How Some of the Arizona Cities Got Their Names.
Almost everyone in the country knows about Phoenix, Arizona. However, they don't really know the cities around the state, or the stories about how they earned their names.
Ash Fork was believed to originate from a grove of ash trees growing in that area.
Avondale, initially called Coldwater by William Moore. It was called Coldwater because the river nearby and natural spring. The name Avondale was the name of the post office near Avondale Ranch.
Buckeye, called Sidney in 1885, got its name from Malie M. Jackson named the canal after his home state Ohio, the Buckeye state. Thomas Clanton co-founded the town Buckeye a few years later, but called it Sidney. The residents called the town Buckeye instead of Sidney because of the Buckeye Post Office.
Chandler is named after Dr. Alexander John Chandler, more commonly known A.J. Chandler. He was the Arizona Territory's first veterinarian. He bought 80 acres of federal land, which later expanded to 18,000 acres, south of Mesa. He began selling the property along Arizona Avenue. It became Chandler.
Flagstaff drew its name from a very tall flagpole made with a pine tree to celebrate the nation's centennial in 1876.
Gilbert was named after William Gilbert established the land that had a rail siding. The area was called "The Hay Capital of the World" until the 1920's
The origin of how Glendale earned its name is not entirely known. William J. Murphy coined the name, however his reasoning behind it has been lost to history.
Goodyear's name came from Paul Litchfield, who worked at Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. He bought 16,000 acres of the land that would become Goodyear. The community was originally called Egypt because Egyptian cotton had grown there, but was renamed Goodyear in honor of Charles Goodyear, founder of Goodyear Tire and Rubber.
Mesa was originally called Mesa City or Mesaville. However the US Postal Service rejected the name because it might get confused with Mesaville, another city in that region. For a while, the city was called Hayden since the mail went to Hayden Ferry. Mesa remained a popular name, the post office allowed the name in 1889.
Peoria was named after Peoria, Ill by Joseph B. Greenhut and Deloss S. Brown. They bought 640 acres from the Desert Lands Act. They filled Peoria's map with the Maricopa County recorder, naming the settlement after their hometown in 1897.
Phoenix, originally called Swilling's Mill after early pioneer Jack Swilling, had earned its name because of the town that had been reborn from the Hohokam civilization that was once there.
Scottsdale was named after its founder Winfield Scott, a Civil War veteran, who moved to Arizona's Salt River Valley in the late 1800s. Although the city was founded in the 1800s, it was not incorporated until 1951. The population when it was incorporated was about 2,000 residents.
Seligman was named after Jesse Seligman, a New York banker who helped finance the railroad around that area. Later, that area became a Route 66 town.
Surprise was founded by Flora Mae Statler in 1938. Statler decided to call the area Surprise because she would be surprised if the town amounted to anything, according to her daughter. Historians had previously believed that the town was named Surprise after Statler's husband's hometown, Surprise, Neb. However, Clerk Sherry Aguilar discovered the answer in 2010.
Tempe was named after "Lord" Darrell Duppa, an Englishman who had helped in establishing Phoenix. He named it after the Vale of Tempe in Greece, a valley with a stream running through it near Mount Olympus.