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« on: May 24, 2008, 12:39:06 AM » |
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Don’t be surprised if you come across a US citizen who introduces himself as a ‘Barodian’. He comes from a mere 1.7 sq-km village in Michigan, USA, which was named in 1890 after its Indian twin 12,000 km away. This other Baroda has a population of around 800. The surrounding area covering about four sq km is known as Baroda Township.
Although the first settlers had started arriving in the 1830s, a man called Michael Houser is credited with founding Baroda. He carved out 240 acres, hoping to establish a town there.
But Michigan’s Baroda always remained a village, never expanding beyond a few square miles. Even today, it looks like a picture postcard with quaint houses, nestled in a lush green landscape of vineyards.
"In 1890, Houser named a post office as Baroda," state representative Neal Nitz, who comes from Baroda, told TOI from the US. "It was earlier going to be named Pomona, but another village in Manistee County had already been given that name. So, he asked people for suggestions. CH Pindar, a conductor on the railroad, suggested Baroda as a name as he was born in the Indian Baroda."
Author Kathleen Shafer published a book ‘Baroda: The Story Of a Small Place’ in 1992. She writes that though many people knew of the source of the name, it was difficult to say what moved Houser so much that he chose the name. "Houser’s daughter, Alta Young, in one of her conversations, remembered her father talking with a man from the railroad who suggested the name. The conductor was a man named CH Pindar," she writes.
Berrien County’s official website rues that Baroda has no memorial to Houser, not even a photograph anywhere. There are stories, however, about his exceptional generosity and civic discipline. The story is the same back in our own Banyan City Vadodara as there is no trace of Pindar in any document or text. However, in 1990, the American Baroda’s CEO and mayor had visited Vadodara to celebrate their village’s centenary and were felicitated by the Vadodara Municipal Corporation.
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