Etymology
The town was named for Jean-Baptiste Richardville (whose father's surname was Richerville), a Miami chief of French-Miami descent who had relations with the United States government in treaty making in the early nineteenth century. through the French pronunciation of "Ri-shar-ville," the name was gradually corrupted and changed to the current spelling; it has been pronounced "Roo-sha-ville" through much of its history.
The apparent association with Russia led to the town high school's naming its athletic teams the "Cossacks" until 1949, when county consolidation changed Russiaville High School to Western High School. Some theorize an alternate history, that during the Cold War, residents consciously changed the pronunciation of Russiaville's name in order to disassociate their town from Russia, the leading state of the Soviet Union. A map from the 1840s-1850s in the Quaker Collection of Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana, clearly shows a county named Richardville, and a town Richardville, at the site of present-day Russiaville. Some local history has suggested "Rouchardville" as the earlier spelling, but Richardville is correct.
Read more about this topic: Russiaville, Indiana
Famous quotes containing the word etymology:
“The universal principle of etymology in all languages: words are carried over from bodies and from the properties of bodies to express the things of the mind and spirit. The order of ideas must follow the order of things.”
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