Whence the Name "KUMIS" ?

[NW Mailing List]

Has anyone figured out how the name "Kumis" came to be  used as a station name on the VGN?  MapQuest and Google Earth do not recognize "Kumis" as a geographical location. 



The word "kumis" is apparently a Turkic or Mongol word referring to  a fermented product made from mare's milk  in the Central Asian Steppes, see: 



http://thekefir.com/kumis/ 



I have not been able to nail down the root etymology of the word, as I have no familiarity with any Turkic or Altaic languages. 



I have never heard "kumis" used as a family name and have not run across the word  in any of the non-railroad historical materials dealing with Roanoke or Montgomery Counties.  It would be interesting to check the 1898 USGS Topo maps and see if there was any use of that word as a word referencing places just prior to  the construction of the Virginian Railway.  However, the USGS Topos for that period do not appear to have been digitized yet. 



So, how did "Kumis" get to Roanoke County, Virginia...? 



Sorry to play the part of the philologist... it's just ingrained. 



-- abram burnett, 
transplanted virginian domiciling in pennsyl-slavia 

 
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