I was going to mention the Bangal near Jack's Reef, Onondaga County, a now defunct hamlet with no population and an impoverished and sort of transient one when I was a kid in the 1950s. My cousin tells me that it wasn't a corruption of "Bengal" but was really part of a pair of hardscrabble settlements known as "Bang All" and "Beat All". I believe Bang-All was also the wording of the Guilderland Center hamlet, with which I am also well acquainted and which is, and was, Times Square at rush hour compared to the one in Onondaga County.

>>> Bonnie Glickman <[log in to unmask]> 06/18/98 01:18pm >>>
David Minor wrote:
 >
 > Greetings,
 >
 > While looking through a list of early New York State place names I
 > came across three places formerly name Bangali. They are Guilderland
 > Centre (Albany County), Taylorville (Cortland County) and Vienna
 > (Oneida County). Anyone have any idea where the name comes from and
 > why three non-contiguous counties all had towns of the same name. Is
 > there a Bangali extant today?

 I checked my Delorme computer disc (c/1993) and there were no Bangali's
 anywhere - However, it came up with two BANGALL's BOTH in NY!! -
 One is NE of Poughkeepsie off Rt 82, and the other is E of Jack's reef
 and NW of Syracuse on Rt 31.  Neither of these seem even close to your
 three locations... The spelling coincidence is weird, though - i and l
 could be confused in handwriting...

 Bonnie Glickman, Rochester NY

 PS Are you the "Timemaster" David Minor from WXXI?  If so, please accept
 my thanks for your great pieces on Simon's show!  B)