Posts from July 10th, 2019
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The Founding of Canton
As I am a resident of Canton, I did some research recently into the etymology of the name Canton.
I thought maybe it was named after someone with the name Canton. Turns out, the origin is much different!
In 1805, Canton was first founded by Bezaleel Wells, a surveyor, hailing from Steubenville, Ohio. He named our beloved city out of respect for trader John O'Donnell. O'Donnell was the first to ship goods from Canton, China to Baltimore, Maryland. He even called his property in Baltimore, "The Canton Estates."
Guangzhou, China was called by the Portugese "Cidade de Cantão" which the English ended up pronouncing as Canton. Th...