Eric:
I want to add my personal thanks to you, for posting these pictures of the Moat at Kent, England!
Close to the area here in the US, where I do my vegetable and flower gardens, there is a city by the name of Kent, in the state of Washington, in the Pacific Northwest corner of the US. If you can find Seattle on the map, we are off in a southerly direction. George visited Seattle several years ago, to visit and display his software at a flower show. We did not become acquainted until later, when I started to use the IdeasGenie Pro software.
In checking some historical information of the area, I?ve come across this:
?How KENT was named ?
Kent owes its name to what at the time of its christening was the area?s most important agricultural crop.
In the year 1884 Henry J. Yesler, pioneer Seattle sawmill operator, purchased a portion of the S.W. Russell donation claim and platted it for a town which he hoped would be called ?Yesler?.
At this time, however, there was already agitation to call the prosperous and growing little community ?Titusville? in honor of James H. Titus, pioneer farmer and blacksmith.
Rivalries between the proponents of the names ?Yesler? and ?Titusville? resulted in a call by the U.S. Post office department for a more suitable name with would please everyone.
At that time what is now Kent was the recognized center of the profitable hop growing industry. Various meetings were held for the purpose of selecting a name and it was finally agreed to call it ?Kent? as a tribute to the famous hop growing center of the British Isles, Kent England.
Credit for selecting the name has been given to various persons, but it probably belongs to a Jewish hop buyer by the name of Issac Pincus.?
Along with this, may I take the liberty to include some of my family?s history? My great grandfather was born in 1839 in Hollingbourne, Kent, England. His wife was born in 1841 in Gillingham, Kent, England. My grandfather was born in 1864 in Hamlet of Grange ? Gillingham, England, County of Kent. My father was born in the US in 1892; my mother was born in 1889 in Sittingbourne, Kent, England. My father was the first child of ten, all raised here in the US. I am the fourth child of my parents, born in 1928.
To my knowledge, the family had no connection to the hop raising industry, although I can remember one year that my grandfather had a commercial crop of garden peas on rented property. As kids, we were duty-bound to help harvest the crop! The hop raising industry ended about 10 years after its start, succumbing to a virus.
Any pictures or remembrances of the areas mentioned would be greatly appreciated from you and other Forum Members! My mother also mentioned the city of Maidenstone. My grandparents were married in 1890 in the Borden Parish Church.
Thanks, again, Eric! It? a small, small world, after all!
-Toby
