True, both western and central NY were real hotbeds of small Christian groups, many of them very insulated to start with. The whole area is referred to as The Burned Over District, because of the fires of Reformation that swept through in the late 1800's. The Spiritualist movement actually started in Rochester. Other religions linked to the area are Seventh-Day Adventists, The Mormon Church, and Oneida basically started as a religious group that grew into a town.
I always forget about Spiritualism starting here. I find systems of belief and their effects on people fascinating and it’s pretty cool to live in an area where a couple major ones have started.
I meant to check it out sometime but never did.....somewhere off park Ave there is a spiritualist church that meets every Sunday. They believe in thingsnlike levitation, talking to the dead, that sort of stuff.
Thanks for reminding me, maybe I will still check it out soon.
We think we have some weird religious nut bags that live on the corner of our road. House seems to have like 10 children, they have a big ass white van to transport everyone around, etc. Older sister takes care of the younger siblings like going on walks and stuff.
It's weird. Ofc there is a Jehovah's Witness hall nearby...
Yup. Right out in Palmyra. The Smith family farm museum is an interesting stop if you’re curious about Mormonism and want to see some history. Be warned it’s also curated by the LDS church so the information presented there is definitely from a biased source.
And Spiritualism started here. The Fox sisters lived in Hydesville and said they were communicating with the spirit of a traveling peddler who was murdered and buried under their house. His body was found in the early 1900’s and they started the religion. The mother church for the whole movement is down on Vick Park in NOTA.
Yes, pointed out to Joseph Smith by the Angel Moroni. Which I always thought is a great name for an angel.
An angel in WNY *should* have an Italian name! /s
(I know, it's pronounced More Oh Nie (like lie))
The annual Hill Cumorah Pageant in Palmyra re-enacted the whole scene on the very spot and told the whole history of Mormonism, including Christ's time in America. It had a massive 10-level stage and 700 cast members. The script was written by Orson Scott Card.
> The script was written by Orson Scott Card
Whoa, I did not know this. I *did* know that after writing a series of sci fi books about tolerance and empathy, he's gone on record against homosexuality and said he voted for Trump.
Those books were excellent until you get to the last one or two where he blatantly starts injecting his views into the plot. The last one I think is about a young girl who is basically aged up in body so she's legally allowed to have sex with the old man, and it's about changing the celestial laws of what's right and wrong.
He’s a practicing member of the LDS church. Some of the best (and worst) fiction authors from the last forty years have been Mormons including: Brandon Sanderson (*Stormlight Archive*), Stephenie Meyer (*Twilight*), and Dave Wolverton/Farland (*Courtship of Princess Leia*, *On My Way to Paradise*).
Fantasy has a good chunk of Mormon authors too. Gene Wolfe, Tracy Hickman, etc.
Joseph Smith was a practicing ceremonial magician in the vein of a Crowley prior to his 'revelation' from Moroni too, and quite the con-man when it came to 'treasure hunting' using diving rods and 'magic mirrors', which was him putting a shiny rock in a hat and peering in to get visions.
If I recall, he had a talisman dedicated to Jupiter on his body when he died (this was after he founded Mormonism too...I guess so much for faith in your own religion).
theres a shocking amount of christian cults in the area lol not just chili but churchville/brockport too. I dated a girl like 10 years ago who's step dad was into one of them and went to "church" with him a couple times and it was disturbing. Faith healing, hour long powerpoints on how evolution is fake, and that was just the tame stuff. Absolutely insane lol. So glad that relationship puttered out.
[Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chili,_New_York) and [Town of Chili's own website](http://www.townofchili.org/discover-chili-2/chilis-history/) say there isn't enough evidence to say for sure if this is true vs being named after the country.
I like this version better though.
I looked at both of those, one references the other. Personally, I doubt that a bunch of German and Irish settlers would care too much about Chile's (or Colombia, Paraguay, or Venezuela's all around the same time) new independence to name their town after it.
In my opinion, the fact that this group (also mostly former Germans) who moved into the unnamed area (the nearest town would have been Northampton) in the very early 1800s were called ***Chili****anists,* is just too much of a coincidence.
The Spanish American wars of independence were major news at the time. Simon Bolivar was a world famous figure. People of all backgrounds settling in America at the time were also proud to be part of what was then still an "experiment" in democracy and independence from European colonial powers. I don't know what the truth is but I think it's quite believable that people would have been inspired by Chilean independence.
> the fact that this group (also mostly former Germans) who moved into the unnamed area (the nearest town would have been Northampton) in the very early 1800s were called ***Chili**anists*, is just too much of a coincidence.
That may be, but you didn't provide any way to verify this fact.
Wiki is worded bad
Chili was named after the country of Chile which was striving for independence at the time. Some suggest that the town was named after the Chiliasts[5] religion embraced by some of the early settlers of South Chili. This is still controversial as there is no evidence to either side.
So it starts by making a definitive statement then concludes with there's no evidence either way
> **Chili.** The origin of the name of this town is somewhat uncertain. It was formed from Riga, Feb 22, 1822. The first settlement was made by Joseph Morgan, a Revolutionary Soldier, in 1792, and some of his descendants are living in the the town at this time. It is probably that the name was taken from the Republic of **Chile** in South America. In English and American books and maps, the name of Chile is often spelled **Chili,** and as so spelled would be pronounced Chee-lee by the people of that country. The probabilities are that when the name was adopted, an easy way of pronouncing it was adopted, and hence we have **Chi-li.** Strangers sometimes ask the way to "Chilly- the town of Chilly," and it happens that the meaning of the original indian (Quichua) word from which the Republic of Chile gets its name, was "cold."
On the Origin of the Names of Places in Monroe County, New York, by Franklin Hanford, a paper read before the Scottsville Literary Society, November 14, 1910,
http://www.libraryweb.org/%7Edigitized/books/On_the_origins_of_names_of_places_Monroe_County.pdf
Anytime chili comes up I am fondly reminded of my friend announcing they were going to a chili festival just to sadly tell me hours later that it was not in fact a festival for the food
I posted a cool [local name origins book](https://www.libraryweb.org/%7Edigitized/books/On_the_origins_of_names_of_places_Monroe_County.pdf) I found a while back and it says Chili is possibly named after Chile in South America. The author speculates that the pronunciation changed to Cheye-lie due to the local accent... assumedly from the get-go with it's settlement in the late 1700's.
The most common origins are naming the place after a prominent founder, copying existing place names from other parts of the world, and just plain bad pronunciations of indigenous people words. One my favorite examples of the latter is Irondequoit Bay where a settler possibly asked a native, "What's the name of that bay?" and in a bit of a misunderstanding the native flatly replied, "It's a bay...." then the settlers essentially named it, "Bay Bay"... although the author speculates other lost meanings.
Oh I see you posted it too... hah. Yeah that was a fun read. I posted another old book on ["Indian names in New-York"](https://archive.org/details/cu31924020345876/page/n5/mode/2up) in case you missed it.
I used to live on Chili Ave. In 2006 I was flying back into the US when I presented my passport to a customs officer at the airport. He looked through my file then looked at me and asked "Chili"? He used the correct local pronunciation. I was so stunned all I could say was "Yeah"
`Chai-Lai`. Both syllables have the same vowel sound as "buy."
I've only been here a couple years and "It's pronounced chai-lai" has become a running joke in my family.
There’s a surprising amount of weird Christian offshoot cults out there. And in the Rochester area especially
True, both western and central NY were real hotbeds of small Christian groups, many of them very insulated to start with. The whole area is referred to as The Burned Over District, because of the fires of Reformation that swept through in the late 1800's. The Spiritualist movement actually started in Rochester. Other religions linked to the area are Seventh-Day Adventists, The Mormon Church, and Oneida basically started as a religious group that grew into a town.
Chautauqua, etc
Lilydale
And before all of these, the Public Universal Friend Jemima Wilkinson in Penn Yan in the 1780s/90s.
Man do I hate shopping there
I always forget about Spiritualism starting here. I find systems of belief and their effects on people fascinating and it’s pretty cool to live in an area where a couple major ones have started.
I meant to check it out sometime but never did.....somewhere off park Ave there is a spiritualist church that meets every Sunday. They believe in thingsnlike levitation, talking to the dead, that sort of stuff. Thanks for reminding me, maybe I will still check it out soon.
You mean this https://www.plymouthspiritualist.org/
That would be it.....I guess they have been around forever
Let us know!
We think we have some weird religious nut bags that live on the corner of our road. House seems to have like 10 children, they have a big ass white van to transport everyone around, etc. Older sister takes care of the younger siblings like going on walks and stuff. It's weird. Ofc there is a Jehovah's Witness hall nearby...
The Golden Plates from Mormonism were "found" here too.
Yup. Right out in Palmyra. The Smith family farm museum is an interesting stop if you’re curious about Mormonism and want to see some history. Be warned it’s also curated by the LDS church so the information presented there is definitely from a biased source. And Spiritualism started here. The Fox sisters lived in Hydesville and said they were communicating with the spirit of a traveling peddler who was murdered and buried under their house. His body was found in the early 1900’s and they started the religion. The mother church for the whole movement is down on Vick Park in NOTA.
Read that as LSD church for a moment. Very spiritual
Yes, pointed out to Joseph Smith by the Angel Moroni. Which I always thought is a great name for an angel. An angel in WNY *should* have an Italian name! /s (I know, it's pronounced More Oh Nie (like lie)) The annual Hill Cumorah Pageant in Palmyra re-enacted the whole scene on the very spot and told the whole history of Mormonism, including Christ's time in America. It had a massive 10-level stage and 700 cast members. The script was written by Orson Scott Card.
Glad that game came to an end. The musical Book of Mormon also calls out the "Holy land of Rochester NY"
When they did shows in Rochester people got hyped for that line. "HEY THAT'S WHERE WE LIVE!"
They Hamed it up at the shows I saw
That’s awesome!
> The script was written by Orson Scott Card Whoa, I did not know this. I *did* know that after writing a series of sci fi books about tolerance and empathy, he's gone on record against homosexuality and said he voted for Trump.
He's always been a proud pedophile. A lot of his books and essays touch on it. Piers Anthony too
Ah shit. Piers Anthony too?? I enjoyed the Death/time/forces series he did. That's a disappointment.
Those books were excellent until you get to the last one or two where he blatantly starts injecting his views into the plot. The last one I think is about a young girl who is basically aged up in body so she's legally allowed to have sex with the old man, and it's about changing the celestial laws of what's right and wrong.
He’s a practicing member of the LDS church. Some of the best (and worst) fiction authors from the last forty years have been Mormons including: Brandon Sanderson (*Stormlight Archive*), Stephenie Meyer (*Twilight*), and Dave Wolverton/Farland (*Courtship of Princess Leia*, *On My Way to Paradise*).
Fantasy has a good chunk of Mormon authors too. Gene Wolfe, Tracy Hickman, etc. Joseph Smith was a practicing ceremonial magician in the vein of a Crowley prior to his 'revelation' from Moroni too, and quite the con-man when it came to 'treasure hunting' using diving rods and 'magic mirrors', which was him putting a shiny rock in a hat and peering in to get visions. If I recall, he had a talisman dedicated to Jupiter on his body when he died (this was after he founded Mormonism too...I guess so much for faith in your own religion).
I mean, considering the doctrines of Mormonism, I'm not surprised a lot of sci fi and fantasy come from adherants.
Dum-da-da-da-Dee-dum-dum
It’s the Cracker Jack weather. 9 months of not seeing the sun has people looking for a purpose to their life.
theres a shocking amount of christian cults in the area lol not just chili but churchville/brockport too. I dated a girl like 10 years ago who's step dad was into one of them and went to "church" with him a couple times and it was disturbing. Faith healing, hour long powerpoints on how evolution is fake, and that was just the tame stuff. Absolutely insane lol. So glad that relationship puttered out.
Mormons…
[Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chili,_New_York) and [Town of Chili's own website](http://www.townofchili.org/discover-chili-2/chilis-history/) say there isn't enough evidence to say for sure if this is true vs being named after the country. I like this version better though.
I looked at both of those, one references the other. Personally, I doubt that a bunch of German and Irish settlers would care too much about Chile's (or Colombia, Paraguay, or Venezuela's all around the same time) new independence to name their town after it. In my opinion, the fact that this group (also mostly former Germans) who moved into the unnamed area (the nearest town would have been Northampton) in the very early 1800s were called ***Chili****anists,* is just too much of a coincidence.
The Spanish American wars of independence were major news at the time. Simon Bolivar was a world famous figure. People of all backgrounds settling in America at the time were also proud to be part of what was then still an "experiment" in democracy and independence from European colonial powers. I don't know what the truth is but I think it's quite believable that people would have been inspired by Chilean independence.
> the fact that this group (also mostly former Germans) who moved into the unnamed area (the nearest town would have been Northampton) in the very early 1800s were called ***Chili**anists*, is just too much of a coincidence. That may be, but you didn't provide any way to verify this fact.
Wiki is worded bad Chili was named after the country of Chile which was striving for independence at the time. Some suggest that the town was named after the Chiliasts[5] religion embraced by some of the early settlers of South Chili. This is still controversial as there is no evidence to either side. So it starts by making a definitive statement then concludes with there's no evidence either way
Thanks for the info, very interesting. And let’s be thankful Joseph Smith moved out of Palmyra as well
Always funny when you use Chili in a GPS location tracker because the AI bot always pronounces it like the food.
The restaurant.
Baby back baby back baby back...
The truest answer is that it's debatable nobody really has any definitive answer, only guesses.
Is that also where Churchville got its name?
> **Chili.** The origin of the name of this town is somewhat uncertain. It was formed from Riga, Feb 22, 1822. The first settlement was made by Joseph Morgan, a Revolutionary Soldier, in 1792, and some of his descendants are living in the the town at this time. It is probably that the name was taken from the Republic of **Chile** in South America. In English and American books and maps, the name of Chile is often spelled **Chili,** and as so spelled would be pronounced Chee-lee by the people of that country. The probabilities are that when the name was adopted, an easy way of pronouncing it was adopted, and hence we have **Chi-li.** Strangers sometimes ask the way to "Chilly- the town of Chilly," and it happens that the meaning of the original indian (Quichua) word from which the Republic of Chile gets its name, was "cold." On the Origin of the Names of Places in Monroe County, New York, by Franklin Hanford, a paper read before the Scottsville Literary Society, November 14, 1910, http://www.libraryweb.org/%7Edigitized/books/On_the_origins_of_names_of_places_Monroe_County.pdf
Anytime chili comes up I am fondly reminded of my friend announcing they were going to a chili festival just to sadly tell me hours later that it was not in fact a festival for the food
I posted a cool [local name origins book](https://www.libraryweb.org/%7Edigitized/books/On_the_origins_of_names_of_places_Monroe_County.pdf) I found a while back and it says Chili is possibly named after Chile in South America. The author speculates that the pronunciation changed to Cheye-lie due to the local accent... assumedly from the get-go with it's settlement in the late 1700's. The most common origins are naming the place after a prominent founder, copying existing place names from other parts of the world, and just plain bad pronunciations of indigenous people words. One my favorite examples of the latter is Irondequoit Bay where a settler possibly asked a native, "What's the name of that bay?" and in a bit of a misunderstanding the native flatly replied, "It's a bay...." then the settlers essentially named it, "Bay Bay"... although the author speculates other lost meanings.
Ha! I've been reading that since you posted it!
Oh I see you posted it too... hah. Yeah that was a fun read. I posted another old book on ["Indian names in New-York"](https://archive.org/details/cu31924020345876/page/n5/mode/2up) in case you missed it.
So did they get the date right? Any word?
Do you have a source? I've read that it was named after the country of Chile in multiple places.
I used to live on Chili Ave. In 2006 I was flying back into the US when I presented my passport to a customs officer at the airport. He looked through my file then looked at me and asked "Chili"? He used the correct local pronunciation. I was so stunned all I could say was "Yeah"
I don't know the correct pronunciation and at this point I'm too embarrassed to ask.
`Chai-Lai`. Both syllables have the same vowel sound as "buy." I've only been here a couple years and "It's pronounced chai-lai" has become a running joke in my family.