Introduction

This study of the place names of Sumter County, Alabama, which is based upon my master's thesis,1 attempts to examine the histori cal, geographical, social, and linguistic aspects of the names. As Robert L. Ramsay, one of the pioneers in the field of place-name study in the United States, has stated: A man's name tells us his family and his ancestry, usually also his nationality and racial background, often his physical and mental inheritance, and the hopes and ambitions which his parents had for him. Just so the place names of a county or state yield to patient scrutiny a host of hidden facts about its history and its traditions, its geography and its natural resources, its people and their ideals.2 A brief consideration of the history of Sumter County, Alabama, will reveal the source of some of the names that are to be discussed. Sumter County, which is situated in west central Alabama, was created by an act of the state general assembly on December 18, 1832. The land had been acquired on September 27, 1830, through the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek with the Choctaw Indians. In 1847 two ranges were taken from the area and added to land from Washington County to form Choctaw County. As early as 1735 a fortified post, Fort Tombecbe, was established in the territory by the French as a base against the Chickasaws. After the French abandoned the fort, the English occupied it from 1763 to 1768. In 1783 it was acquired by the Spanish, who surren dered it to the United States in 1795. Here the United States negotiated its first land cession from the Choctaws in 1802 and guaranteed their title to this and other sections of land later granted to the United States by the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek

Computer Science · Historical and Cultural Archaeology Studies · Memory, Trauma, and Commemoration · Names, Identity, and Discrimination Research

• Observations on American Place-Name Grammar

  James B Mcmillan•American Speech•1949

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