A SPECIAL PUBLICATION OF

THE HAWLEY HERALD

2012 EDITION PAGE 7A

We have our ship of state, chris-tened Minnesota, and she has been under sail for more than 150 years. We have our ship of city, christened, christened, christened, christened, christened, christened, Hawley and she has been under sail for more than 135 years.

Six imaginary bottles of cham-pagne were broken on the bow of this great ship before she set sail as Hawley, near the shores of prehistoric Lake Agassiz. Hawley had six name changes since 1871 and was called Hawley two times in that process.

The late Bob Brekken, outstanding citizen of Hawley and former editor and owner of the Hawley Herald, wrote about this phenomenon in his book, The Journey Back to Hawley, published by the Hawley Herald in 1972 during the celebration of Haw-ley's centennial.

Brekken wrote that the name, Hawley, became permanent the sec-ond time and has remained Hawley since 1874. It was the Northern Pacific Railroad, and the Lake Su-perior and Puget Sound Company that were responsible for the other and the Yeovil Colony for the other. The Yeovil Colony consisted of im-migrants from England to the Hawley area in the 19th century.

The names in order were; Reno's Camp, Buffalo Crossing, Muskoday,

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After six changes the great ship set sail as Hawley

This is a photo of a 1913 parade in Downtown Hawley.

Front street looking east with 6th street on a busy but wet day, circa 1909. Dr. C.A. Putney (sign partly visible) had his dental office above the State Bank. A wagon load of grain is going into the farmers elevator while another team waits. Behind the elevator part of the stockyards can be seen. In the distance (see arrow) is the NP Section house, first home in Hawley for the O'Donnells.

Bethel or New Bethel, Hawley, Yeovil and New Yeovil and, of course, Hawley. Brekken wrote that Churchill's Camp could have been substituted for Reno's Camp if the railroad's original location for Hawley had come to pass just west of what is known as Winnipeg Junction, just to the northeast of Hawley. However, some squatters "grabbed" this site and the railroad was forced to take the next best spot at the crossing of the Buffalo River.

On page 50 of Journey Back, Brek-ken wrote, "Hawley's first two names, Reno's Camp and Buffalo Crossing, have an adventurous ring. Reno's Camp is certainly a distinct name, and for publicity purposes the name would have had more value today than the others. A name such as Reno's Camp is not likely to be forgotten. It is not only unique, but it also brings to mind the glamour city of Reno, Nev., or the Major Reno of the Battle of the Little Big Horn River.

There were no permanent resi-dents in Reno's Camp in 1871. The camp was named after Major Reno and he was in charge of a Northern Pacific engineering crew running line ahead of the construction gangs. This Northern-Pacific Reno was a relative of the Little-Big-Horn Major Reno with Custer.

Reno had a town at the east end of the line named after him, but this name was changed by Thomas Hawley Canfield. Canfield was in

charge of selecting names of the sta-tions along the railroad line. There is still a Reno Street in Hawley.

Canfield referred to Hawley as Reno's Camp, Buffalo Crossing, and first crossing of the Buffalo even though, in earlier correspondence, the first crossing of the Buffalo took place north of Lake Park. The final line survey went south of this point and Hawley became known as the first crossing of the Buffalo and Muskoda, at the west end of Hawley Township, became known as the second crossing of the Buffalo.

"Hawley was subjected to a lot of name calling and changing during the first months of 1872. Canfield had planned to dub it, Buffalo, but those plans failed. It was also called Bethel and New Bethel without any explana-tion given," Journey Back, page 50.

The Canfield plan was to found a large city west of Detroit Lakes and a candidate was the site of Hawley. From Canfield's correspondence, "That point is in the rich country west of Detroit woods and now to be made the junction of lines to Pembina of which I shall say more in a few days."

Joseph E. Turner made maps of townsites along the Northern Pacific line. "One of his early efforts was a

townsite map of Hawley, which of course, he had to label, Muskoday, as it was the proper name at that par-ticular moment."

From page 55 of the Journey Back, "The meaning of the word Hawley, and the family's early history in England can be found in, 'House of Hawley,' a geneology compiled by Mrs. E.H. Platt and printed in August 1909, at Port Huron, Mich."

Also, from page 55, "HAW means, "a green plat in the valley" in old Saxon spoken in northern England...LEY means a field that is laid down to grass or sward, and it can also mean a song. Original Saxon spelling was a leaz; Scottish, lea; French, leigh.

Records show that Hawley was named after General Joseph Roswell Hawley of Hartford, Connecticut. "...but they also show that Hawley was named after Thomas Hawley Canfield of Burlington, Vermont. Both men are descendants of the first Joseph Hawley in America through his son, Samuel Sr. A poll of a number of sources are heavily in favor of Hawley being named after Gen. Hawley, but taking a vote is not the way to arrive at the truth. Also, some of the sources are merely repeating earlier ones," page 55 of the Journey

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