Talk:Home, Pennsylvania

Latest comment: 3 years ago by NinetyCharacters in topic Origin of name

Origin of name

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This article gives two contradictory origins for the name of this town. (One stating that it was because its first post office was located in the "home" of postmaster Hugh Cannon in 1834; the other that "Harry Burkett started the post office... in 1918... thats [sic] when the name changed from Kellysburg to Home." One is cited, but it's an off-line source. The other has no source information. Some clarification would be helpful. — AlekJDS talk 23:34, 1 June 2011 (UTC)Reply

The most reliable source may be "Pennsylvania Postal History" by John L. Kay and Chester Smith, Jr., (Quarterman Publications Inc., 1976). On page 197, they list Home post office as having been established January 28, 1834, with A. W. Porter as postmaster. Their listing of post offices in Indiana County does not include an entry for Kellysburg. NinetyCharacters (talk) 16:11, 8 December 2020 (UTC)Reply

re: Origin of Name

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Perhaps there is some connection between the prominent, landed family named "Home" of the Scottish border country and lower highlands. I know from old family oral history that this area was settled by Scottish immigrants from the same area around the mid to late 1700's, and by the early 1800's was a wool processing and sheep raising center. In fact there was a mill there that sold wool for uniforms during the American Civil War. Perhaps the area was named for the Home family much as Pennsylvania was named for William Penn. I do not know this to be true, but I would hazard an educated guess that they might have been loyalists during the American Revolution, and thus there might have been an attempt to change the name and/or obscure its origins. Certainly this is not without precedent. Meaculpaettu (talk) 12:21, 12 January 2012 (UTC)meaculpaettu, January 12, 2012Reply