The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-12-15

I bama history than any one who preceded or followed him.
 There was among the early settlers, in fact among the first, Mir. J. G. klinck. He was a man of intelligence and took part in all things connected with affairs of the embryo city. He lived until about 1875. He claimed the honor of naming tarsst the town !aoa There were hT,a rival ton an here. Those who first came located land east of what is now Court Street and the settlement formed was known as New Philadelphia. The settlers were largely entered land in the west part of what is now Montgomery and 1t was called Alabama Town, and still another made locations and called their settlement East Alabama. Alabama Town and New Philadelphia were the real rivals. When commissioners were appointed to select a courthouse site. old Augusta, which then had an existence, and New Phila- delphia were passed by and Alabama Town chosen as the prospective seat of juStice- After year or two elapsed 1t was not found profitable to keep up so many names and there was a union of interests and the name Montgomery was chosen for all. Mir. Klinck, in a letter that was published in 1858, says that ''atter an agreement for consolidation had been reached, the question of a name came up. What shall be done? It will never do to call it New Philadelphia nor Yankee Town either scents too strong for Georgy. l have tive will call it Montgomery after the county. It was settled upon without a dissenting voice and to the great satisfaction of all con- cerned."
 The idea that the town was named for General Montgomery was given publicity as early as 1921, and there is no record of its being contradicted at that time. Mir. Jonathan Battelle published the first newspaper in Montgomery in 1921, and in the first issue he stated that it was named for the Revolutionary hero. who fell at Quebec. A few weeks afterwards he published a full report of the pro- ceedingS had in New York in 1918, when the remains of General Montgomery were brought from Quebec to that city for in- terment in 1s1S He reiterated the state ment that the city of Montgomery was named in his honor
 It seems a little peculiar that fl should be sought to perpetuate the mem- ories of two men bearing the name Monts gomery by naming. the county Tor one and the city for the other when the county was named, the deeds or MaJor Montgomery were fresh in the minds of the fey people living here. tnasmuch as the fight in which he had lost his lite took place not over a hundred miles from this point, and within less than three years of the date when the county was organized and named. General Mont gomery lost his life forty-five years prior to the time when there was any sort or a local government here. In an artlcle in a work called Northern Alabama, MT. Thos H. Clark maintains that the coun- ty was named for General Montgomery, and says: Tt may seem odd that the citizens of a small frontier town should single out for honor Revolutionary soldier who had been killed more than forty years before. The reverence for the heroes of the revolution was then at it's height, it is true. but this fact sione would hardly explain the choice in this instance. There is a circumstance that removes the difficulty. In 1918 the Legislature of New York adopted res olution looking to the removal or the