A bogus claim about how the city of Ann Arbor got its name

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Now and then I see a particularly awful statement in a blog post. The latest doozy was in one by Dr. John Livingston at the Gem State Patriot News on November 18, 2023 titled Where are the Grownups? He claimed that:

 

“…Ann Arbor was named for a prostitute by the same name.”

 

I lived in that city from 1977 to 1984 and never ever heard that nonsense. Historical articles say the Ann came from the wives of the two founders, and the Arbor referred to trees or shrubs. An article by Lela Duff in the Ann Arbor News on February 15, 1960 titled Ann Arbor Yesterdays – That Puzzling Name says:

 

“It is accepted as a well authenticated fact that John Allen and Elisha Walker Rumsey, our founding fathers, named the village in honor of their two wives. But there has always been considerable bickering about the arbor. Some old settlers insisted that the two men built an arbor, or even two arbors, one apiece; some say as a temporary shelter, others as an adornment just to pretty up the place. I doubt the latter idea especially. If they had any spare time between 1 February, 1824, when they first tramped about this lovely region, and May 25, when the plat was recorded in Detroit, surely they could have found more important things to do than building an arbor for mere decoration, There were chopping down trees and fashioning them into dwellings, breaking the ground and planting vegetables, following the surveyor up and down the proposed streets, all this in a background of the time-consuming mechanics of mere existence in the wilds.

We lean toward the other theory, held by equally trust-worthy pioneers, that the arbor was a natural one, where wild grape vines had crowded gaily over wild plum trees; that it remained for many years near the southwest corner of W. Huron and First Sts.; that Mary Ann Rumsey had enjoyed doing her work there, or just sitting there, as the warm spring days advanced (for Ann Allen did not arrive until October); that the name was hit upon spontaneously one day by herself and John Allen.”

 

There is a more recent article by Ken Haddad at AllAboutAnnArbor on October 10, 2019 titled

How did Ann Arbor get its name?

 

What prompted Dr. Livingston’s bizarre claim? He was writing about a recent sports scandal at the University of Michigan football team – the Wolverines, which is discussed by Pat Forde in an article at Sports Illustrated on November 17, 2023 titled Michigan has gotten curiously quiet on its sign-stealing scandal, and another by Louisa Thomas at The New Yorker on November 18, 2023 titled The Michigan sign-stealing story is the perfect college-football scandal.

 

There are gag tee shirts for fans of their rival Big Ten team, the Buckeyes at The Ohio State University, like this one and that one which say that:

 

“Ann Arbor is a Whore”

 

and turn the Michigan M upside down to become the W in Whore.

 

I also lived in Columbus, Ohio for nine years, and got really tired of all the attention paid to college football. At least wolverines are suitably fierce animals for naming a team. Buckeyes are just horse chestnuts, which might be thrown by angry monkeys like dung.

 

The unknown woman image was adapted from one at Wikimedia Commons.