Last week in our segment of your hometown we told you about how Carthage in Jefferson County got it's name. But that naming may have led to an unanticipated rivalry between its twin village across the river West Carthage. In this week's segment of Your Hometown, our Katie Gibas tells us how the rivalry started and what's left of it today.

CARTHAGE, N.Y. -- Many people living in the Carthage area know about the traditional rivalry between Carthage and West Carthage. But no one really knows how it got started. One theory is that it may have begun with the initial settlement of the village. One side by the French. The other by a New Englander.

"There may have been a language barrier to start with. There may have been some distrust between the two of them. There may have been some religious intolerance...And they may not have trusted each other," said historian Laura Prievo.

Another theory is that the rivalry began with the naming of Carthage in 1830 by New York State.

"When the name came into being if that was Carthage then this was West Carthage just to differentiate. It didn't really have a name before. It was settled about the same time as Champion by Joel Mix, but it was never called anything else," said author Lynn Thornton.

"It was considered part of the village, but it wasn't really part of the village. West Carthage was incorporated in 1889, and they took the name. Well, they'd always been called West Carthage, so to change it at that point would have been confusing," Prievo said.

"It might have been the very beginning of some of the divisiveness that has crept in. I think by naming something, you do divide it, and I think that may have led to some problems along the way," Thornton said.

An alternate theory is that it started because Carthage had a considerable amount of debt and West Carthage didn't want to become part of Carthage because they didn't want to assume that debt.

But even another theory. the one that's the most widely accepted, is that it started with the fire departments when they lost a steamer in a fire.

"They made a request to the people from West Carthage so that they chip in to help pay for it, and the people in West Carthage said, 'No we won't. It's your fire truck, you pay for it." So the village board in Carthage came up this this rule that the new steamer couldn't go out of the corporation without permission from the village president or one of the trustees,"Prievo said. "So it happened that a fire started over on Champion Street in somebody's barn. They called for the fire department, and the village president happened to be out of town. They couldn't find him. So by the time they found one of the trustees to give permission for the steamer to go across the bridge, somebody else's barn had burned down and somebody else's house was burning, so that kind of upset the people in West Carthage."

Even though nothing serious has happened in over a century, the rivalry continues. The high school sports rivalry ended when the schools combined. But in the hearts of some citizens the rivalry continues.

"I was born and raised on the Carthage side of the river. When we bought our house in West Carthage, I had a lot of people come to me and say, 'You aren't going to be happy over there." And I said, 'Yes I am. We're going to be fine.' And they said, 'No you won't like it over there. People aren't friendly.' Well, I didn't find that to be the case. And I think lots of times people are as friendly as you expect them to be," said Thornton.

Showing that the rivalry has continued to fade, community members from both sides of the river participate in joint events such as the annual Twin Villages Community Picnic.

The latest effort to further link the communities is a proposal to combine the police forces.

"The rescue squad is Carthage area. The Chamber of Commerce is Carthage area. Even the hospital is Carthage area. It's not just Carthage. It serves the whole community. We're one community even if we have a river between us," said Prievo.