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Published by The University of Alabama,
The University of Alabama at Birmingham,
and the Alabama Department of Archives and History

What's in a Name? 

3/22/2017

1 Comment

 
West Blocton, Alabama
The Alabama Heritage team visits West Blocton, Alabama, originally named Suttleton for a local businessman.
A friend of mine visited Greer, South Carolina, recently and used a Snapchat filter for the town of Greer to post a photo of her stay there. What made this one post interesting is that Greer is also her last name. Others soon commented on her social media post about how they will have to visit the towns that carry their own last name, like Steele, or Benton, Alabama. Then I wondered how many towns were named for actual people and if there was a Minder or Todd out there. 
Minder, being my married name, is the closest to having a reference in Virginia O. Foscue’s Place Names in Alabama. Minter (with a “t”) is located in Dallas County and was named for William Townsend Minter. Minter was a planter and also the president of the Selma and Gulf Railroad line. According to Thomas McAdory Owen’s History of Alabama and Dictionary of Alabama Biography, Minter was also the sheriff of Dallas County and commanded companies in the Seminole War and the Battle of Selma. The post office in Minter was established in 1876, making the settlement official.
 
Now Todd, my maiden name, is nearby … in Todd County, Kentucky. But the state of Alabama alludes me. Scanning through Foscue’s Place Names, Toadvine, Alabama, stands out like a sore thumb. This community in Jefferson County was originally called Smithville, but later changed its name to honor a Confederate soldier. Toadvine is also one of the oldest communities in Jefferson County, according to a 1928 Birmingham News post by W.J. Boles. It was settled just before 1810, more than nine years before Alabama became a state.
 
Surnames have always fascinated me. What’s the origination of your name? What does it mean? Did it change when your family came to America? According to my family’s genealogy, we are mainly Scottish and our family name was Todhuntre (which means “hunter of the foxes”). When the family came to America, it changed to Todd (meaning “fox”). My husband’s family has a few varieties in its origins, and I’m still digging through the floppy disks (yes, 1980s floppy disks) of material that his father left behind to quell a few undisputed claims that the family is Prussian and the surname means “pillow maker.”
 
The Alabama Heritage team takes field trips across our great state throughout the year, and the photo here in this blogpost is from our visit to West Blocton. Originally, this Bibb County town was called Suttleton for a local businessman but was then changed to Blocton around 1901. According to Foscue, the name is from the mining industry, referencing a block of coal that weighed more than a ton removed from the Cahaba Coal mines.
 
What has your genealogy research found for your family name’s origin? Is there a town or community in the state of Alabama that bears your name? If so, are you related to the person for whom that town is named? 

Rebecca Todd Minder

Author

Rebecca Todd Minder is the Digital Media Editor for Alabama Heritage magazine, and a resident of Tuscaloosa for more than 40 years. Tuscaloosa (with its variety of spellings) is Choctaw for tashka ("warrior") and lusa ("black"), as it stands on the banks of the Black Warrior River.

1 Comment
Wayne ,( Billie Gwin) Russell link
9/9/2021 04:04:24 pm

Dear Ms. Rebecca,
I am so excited to have run across this today. I am getting back with my personal look and scrapbook for my two grown children and one granddaughter!
I am sorry to say I have only run across some of your information but my daughter is looking for your other work for me!
I do not think I can even begin to describe my connection to all these places extending exactly where you have been living!
There was once upon a time in Alabama that Three Gwin Men- The oldest named- William Henderson Gwin ( Willie) married the youngest Boleyn daughter named Nettie !!! Her other two sisters - Hattie & Mammie married Mr. “Willie’s” other two brothers!
( spelling- Boleyn??—I am not looking at notes - they are packed away - I have not had had my normal life lately- ha-)
Nettie & Mr. “Willie” William Henderson Gwin—Had one son— William Henderson Gwin Jr.
I am his daughter born 8/19/1948 in Gulfport, Mississippi.
My Mom is /was Iva Madeline Matlock! She was from Texarkana ,Texas. Where I have been for about 5 years with the last of her brothers who sadly the last had just passed! Then we have not been able to travel back and forth to home where my family is. Because of this Covid!
Well now you know I am 73- pretty good health- carry on a lot and do get distracted - so go in and out of stories! I just get excited!
So these three young men married these three young women- that is wild to me anyway! All railway Workers- Go to the old GM&O! My Dad actually grew up in Electrel Mills till and went to Jr.college there till army( man if you want to drag up some funny, wild, some printable ,some not- Dad and Mr . Willie were something else!
While my thin, well dressed granny —always in what I called cotton, shirtwaist flowered dress, hairnet on, after sleeping in curlers all nite tried to keep them in line while playing at the First United Methodists Church!
Then they came to Coker, Alabama at that train station built their first real house . They we’re older & thought they would retire there! I.Dad sold it when she passed She lived till 97? Dad till 95? Both were smart and alert till the end!
I spent every summer with them!
Do you know what a rare experience that is to live in a Depot ? Could you possibly research - at my age —How many of us are remain that had that experience?
My cousin John Gwin living in Los Clucris, New Mexico// another wild story - my grandparents passed not knowing what happened to them
//after his father died while he was at work at railroad- nand they moved. - they lost touch ! I never met him and just not long ago he found me ! That was a really out of world experience.
You see I get so excited!
I adored my grandparents! Both sets! But my Dad was the only child and my Mom’s family had lots of people( 6)kids and all lived many miles away.
Do you know what fun it is telling people as I walk through places! Selling old things??We are avid antique, junk, and down right repurpose things! Wait to my kids tell you about moving me from Mississippi to Texas!
Now there is a real joke about the next plan in place about moving!
There I go again but seeing and have a few of the old wooden iceboxes! I just smile - I just tell them that was for rich people poor people like us that lived at the train station just were glad to get small while ones!
You are a smart woman! Do you know the answer to these questions? Were non employed people ever allowed up front where when big engine was in motion motion unless authorized?
Why did people ever have to live in depots?
I was given the honor of calling Hot Box and running out in my overalls! With my equipment!?explain that!
Everyone loved my grandmother! Do you know the arraignment of a depot? Most times inside was thought of how to make the paying person comfortable and get their tickets!
The older design was catered not as much to paying perple but what?


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    Editor's Note

    “Adventures in Genealogy” is a regular department in Alabama Heritage magazine that spotlights the many ways people are uncovering their roots in Alabama. 

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