?
With two "y’s"? I did a double-take because not long before that I had
seen Sidney spelled the same way -- Sydney -- by some old, local newspaper articles in the
Amos
Library’s microfilm collection. Could it be that an early 19th century
newspaperman and a late 20th century grocery chain spelled better than we Sidneyites?
The October 1, 1831, issue of Shelby County’s Western Herald actually
spelled Sidney our way, but our fellow town to the north took a real bath in the Herald’s
spelling department: "Wapaghkonnetta." The Herald’s masthead and
several legal notices in that issue testified that, unlike Wapagh, Wapak, or Wapakoneta or
whatever, Sidney with an "i" was secure in its spelling, if not yet its economic
future (the same edition announced a public meeting for citizens to consider extension of
the Miami Canal to Sidney). But, the Herald’s
spelling of Sidney was soon to change.
Herald publisher and printer Thomas Smith subsequently moved operations to St.
Mary’s, but soon returned his publishing business to Sidney. "The Herald,
the first paper in the county, was established in 1836, and published by Thomas
Smith," according Henry Howe’s 1888 Historical Collections of Ohio,
getting the date wrong but at least confirming Smith’s newspaper venture.
While Smith’s earlier Western Herald had toed the line on Sidney’s
spelling, his new publication went almost 100 percent for the "double y" --
Sydney -- thus inaugurating the short-lived editorial effort to spice up the
spelling of our town. Smith was "a very eccentric individual who...would go to
Cincinnati on foot, a distance of 100 miles, buy paper for his office and carry it on his
back to Sidney," according to Hitchcock’s History of Shelby County.
Smith’s new publishing effort in early 1834 was the Republican Herald,
located "on Ohio Street, a few rods south of the Public Square, in Sydney, Ohio,"
which later moved to the "new building on Poplar Street, a few rods west of the
Public Square." The paper’s masthead and all legal notices, including those
of County Auditor William Murphey and Treasurer James Forsyth, suddenly employed a
"y;" well, actually two "y’s."
Was Smith trying to redeem the spelling practices of our city fathers? After all, they
may have intentionally misspelled Sidney to avoid confusion with that down under town of
similar name. Both towns were looking for people, with Sidney, USA, being platted about
the same time as Sydney, Australia, was experiencing a growth kick from free settlers who
came to the country as the wool trade expanded. What about Sir Philip Sidney, from whom Sidney took
its name? Unlike the Australian town’s father, Lord Thomas Townshend Sydney, British
home secretary in the 1780’s, Sir Philip’s spelling of his name did not match
that of his forebears. As late as 1910, Sidney leaders still confused the issue:
"Sidney was named in honor of Sir Philip Sydney" (Sidney, and Shelby County,
Ohio, Their Stirring Past, Their Splendid Prosperity and Their Bright Future, ca.
1910).