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Welcome to the Greenwood.Net Curiosity Corner
Ware Name of Mill Owner
Jun 03, 2008
Question: While driving to Greenville, S.C., we passed Ware Shoals and Ware Place. What is the significance of “Ware?” Is it a person or just a name? (Asked by an anonymous curious motorist.)
Reply: We have a lot of “wares” these days. A peddler used to peddle his wares, but today we have silverware, hardware, software and so on. But these have nothing to do with Ware Shoals.
A lot of towns and cities are named after their English counterparts, often with a “New,” for example, New York. At first I thought Ware Shoals was named after Ware, an ancient city in England. But not so, Ware Shoals is the site of an old waterwheel gristmill operated in the 1800s by William Ware on the Saluda River. Evidently Bill had some shallow water or shoals, so Ware Shoals.
I don’t know about Ware Place. I know where it is, but it’s not listed on the South Carolina state Web site. Must be unincorporated. Also, for my West Virginia readers, I couldn’t find a Ware in West Virginia. There is a War, however, way down south in McDowell County.
Question: Nazi Germany was referred to as the “Third Reich.” Was there a First Reich and a Second Reich? (Asked by a curious history buff.)
Reply: Reich has various meanings in German. As an adjective, reich means rich or wealthy. As a noun, Reich means region, realm, or more in the context of the question, empire.
The German First Reich is considered to be the Holy Roman Empire. This was a union of countries in central Europe that was formed in the 900s. It was dissolved in 1806 during the Napoleonic Wars. The official title was Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation.
The Second Reich is generally taken to be the unification of Germany in 1871 under Otto von Bismarck. Its name was the German Empire.
And the Third Reich, which was to last 1,000 years, only made it about 12 years (1933-1945).
C.P.S. (Curious Postscript): Smoking is one of the leading causes of statistics. —Fletcher Knebel
Curious about something? Send your questions to Dr. Jerry D. Wilson, Science Division, Lander University, Greenwood, SC, 29649, or for e-mail, www.curiosity-corner.net. Selected questions will appear in the Curiosity Corner. © JDW
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