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What Cheer (pronounced 'WOT-cheer') is a city in Keokuk County, Iowa, United States. It is a former coal town, and from the 1870s to the early 1900s was one of the major coal-producing centers of Iowa. Its greatest recorded population was 3,246, in the 1890 census. After the 1910s it began a slow decline. Its population was 646 in the 2010 census. ==Naming== What Cheer was founded in 1865 as Petersburg, named after Peter Britton, its founder. This name was rejected by the Post Office, forcing a change of name. Joseph Andrews, a major and veteran of the American Civil War, suggested the name "What Cheer," and the town was officially renamed on December 1, 1879.〔Virgil J. Vogel, ''Iowa Place Names of Indian Origin'', University of Iowa Press, 1983.〕〔Tom Savage, (A Dictionary of Iowa Place Names ), University of Iowa Press, 2007; pages 236-237.〕 Sources differ as to why the name What Cheer was chosen. The phrase ''what cheer with you'' is an ancient English greeting dating back at least to the 15th century.〔Gary Martin, (Wotcher ), in (the Phrase Finder ) web site.〕 One theory of the name is that a Scottish miner exclaimed ''What cheer!'' on discovering a coal seam near town.〔〔Anonymous, attributed to William H. Stennett, (A History of the Origin of the Place Names Connected With the Chicago & North Western and Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha Railways ), Chicago, 1908; page 138.〕 A more elaborate theory suggests that Joseph Andrews chose the name because of one of the founding myths of his native town of Providence, Rhode Island. According to the story, when Roger Williams arrived at the site that would become Providence in 1636, he was greeted by Narragansett Native Americans with "What Cheer, ''Netop''". ''Netop'' was the Narragansett word for ''friend'', and the Narragansetts had picked up the ''what cheer'' greeting from English settlers.〔〔Federal Writers' Project of the Works Progress Administration, (Iowa, A guide to the Hawkeye State ), Viking Press, 1938 (reprinted as the WPA Guide to 1930's Iowa by the University of Iowa Press, 1986); page 514.〕 It is possible that the connection between What Cheer, Iowa and What Cheer, the shibboleth of Rhode Island, was merely coincidental - the entries for these subjects are adjacent but not connected in the 1908 edition of the Encyclopedia Americana.〔Fredrick C. Beach and George E. Rines, eds., What Cheer (2 articles), (The Americana: a universal reference library, Vol. 16 ), Scientific American, New York, 1907; page 688.〕 It has frequently been noted on lists of unusual place names. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「What Cheer, Iowa」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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