Talk:Otsego

Etymology

   This section, including all its subsections, is misplaced on the page Talk:Otsego, because the accompanying main-namespace page is a Dab, which does not (and may not) discuss etymology. It would be appropriate to replace it with a link to the talk page of the most significant (not necessarily the longest) or the most seminal (probably one that discusses the New York lake, on the assumption that the other uses derive from the lake) of the pages that have "Otsego" in their titles, and to move the whole section to that talk page, with edit summaries saying where it came from and went respectively.
--Jerzy•t 14:03, 31 May 2011 (UTC)

Place of rock?

James Fenimore Cooper in The Chronicles of Cooperstown stated:

The word Otsego, is thought to be a compound which conveys the idea of a spot at which meetings of the Indians were held. There is a small rock near the outlet of the lake, called the Otsego rock, at which precise point the savages, according to an early tradition of the country, were accustomed to rendezvous.

This contradicts the first item in the article somewhat, but my faith JFC waivers, so I won't change it. — Nonenmac 02:21, 21 January 2006 (UTC)

In the introduction to The Pioneers (the first book of the Leatherstocking Tales to be written), Cooper wrote:

Otsego is said to be a word compounded of Ot, a place of meeting, and Sego, or Sago, the ordinary term of salutation used by the Indians of this region. There is a tradition which says that the neighboring tribes were accustomed to meet on the banks of the lake to make their treaties, and otherwise to strengthen their alliances, and which refers the name to this practice. As the Indian agent of New York had a log dwelling at the foot of the lake, however, it is not impossible that the appellation grew out of the meetings that were held at his council fires;

(Just another argument on behalf of Cooper -- I'll look elsewhere, but maybe his belief is common enough that it should be mentioned.) — Nonenmac 02:36, 21 January 2006 (UTC)

Clear deep water?

Francis Whiting Halsey in his 1901 history The Old New York Frontier, wrote:

The foot of Otsego Lake was a favorite resort. In that fact Cooper found the origin of the word Otsego, the particular place where meetings were held being Council Rock. A meaning cited by Campbell is "clear, deep water," but other writers, like Morgan, pass the word by without defining it. Dr. Beauchamp gives the forms Otesaga and Ostenha, and says they are traditionally supposed to refer to Council Rock....

It is clear that the Indians did not know the lake by the name Otsego. ... In letters written from the lake in 1765, missionaries called it Otsego Lake, which is perhaps the earliest use of the name on record. On the Augsburg map of the province, dated 1777, occurs the form "Lake Assega," which would imply that the name had then found official acceptance.

A little more research due. — Nonenmac 02:59, 21 January 2006 (UTC)

Place of the rock?

The NYS Department of State, in The Origins of New York State's COUNTY NAMES agrees with the article, saying:

OTSEGO from an Indian word meaning "place of the rock"

Clear Water?

At Michigan Backroads.Com they say:

Otsego county Michigan, was originally called Okkuddo, which is an Indian word meaning sickly or stomach pains. The name was changed in 1843 to Otsego, meaning "clear water".

Beautiful bodies of clear water where meetings are held!

The Otsego County Michigan website says:

Our county was first laid out in 1840 and given the name Okkudo; a Native American word for "sickly" or "stomach pain" by Henry Schoolcraft. The name was changed to Otsego by an act of legislature in March 1843. There are several interpretations as to the origin of the name Otsego. Schoolcraft, thought Otsego was a derivation of the Iroquois words denoting "bodies of water" and "beautiful". In the first issue of the New York Otsego Herald published in 1795, the opinion is that the word conveys the idea of a spot where meetings are held. The historical marker in front of our courthouse and several short local histories define Otsego as meaning "clear water".

Clear deep salutation by a large rock

In ANNALS OF TRYON COUNTY, Chapter VI, William W. Campbell wrote in a footnote:

The word "Otsego" is said by some to be formed from the Indian term of salutation, "O Sago;" and a large rock is shown at the south end of this lake, near which, it is said, in early times, the Indians met in council, and when that term was frequently used. By others, it is said to mean "clear, deep water;" which is at least a very appropriate meaning....

Clear water meeting place

Michican.gov says:

Otsego, 1875: A county and a lake in New York bear the name derived from the Mohawk Iroquoian word that meant either "clear water" or "meeting place."

Static-X

According to a statement in the Wikipedia entry for Static-X (cited from an interview with Wayne Static), the band's "Otsego" songs refer to Otsego, Michigan (where Wayne went to college), not Otsego, Wisconsin. Understandable that the author assumed Wisconsin though, given the name of their debut album (Wisconsin Death Trip). I'm going to go ahead and change it, unless anyone has any opposition. Vicious Blayd 01:16, 20 July 2006 (UTC)