“PRES-COTT” or “PRES-KITT” How do you really say the name, anyway? by Melissa Ruffner, Historian and Author
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FALL 2017 • THE EDUCATION EDITION
elcome to... Well, just how – and why – do we pronounce the name of our town? Here’s a little bit of the back story. In the early 1980s, I wrote the first complete history of Prescott, sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce. It was a two-year labor of love, since I was born here in 19**, but that’s a story for another time. When my youngest daughter, Leila, was stationed with a Marine Corps Wing Site Support Element at Westover Air Force Base in Massachusetts, I took the opportunity to deliver a copy of my Prescott: A Pictorial History to the William Hickling Prescott home at 54 Beacon Street in Boston. The then-president of the Colonial Dames of America shared with me that visitors from Arizona often asked how the Prescott descendants pronounce their name. She told me that William H. was the grandson of
Colonel William Prescott, a Revafter our William H. and which olutionary War hero, and during were named after other folks, the colonists’ overthrow of the including C.H. Prescott, a railroad British in Boston, they changed official. We have several Sister the pronunciation from “PresCities, so perhaps we should COTT” to “Pres-KITT” to show adopt Prescott in the southeast their allegiance with the newly corner of Washington State. declared “Americans.” Then, if a new resident or As background, when people visitor mispronounces the name took surnames, they often chose of our town, they can merely their vocation (Miller, Baker, explain that they are referring to Smith…) and who they were the our Sister City. Or, do they call it son of (AdamSON), or where they “PresCOTT?” I know...do you? lived. Prescott was the priests’ “COTTage” William in a village. DescenPrescott dants in England still pronounce their surname “PresCOTT,” and descendants of the new Americans still use “PresKITT.” A student of mine at Yavapai College submitted a term paper identifying about a dozen towns named Prescott and indicated which were named
PRESSCOT COTT T LI V ING 133 FUN! • PRE