I continue to make progress with the logistics supporting my recently-revealed 2015 Travel Plans. First on the docket will be a 150 mile (240 kilometre) bicycle adventure along the Great Allegheny Passage trail. That one runs between Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Cumberland, Maryland. I’ve been scoping the route and noticed a peculiarly-named town on the Maryland side of the border, Mount Savage (map). It seemed as if it would have fit within the theme of an earlier 12MC article from 2012, “Carnage, Slaughter and Mayhem.” Too bad I didn’t discover the town until now.
Hopefully I will be able to substitute my own photograph for the one I borrowed above. So let’s cross our fingers and pray that everything goes well.
About the Surname
I figured Mount Savage derived from someone with the not completely uncommon Savage surname. Did the surname have its roots in people who were wild, primitive, barbaric or possessing other seemingly impolite behaviors? Well yes, and no, and sort-of.
In the British Isles, Savage appeared to trace from the Latin silva (forest). Eventually it descended to Middle English via Old French. Source material seemed scarce. However, a cluster of consensus implied that the word meant something similar to courageous and unconquerable during the Sixteenth Century. It was a compliment. Later it shifted to its current, less savory definition.
In Eastern Europe, Savitch and variations existed independently, and frequently within Jewish populations. Savitch often became Savage when immigrants bearing the name settled in the United States. The etymology was even more obscure. It may have derived from the Sava River (map), a tributary of the Danube flowing through current Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Serbia. Alternately, it may have derived from the first-name Sava, possibly a Slavic form of Saul. No source seemed definitive.
Mount Savage was named for “a land surveyor, Thomas Savage, who happened to be traveling through the area in 1736.”
I also found an even larger town elsewhere in Maryland called simply Savage (map). That one derived from “John Savage Williams, a Philadelphia merchant with interest in a mill on the falls of the Little Patuxent.”
Both of these usages appeared to relate back to the British Isles derivation. Ditto for other examples I discovered.
Neen Savage, Shropshire, England
I expected to find at least one Savage in the United Kingdom given the surname’s ancient pedigree. Neen Savage in Shropshire filtered up as the leading example (map). I teased its history from an old book, Shropshire: Its Early History and Antiquities (1864)
“Neen Savage. The Celtic nene signifies a river and the word nan a brook is said to be a remnant of a primitive language. Certain it is that two of the Shropshire Neens are intersected by a stream. Neen Savage is the subject of the following entry in Domesday Book: — ‘The same Ralph holds Nene, and Ingelrann [holds] of him. Huni held it [in Saxon times] and was free’… Neen and Neen Savage were held by two several feoffees of Ralph de Mortemer who himself held of the king. The family of Le Savage descended from the Domesday Ingelrann hence the latter place acquired the name Neen Savage its present title.”
It seemed appropriate to select an image of the ford over the body of water that inspired the Nene of Nene Savage for this part of the article.
I also learned a new word, feoffee (“a trustee who holds a fief (or ‘fee), that is to say an estate in land, for the use of a beneficial owner.“) I don’t imagine I’ll get to use that one much in casual conversation.
Savage River, Tasmania, Australia.
The Savage River (map) defined a body of water, a town and a national park in Tasmania. Of the name, “Although it is tempting to think that ‘savage’ was a description of the river, it is equally likely that the river was named after Job Savage, a storeman at the Pieman River sometime before 1881.”
I was actually more fascinated by legends of the aforementioned Pieman River (map). Allegedly,
“The Pieman River gained its name from the notorious convict Alexander ‘The Pieman’ Pearce who was responsible for one of the few recorded instances of cannibalism in Australia. In a bizarre footnote to the history of the region Pearce and seven other convicts attempted to cross the island to Hobart where they hoped they could catch a merchant ship and escape to some ill-defined freedom. They lost their way and in the ensuing weeks all of the escapees disappeared except for Pearce. When he was recaptured unproven accusations of cannibalism were made against him. The following year Pearce escaped again accompanied by another convict, Thomas Cox. Once again Pearce found himself without food and, to solve the problem, he killed and ate Cox.”
That was amazing stuff. In a land known for its characters the Pieman took the, um, cake. He was even more extreme than Captain Thunderbolt. Too bad the Pieman River got its name from another source. Never let facts get in the way of a good story. The government really did execute Alexander “The Pieman” Pearce for cannibalism though.
Other Travel Plans
Some travel plans go well. Others change. The Thousand Islands trip is off. Apparently we waited too long to start looking for places to stay. So maybe we’ll try that again next year although search a little earlier? Instead we will travel to Asheville, North Carolina (something may have piqued my interest there). Does anyone have any Asheville suggestions?
Leave a Reply