Editing Mahomet, Illinois (section)

==Etymology==
The town's own published account credits their founder Daniel T. Porter, who had Connecticut roots, as the one who denominated both the new village as Middletown (after [[Middletown, Connecticut]]) and the post office as Mahomet (after [[Mahomet Weyonomon]], a [[Mohegan]] [[sachem]] from Connecticut). With the arrival of the railroad, the town embraced the name of its post office in 1871 because there already was a [[Middletown, Illinois]].<ref name="Jackson">{{Cite news |last=Jackson |first=Marcus |date=October 28, 2016 |title=What's In A Name? Mahomet |work=[[The News-Gazette (Champaign-Urbana)|News-Gazette]] |url=http://www.news-gazette.com/news/local/2016-10-28/whats-name-mahomet.html |url-status=live |access-date=December 30, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161231075607/http://www.news-gazette.com/news/local/2016-10-28/whats-name-mahomet.html |archive-date=December 31, 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=About Mahomet |url=http://www.mahomet-il.gov/index.asp?SEC=98B89A85-0A98-487C-B327-24DCD5C13420&Type=B_BASIC |accessdate=December 30, 2016 |publisher=Village of Mahomet, Illinois}}</ref> However, alternative theories of the origin of the name "Mahomet" also exist. One derives the word from the "Mahomet Lodge", the local [[Masonic Lodge]] at the time the town was searching for a new name.<ref name="Jackson" /> Its use as the name of the lodge was a manifestation of the Freemasons' liberal use of religious names and stonemason tools and symbols.{{Citation needed|date=April 2009}}  Local historian, Gregory Pasley, claims the Post Office held the name of "Mahomet" by 1838 and says this was before the Masonic Lodge was established in the village.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Pasley |first=Gregory |title=Diggin' Up Bones |publisher=Cornfield Troll |year=2014 |isbn=978-0-615-98985-3|edition=1 |location=Mahomet, Il}}</ref>{{Self-published inline|date=March 2024|reason=Self-published, needs a reliable source.}} Another theory stated that the town's name was arbitrarily assigned when the conflicting names were noted by the [[US Postal Service]].<ref name="MCC">{{Cite web |title=History of Mahomet |url=http://www.mahometchamberofcommerce.com/pages/HistoryofMahomet/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150219215217/http://mahometchamberofcommerce.com/pages/HistoryofMahomet/ |archive-date=February 19, 2015 |access-date=March 7, 2015 |website=Mahomet Chamber of Commerce}}</ref> [[Henry Gannett]]'s book, ''The Origin of Certain Place Names in the United States'', proposes [[Muhammad]] as the town's namesake.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Gannett |first=Henry |url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_9V1IAAAAMAAJ |title=The Origin of Certain Place Names in the United States |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |year=1905 |page=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_9V1IAAAAMAAJ/page/n195 196]}}</ref>