Minor Mispronounciation

There is this valley, river, county in Illinois, that, perhaps if I had known that my Great-great grandparents lived there before trekking on to Iowa, I would have known how to pronounce, and would not have elicited the laughter of a former employer.

If new words came to you from reading, rather than hearing, you must have had a few you mispronounced, too. (I have one, ennui, that even after learning how to say, I still hear incorrectly in my head.)

When my oldest son was little, some fifty plus years ago, I was hired to help in the office of the Municipal Utilities. The men would go out once a month and bring back the meter readings which the office manager and I would then calculate and, with the aid of a behemoth machine, turn into bills. Those would go out in the mail and for the rest of the month we would take the money of customers as they came in to pay.

I still had spare time after the front office duties were done, which is how I *got* to learn and help keep track of inventory - probably my least favorite part of any position I've ever had - aka, a necessary evil. The crew would go out to replace a meter, fix a line break, etc. When they came back, they turned in a list of all materials used, which I would then subtract from the appropriate list of inventory. When supplies got low, an order was placed to replenish them. There was a tiered shelf of supply books to consult when something was needed and salesmen who came around on a regular basis.

One of our suppliers was Sangamo Electric Company of Springfield, Illinois. I never heard how Sangamo was pronounced, I just figured it was San-gom-mo. One day my boss and I were talking about ordering something and I asked if we would get it from San-gom-mo. He looked at me with a strange expression and then started laughing. "Do you mean Sang-a-mo?"
Well, maybe I did, but I thought my pronounciation had a more Spanish, romance language, sound. To me the name looked like it would be Spanish. I'm sure the next time the salesman for Sangamo Electric came in my boss shared my error with him and they both had another good laugh.

Sangamon County Illinois is where the state capitol of Springfield* is located. The county was named for the Sangamon River, which was thought to be named by an early French explorer, the Jesuit priest, Father Pierre Charlevoix. Another theory is that it's from the name the Sauk Indians had for it.

Sangamon County History .org has more possibilities about the naming of the river/county/area at their website, which I found very interesting - history lover that I am. According to them, "Strangers to the area often pronounce the word, San-ga-MON, while locals prefer a slurred SANG-uh-min." I wonder if they would also laugh at my San-gom-mo? Probably.

(*Springfield is where my Great-great Mauderly grandparents lived before settling in Nodaway Township, Adams County, Iowa. Two of their sons, Jodright and Joseph both died June 7, 1865, while in Springfield and are buried in Oak Ridge Cemetery. (The cemetery where the Lincoln Tomb is located.)