I've been told that the word means Stone City.

The people insisted upon calling it Stone's Ferry and would not have the name Lithopolis.

Judge Stone raved and tore, but he was voted down, and pulled up stakes in disgust, sold out his interests and went on to Monterey County, where he could establish a new city and name it Lithopolis.

He seemed to care more for the name than anything else, and never seemed to see how funny it was that he felt it possible to make a city wherever he decreed.

This was a part of the spirit of the time.