author
George Patterson Donehoo
1862–1934
A Presbyterian minister turned historian, he wrote widely about Pennsylvania’s past, with a lasting focus on Native American place names, early settlements, and regional history. His books reflect the energy of a scholar who moved from the pulpit into public history and state service.
1 Audiobook
The changing of historic place names : With an introduction and glossary of some historic names changed or misspelled in Pennsylvania
by George Patterson Donehoo, Henry W. (Henry Wharton) Shoemaker
About the author
Born in Connellsville, Pennsylvania, in 1862, he studied at the Western University of Pennsylvania, now the University of Pittsburgh, and went on to become a Presbyterian clergyman. Sources consistently describe him as both a minister and a serious student of Pennsylvania history, a combination that shaped much of his writing.
After years in church work, he devoted himself more fully to historical research and authorship. He is especially known for books on Pennsylvania history and on Native American villages and place names in the state, including A History of the Indian Villages and Place Names in Pennsylvania and work connected with Pennsylvania: A History. He was also identified in contemporary and later sources as a former State Librarian of Pennsylvania and secretary of the Pennsylvania Historical Commission.
He died in 1934. While some details of his career are repeated mainly in catalog and reference sources rather than in a single full modern biography, the overall picture is clear: he was an influential Pennsylvania writer whose work helped preserve regional history for later readers.