton.
Finding what actually happened a century and a half ago is not an easy task.
In fact, the publishers of the 1878 history referenced above also acknowledged the challenges of accurately recording history that occurred just 25 or 30 years earlier.
“In the absence of written words, it has often occurred that different individuals have given honest but nevertheless conflicting versions of the same event; and it has been a task of extreme delicacy to harmonize these diverse judgments, and arrive at the absolute truth as nearly as possible for human judgment to do. How thorough and well this task has been performed is for the intelligent reader to judge. It is not to be expected that the work is beyond criticism, or that, in all its numerous and varied details, it is absolutely correct; but it is hoped and believed that it will be fund measurably correct, and in the main, accurate and reliable. Studious care has been constantly exercised in the preparation of the text, in the hope of making a standard work of reference, as well as a volume of interest to the general reader.”
I always tell students, when I talk about media, to challenge and double-check everything they read or see in the news. It's not skepticism; it's healthy curiosity. We still, despite our best efforts, end up giving "honest but nevertheless conflicting" versions of events. It's up to you, the reader, to carefully study and compare those stories and find out which seems most accurate.
It's hard work, and demands more than Googling, or forwarding a Facebook post. But everything you read -- including and especially everything by this writer -- deserves and demands a scrutinous second look. Both you, and your society, will be better with that approach to reading news.
Or city history.
Congressman Samuel F. Vinton, of Ohio, is the most likely source of the name of Vinton, Iowa.[/caption]
I was starting to write about Vinton, Texas, which I had recently visited, and I realized I had never really known where Vinton, Iowa got its name.
So I began reading about this part of our history.
The official Benton County web site says this: "The name of the county seat was soon changed from Northport to Fremont, in honor of General John Charles Fremont (1813-1890). However, there was another town in Iowa named Fremont so, on February 12, 1848, the name of the county seat changed again-this times to Vinton, after Ohio Congressman Plynn Vinton who paid $50 (to be invested in town lots) for the honor."
Just about any story about how our town earned the name "Vinton" mentions Congressman Plynn Vinton of Ohio. That includes newspapers, local history books, and even government publications.
The Cedar Valley Times on my dad's third birthday, Dec. 1, 1946, had this front page report:
“'What’s in a name?' Shakespeare asked, and Congressman Plynn Vinton, of Ohio, who flourished in the national legislature about 100 years ago, replied: About $50. At any rate that’s what Vinton shelled out to have the town named for him. Vinton, according to the Iowa Journal of History and Politics, sent $50 her in the winter of 1848 for investment in town lots, provided the community, then called Northport, should bear his cognomen.”
The article continues: “Today there are also Vintons in Ohio, Louisiana, Virginia and California and a Vintondale in Pennsylvania. Ohio also has a county in the southern part of the state called Vinton. Plynn may have planked out money for that and the other towns too. Man’s eternal quest for immortality sometimes takes strange forms."
The Cedar Rapids Gazette also repeated a similar story a few times.
Another historical resource, the 1875 A.T. Andreas Illustrated Historical Atlas of the State of Iowa, declares: "It was organized early in the spring of 1846, in accordance with an act of the Territorial Legislature passed the previous winter, and the county seat located on section 21 by commissioners, who named it Vinton, in honour of Hon. Plynn Vinton, a former member of Congress from Ohio, who sent a considerable amount of money to be donated to the county if the commissioners would name the county town Vinton."
"The History of Benton County, Iowa," published in 1878, says that County Commissioners Samuel Lockwood, Loyal F. North and Thomas Way chose the name Vinton “in honor of a Member of Congress from Ohio who was anxious to perpetuate his name in this way.”
Even Wikipedia says Vinton has its name because of Congressman Plynn Vinton.
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but every single one of of those reports mentioned above is wrong.
Vinton Iowa was not, and could not have been, named after Congressman Plynn Vinton of Ohio, and it's certain that Plynn Vinton of Ohio never donated any money for the honor.
The main reason I can declare this with such authority is that there never has been a Congressman Plynn Vinton. In fact, there is only one person named "Vinton" to ever serve in Congress, according to the official Biographical Record of the Congress of the United States: Samuel Finley Vinton, who was, indeed from Ohio.
A 1905 book called Congressional Edition, Volume 4864 also says Vinton got its name from Hon. Plynn Vinton. It says Vinton, Ohio was named after S.F. Vinton, a congressman from that state.
I started, there, in Ohio, with S.F. Vinton.
Samuel Finley Vinton was, indeed, a congressman from Ohio; the only congressman ever named Vinton. He is buried in the town of Gillipolis, Ohio, a small town along the southeastern edge of Ohio, not farm from the Ohio River that separates Ohio and West Virginia border.
Mary Lee Marchi has been a long time leader of the Gallia County Historical Society; in fact she was its director for 17 of the 20 years she was associated with the society.
The Gallipolis newspaper staff referred me to Mary Lee, who has often been a source of historical information for the Daily Tribune. She probably knows more than anyone else about Samuel Finley Vinton, and his family.
After sharing with Mary Lee my quest for the true origin of our Vinton's name, Mary Lee, who lives not far from S.F. Vinton's grave site, did some more research.
This is what she had to say: Samuel Vinton, the Congressman, had a brother named Pliny. One of Pliny's sons was named Plin (not Plynn), who was born in 1844.
It's pretty safe to say that Vinton, Iowa, did not get its name in 1848 because a 4-year-old offered city leaders $50 dollars.
Another report states that Vinton got its name from an Iowa legislator named Vinton. That too, is impossible. The only legislator named Vinton in Iowa history was Harry Clarence Vinton of Chickasaw County. He was born in 1838, and served just one two-year term in the Iowa House. And like Plin Vinton, Harry would have been pretty young at age 10 to offer a city $50 to name itself after him.
So, in conclusion:
It seems that, based on the date that Vinton became an official incorporated city, the only person named Vinton who could have inspired its name is Congressman Samuel Finley Vinton. Many cities and counties in Iowa (and other states, as well) adopted names of military leaders or members of Congress: Benton, Polk, Buchanan, Grant, etc. So with hundreds of new towns and counties choosing names, it was normal in that era for a member of Congress to find himself the inspiration for the name of a city, village, township or county. And there is no record that S.F. Vinton paid anything for that honor; it is highly unlikely he even heard of Vinton, Iowa, which was nearly 700 miles away, in the pre-railroad transportation era.
S.F. Vinton was well-known for his career in public service. He had been in Congress for 22 of the 28 years between 1823 and 1851; it's not hard to accept the premise that local leaders knew his name well. Known for his "patriotic unselfishness," Vinton first ran for Congress because at the urging of his community, and had been offered, but turned down, the chance to be Speaker of the House in 1847.
Mary Lee also shared some of the stories about how well-respected Vinton was in his hometown.
"I think that most people remember his as serving in Congress, he also ran for the governorship of Ohio at one time but lost by a small number of votes," she said. "Many think of him as walking each morning from his home on First Avenue to his law office on Second Avenue through an alley which was later named Vinton Place. All that I have read has him as being of small frame and fragile but being very kind."
Mary also remembers a story that H.M. Brackenridge told of when he was a young boy.
"Brackenridge being a young boy became friends with a young lady 18 or 20 years old and they would meet fairly often and discuss things of the day. The relationship was purely platonic. One day Brackenridge was on First Avenue and a young man who had gone into the river to bathe and had got beyond his depth without being able to swim. He began to struggle for life, and in a few seconds would have sunk. Brackenridge raced down the bank, leaped into a canoe and pushed it towards the young man, as he rose, perhaps for the last time. The young boy grabbed him with such a tight grip that afterwards the skin that had pressed against the side of the canoe came off parts of the drowning mans arm. The young man who was drowning later married the young woman who the boy was friends with. The drowning man was Samuel F. Vinton and the woman was Romaine Madeline Bureau Vinton," she says.
So, naming Vinton after Congressman Samuel F. Vinton of Ohio, would have made sense to the people who named their town Vinton, Iowa, in 1848.
This column, and my correction of what many of us had accepted as true history, is in no way a criticism of anyone who has ever attributed Vinton’s name to Plynn Vinton.
Finding what actually happened a century and a half ago is not an easy task.
In fact, the publishers of the 1878 history referenced above also acknowledged the challenges of accurately recording history that occurred just 25 or 30 years earlier.
“In the absence of written words, it has often occurred that different individuals have given honest but nevertheless conflicting versions of the same event; and it has been a task of extreme delicacy to harmonize these diverse judgments, and arrive at the absolute truth as nearly as possible for human judgment to do. How thorough and well this task has been performed is for the intelligent reader to judge. It is not to be expected that the work is beyond criticism, or that, in all its numerous and varied details, it is absolutely correct; but it is hoped and believed that it will be fund measurably correct, and in the main, accurate and reliable. Studious care has been constantly exercised in the preparation of the text, in the hope of making a standard work of reference, as well as a volume of interest to the general reader.”
I always tell students, when I talk about media, to challenge and double-check everything they read or see in the news. It's not skepticism; it's healthy curiosity. We still, despite our best efforts, end up giving "honest but nevertheless conflicting" versions of events. It's up to you, the reader, to carefully study and compare those stories and find out which seems most accurate.
It's hard work, and demands more than Googling, or forwarding a Facebook post. But everything you read -- including and especially everything by this writer -- deserves and demands a scrutinous second look. Both you, and your society, will be better with that approach to reading news.
Or city history.
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