A Name is a Name
I am guessing that the Indians, native to the area where I live, had seen or heard about other places in the world. There are so many towns named after other countries. We have a Denver and a Chili, (pronounced with long i’s), and even a Switzerland. I wonder if they couldn’t think up any good names so they just went with ones they heard from places they had been. At least we don’t have a town named Intercourse. That would be hard to deal with.
Amish and local folks are used to the comments surrounding the name of their town. A popular gathering spot in the town formerly known as “Cross Keys” was called by the same name back in 1754. There are many guesses as too how and why the name was changed from Cross Keys to Intercourse. Perhaps the sexual act took its name from the town!
From the website http://www.800padutch.com/index.html
There was an old race track east of town. Anyone traveling east would take the “Old Philadelphia Pike”, there is a long stretch of road where the track was located. This was the entrance to the race course, and was known as “Entercourse”. It is believed that “Entercourse” gradually evolved into “Intercourse” which became the name of the town in 1814.
Another theory concerns two famous roads that crossed here. The Old King’s Highway from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh (now the old Philadelphia Pike) ran east and west through the center of the town. The road from Wilmington to Erie intersected in the middle. The joining of these two roads is claimed by some to be the basis for the town “Cross Keys” or eventually “Intercourse”.
A final idea comes from the “old English” language used more commonly when the name “Intercourse” was adopted in 1814. It speaks to the “fellowship” or social interaction and friendship which was so much a part of an agricultural village and culture at this time. These roots mark the community of faith to this day, and the many evidences of it are experienced by those who care to dig a bit more deeply in their Amish farmland
