Kill (body of water)

As a body of water, a kill is a creek. The word comes from the Middle Dutch kille, meaning "riverbed" or "water channel".

The term is used in areas of Dutch influence in the Delaware and Hudson Valleys and other areas of the former New Netherland colony of Dutch America to describe a strait, river, or arm of the sea. Examples are Kill Van Kull and Arthur Kill, both separating Staten Island, New York from New Jersey, Dutch Kills and English Kills off Newtown Creek, Bronx Kill between the Bronx and Randalls Island, and used as a composite name, Wallkill River in New York and New Jersey, Paulinskill River that runs through Sussex and Warren County in New Jersey, and the Schuylkill River in Pennsylvania. Fresh Kills is the primary waterway that leads to the former Fresh Kills landfill which serviced the city of New York in the second half of the 20th Century and was once the largest landfill in the world.

The term is incorporated into several rivers in Delaware including the Murderkill River, the Broadkill River, and the Whorekill River. "Kill" also shows up in many location names such as the Catskill Mountains, the city of Peekskill, the town of Fishkill, New York, and the hamlet of Wynantskill, New York.

Kill Creek Township, Osborne County, Kansas

Kill Creek Township is a township in Osborne County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2000 census, the township population was 35.

History

Kill Creek was named after the creek that it sits on, which was named after an Indian massacre that occurred there in the 1860s. This might be confused with the Kill Creek located in Johnson County between De Soto and Olathe.

Kill Creek Township was founded in 1872 when it was partitioned from Liberty Township. In 1880, the western half of Kill Creek Township became Mount Ayr Township. The rural farming community of Kill Creek, situated in the northern part of the township, was for a time a busy stop on the Bull City-Russell Freight Trail. An analysis of census records has shown that it suffered a steady decline in population over the years. Today, it has largely disappeared aside from a small number of residents who live in farmhouses spread throughout the township. The general store and post office are remembered only via a 1949 memorial marker where they once stood. The Kill Creek Presbyterian Church, built in 1885, was long the symbol of the community. It closed in 1985 and was torn down in 2006.