Books › Indianapolis, Indiana city directory, 1855 › scan 6
Scan 6
Indianapolis, Indiana city directory, 1855
24 lines. Read by computer on 17 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1PREFACE.
3TO FIND A NAME YOU MUST KNOW HOW TO SPELL IT.
5A Directory, in its very inception, is imperfect. Changes of abode are so constant, it would be necessary to print a weekly report of the removals to keep it correct, but there is a class that are not migratory, and we presume we have them correct. That in it errors and omissions will be found, is admitted, for every man becomes a critic, and many censure when the fault is with themselves.
7The City has been thoroughly canvassed. Some who refused their names will be surprised to find them inserted.
9Much care has been taken in the compilation of the Business Directory, to get every business man in his proper place. It is not the object of a Directory to advertise merchants and their commodities, but to direct every person how to find a resident. The Business Directory belongs to that class who trade, and who make their business known, hence, they only, who patronize and support the Directory, ought to have and are entitled to its privileges, but it is in this, as in most else, those who pay the least complain the most.
11To the few who had confidence in our ability to get up a reliable Directory, and have advertised with us, we feel under many obligations, and hope they will receive a return of many fold.
13Special attention is directed to the Appendix on page LXXXI. The information concerning Government, Societies, Churches, Asylums, Institutions, and local matters generally, is more full than has ever been published in any Indianapolis Directory heretofore, a perusal of which will well repay any reader. A new list of Streets has been carefully prepared, which, in our next issue, we will improve.
15A Directory, though not classed in the catalogue as light literature, is yet a book of infinite variety, full of curious instruction, and of pregnant hints at the marvels of great cities. "It is a handy thing to have in the house," indispensable in counting rooms, stores, offices, and hotels; to ladies, when going shopping, or addressing their "invitations;" to the stranger in being directed to a friend, or to the citizen hunting up some out of the way individual, whose very next neighbor may never have heard of.
17Every man, if you will, in the Directory, may be the clue to a romance. It goes through the ramifications of city life; the denizens of aristocratic mansions and low alleys are mingled together, for the alphabet is inexorable; they get their position as Oliver Twist got his name, "by the order of letters;" If you should pronounce any unnatural combination of sounds that can be expressed in a dozen letters, on turning to the Directory you will find it a name belonging to somebody. Generally, the most numerous of christian names is John, and of surnames, Smith. An editor says there is an ancient tradition, he fears, of recent date, that when Adam was naming the human family, he became fatigued as night approached, and calling the still-waiting throng to him, said: "I have no more time to attend to you; you shall all be called Smith."
19Few persons are acquainted with the subject of surnames, yet it is believed that those who will take the trouble to investigate it will not find the inquiry either uninteresting or unprofitable, whether applicable to the meaning of names or the causes of their application to individuals or families. It is not sufficient for a person of inquisitive mind, that he bears such and such a surname because his father and grandfather bore it; he will naturally feel desirous of knowing why and when his ancestors acquired it. And should he be successful in arriving at some probable conclusion respecting his own, the same, or perhaps an increased degree of curiosity, will be induced in his mind as to those of others. If English surnames are remarkable for their variety, they are no less so for their number. English antiquarians are of the opinion that the whole number at present is between forty and fifty thousand, and that the nomenclature is on the increase.
21English surnames may be divided into the following classes:
221. Local surnames, as Winchester, Wood, Hill, Green.
232. Names derived from occupations and pursuits, as Baker, Smith, Taylor.
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.