SUSSEX COUNTY BROADKILLN
RIVER
WHATS IN A NAME
Abstract from the Friday,
October 16, 1891 Salina Daily Republican, Salina, Kansas.
The name “Murderkill”
applied to an important stream in Delaware is explained in proper
tradition by a curious story that is told of early settlers.
According to the legend the stream took the name from the fact that
an early European Explorer, having landed on the bank of the creek,
persuaded a dozen natives to drag his ship cannon by a rope tied to
the muzzle and then when they were all in line touched off the gun
with murderous results. The name. Of course, is merely a corruption
of the Dutch Motherkill, meaning another stream, because it is a
large creek with many tributaries.
There is elsewhere in
Delaware a Broadkill, which has become to be spelled with a final
'n', applied because the English settlers took its last syllable to
be the same with the last syllable of limekiln.
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