Article was written by a Kavan Ratnatunga. He's the one in
the photos……….
A road trip to places named "Ceylon" in
North America
Locations named Ceylon are found in Minnesota,
Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Saskatchewan, Canada
Ceylon, Minnesota, USA (Zip Code 56121)
Walter Mondale former Vice President of the United
States, United States Senator, Minnesota Attorney General, and presidential
nominee was born in Ceylon Minnesota, USA in 1928. Walter Mondale is
of Norwegian ancestry.
I was back on the road driving to my primary
destination Ceylon Minnesota, about a 6 hour drive. From Interstate I-90 Exit
#93 to Route MN-263 is signposted as to Welcome / Ceylon. Ceylon is located
in Martin County, Minnesota. Ceylon was platted in 1899. It was named
after the island of Ceylon, known today as Sri Lanka. A post office has been in
operation in Ceylon since 1899. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has
a total area of 0.65 square miles (1.68 km2), all of it
land. As of the census of 2010, there were 369 people, 153
households, and 100 families residing in the city. "Welcome" is the
name of another town near Ceylon, Minnesota . Approaching Ceylon there was
another large billboard which made it clear that the residents were
proud of the origin of their name. It read
Welcome to
Ceylon
"WE'RE YOUR CUP OF TEA"
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Welcome Billboard to Ceylon, Minnesota
At City limits, Ceylon, Minnesota. Population 413
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The Ceylon town Water Tower
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I arrived at the Bank around 2 PM well in time before
the State Bank of Ceylon closed at 3 PM. I had informed them of my visit, so
they were expecting me and instantly recognized the stranger walking into the
bank. About 4 years after opening a bank account with them, it was nice to be
able to do a transaction with the teller. I was expecting one teller, and
was pleasantly surprised to see space for three.
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Visiting State Bank of Ceylon
The Ceylon town Water Tower
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Post Office Ceylon, MN 56121
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Closing time on Friday afternoon was quite busy in the
Bank as local merchants came to probably deposit their weekly earnings. I was
able to meet and talk to a few of them. I walked across the road to the Post
Office to mail some post cards with the bank cashier when she took the bank
mail. I was at the Bank long after it closed at 3 PM. I received complimentary
gift items such as pens and clips from the Bank. I borrowed a framed
photograph hanging on the wall of the original 1901 Bank building to scan for
my website. I also displayed for them a number of handicrafts and a
book on Sri Lanka, I had brought with me.
Ceylon in Green County, Pennsylvania, USA (Zip
code 15320)
The place name Ceylon, in Pennsylvania is old. It is
listed, dating back to 1893 on a genealogical site with birth records. I had stopped
by a few years previously, but had reached the place only after dark.
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Road Sign of Ceylon Pennsylvania
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Scenic homestead. original ?
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Turning off Highway 40 to Route PA-21, I turned into
Ceylon Road and reached the Village of Ceylon. About a dozen houses later I was
already leaving the small scenic village with an 19th century charm to it.
After taking some photographs I was wondering how to make contact with one of
the residents. I was not sure who would welcome the intrusion when I spotted a
sign which read 15 acres for sale by owner. I stopped and checked with the
seller for the price for the land. At $52,000 for the property, it was not
significantly different to price of agricultural land in Sri Lanka. The seller
had no idea where the name Ceylon originated andhad the post office associated
with the Zip code 15320. I drove into Carmichaels and stopped at the
post-office. The counter clerk who probably does not deliver the mail didn't
even know that Ceylon Road lead to a place sign posted as the Village of Ceylon.
I mailed some post-cards, picked up some Tourist brochures and left to return
to Pittsburgh.
Ceylon in Erie County, Ohio, USA (Zip code
44839)
Berlin Township
Fire Department, Ceylon Station, Ohio
At around noon on Labor day I left Pittsburgh hoping to
visit Ceylon, Ohio and reach Fort Wayne, Indiana. Ceylon Road (Route
OH-61) toward Ceylon Ohio is off freeway OH-2. Other than the two CEYLON
road signs to mark the village boundary, Ceylon Ohio, had a building with
BERLIN TWP. FIRE DEPT. CEYLON STA. painted on the side. I stopped and spoke
with some persons who were outside their residence. The freeway had cut through
part of the village. There were abandoned roads close to the freeway which now
served no purpose. One of them who was visiting had formerly lived near Ceylon,
Indiana. They told me the region was known as Berlin Heights and a suburb of
Huron, which has the post office associated with the Zip code
44839.
Ceylon in Adams County, Indiana, USA (Zip code
46740)
Ceylon is pronounced with a Dutch accent "Ceilon"
The 1918 Standard History of Adams County, lists the town Ceylon as started by
Dr. B. B. Snow, who in 1873, built the Snow grist mill, the first steam plant
of that kind to be operated in Adams County, south of Decatur. At the height of
it's prosperity, Ceylon had factories, mills, and a number of well-stocked
stores.
A 1976
Bicentennial Medal which lists Ceylon among 17 other towns in Adams County.
What motivated the name "Ceylon" in the middle of a region settled by
a Swiss community ? Maybe the celebrated mountain named Adam's Peak in Ceylon,
which is associated by Christians with the Garden of Eden.
Ceylon Covered Bridge, built over the Wabash river in 1860
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Adams County 1876 Bicentennial Medal.
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Next morning I drove along US-27 south toward Ceylon, Indiana, which was
between the Swiss towns of Berne and Geneva. Unlike the two previous Ceylon's
in Pennsylvania and Ohio, there wasn't even a sign on the road. I was
glad I had stopped at Berne and spoken with the operators of Swiss Heritage
village before driving to Ceylon, Indiana. Leaving highway I went toward the
best known landmark, the Ceylon Covered Bridge built in 1860 and advertised as
the last remaining on the Wabash river. The road no longer went through the
Bridge, and the river was all dry. The graffiti inside the wooden bridge
indicated it was probably now the local "Lover's lane".
I then drove a few miles along the same road to Armishville, which is the
prominent sign on the US-27 highway indicating the turn off. I could not learn
very much from them about Ceylon Indiana. I drove to Geneva which has the post
office associated with the Zip code 46740, and posted a few cards. I visited
the Geneva Public Library. I was able to refer to a history of Adam's county as
well as read about a recent campaign to preserve the Ceylon Covered Bridge.
Interestingly I found out that although the name uses the English spelling
Ceylon, it is pronounced with the Dutch accent Ceilon, probably because of the
European Heritage.
Ceylon (pronounced "siːˈlɑːn") is a village in The Gap
Rural Municipality No. 39, Saskatchewan, Canada. The village had a population
of 90 inhabitants at the 2006 Census. A few kilometres to the east of Ceylon,
there are sand dunes.
The first homesteaders began
arriving in the area in 1905, although it was not until the railroad was being
built through the district in 1910 that Ceylon had its beginnings. A number of
Ceylon’s standing architectural landmarks, including the hotel built in 1912,
date to the community’s early years. In 1922, in the early morning hours of
Wednesday, September 27, the most notorious event in the village’s history
occurred: armed thieves used explosives and a fast get-away car to rob the Bank
of Montreal of about $16,000 worth of cash, securities, and bonds. One theory
is that the thieves knew the bank’s vault would house the proceeds of the
illegal liquor trade going on in the area at the time. The brazenness of the
theft and the fact that the Union Bank in Moosomin had been robbed the same
night caused news of the robberies to capture provincial headlines for days. In
quieter times, Ceylon serves as a trading centre for the surrounding mixed
farming and ranching district. A small percentage of the area economy relates
to oil and gas development.
Ceylon and Hardy really started when
the railroad arrived. The Canadian National Railway line came through in 1910,
opening for service in July, 1911. The section between Ceylon and Hardy was
completed on November 21, 1911. Ceylon had actually started up in 1910 north of
where the tracks were eventually laid. When the town site was surveyed in 1911,
it had to be moved to the south side of the tracks. With a great effort of
manpower and horsepower (of the animal variety), the fledgling town was moved
to its present location. The origin of the name Ceylon is still a bit of a
mystery. It was given its name by the first postmaster in the area, John Aldred,
who did not want the new town to be named after him. He may have chosen the
name Ceylon in recognition of a CPR station of the name in Ontario, or it may
have been named for a yacht that was owned by Scottish merchant Sir Thomas
Lipton (whose name still graces tea bags to this day). Hardy was named for the
great 19th century English novelist and poet Thomas Hardy.
Some decades were better than the others. After the first years of backbreaking
work cultivating the land, the first crops were harvested and prosperity came
to the region.
The area suffered a setback from 1914 to 1918 when many young men left to fight
in the Great War. A disproportionately high number of young men from the Ceylon
area never returned home.
Their names are remembered in perpetuity on the war memorial at the bottom of
Main Street.
The twenties were particularly prosperous, only to be followed by the Dirty
Thirties and the dust, poverty and hunger that came with it. Many families left
during that time, some sought work elsewhere and returned once things had
improved, and others stuck it out. The 1940s were dominated by the war in
Europe.
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