Names as a potential source for conflict

a case in point from the USA: How Germantown, Glenn County, California, became Artois

Résumé

Toward the end of World War I the name of the post office station "Germantown" at Germantown, Glenn County, California, was changed to "Artois" which eventually resulted in the name change of the village itself to Artois. This paper compares current present-day accounts of the incidents leading to the post office name change with the actual course of events as they could be reconstructed from contemporary 1918 newspaper reports. It continues to trace the change as it shifted to the name of the township itself and concludes with a second look at the present-day accounts of the past historical events.