Genealogical notes of Barnstable families - citizen hylbom blog

198 GENEALOGICAL NOTES OF BAKNSTABLE FAMILIES.
There is a brook of the same name in Scituate, from which that
town derives its name. Mistic is a name that is forgotten and
lost, by the people who reside in that vicinity. Marston's Mills
is not an improvement on the Indian name.
Cot-o-che-set. The manner in which this name is written on
the town records, has probably had an influence in bringing it into
disuse. For more than half a century it was the popular name of
Oyster Island village. The island was so named on account of
the abundance of Oysters found in its vicinity—a very appropriate
name for the island ; but not applicable to the main land. When
the post-ofHce was established in the village, about thirty years
ago, it was called Osterville, for what good reason is unknown.
The old name Cot-o-che-set, is a better one, more expressive, and
at the time of the change, was familiar to many of the aged.
Skon-ko-net, perhaps a derivative of Kong-kont, the crow,
and so called because those birds frequent that region. This
name is now incorrectly written and pronounced Skunknet. Only
the northerly and westerly part of the tract formerly so-called is
now so designated. The western branch of the Skon-ke-net river
is now known as Bump's river, and the easterly as Phinney's mill
brook.
The changing of a few letters in an Indian name, often
makes a redical change in the meaning of the word. Che-quaquet
signifies "the edge of a forest." The large knurls on the
oak were called by the same name. As these abound more on
the edge than in the center of a forest, it is not surprising that in
a language containing so few words as the Indian, that both
shoukl be called by the same name. The termination, "et," was
applied to places near the water, so that the literal meaning of
Che-qua-quet seems to be "a village situate on the edge of the
forest and by the sea-shore." This is descriptive of the place,
and probably the true signification of the name.
The village was by Bourne, as quoted, Gooken, called Weequa-keet,
a different name, Wee-koh-quat, is "fair weather," and
with the terminal "et," instead of "at," the meaning would \je
fair weather harbor or river. Mr. Bourne's authority is not to be
rejected for slight reasons. In the records, where the name
frequently occurs, it is uniformly written Che-qua-quet, with some
unimportant variations in the orthography—never Wee-qua-keet.
The popular pronunciation of the name is uniformly Che or Cha,
not Wee-qua-quet. This is not conclusive ; but taken in connection
with the records, I think it settles the question in favor of
Che-qua-quet as the best authorized spelling of the name.
When the post-office was established, the old name was
dropped and the French Centreville adopted. This is not so
objectionable as Osterville, yet it is no improvement on the old.
There is, however, one objection ; there are many post-offices of