Evergreen: Cosey's Old Field

Evergreen began as Cosey's Old Field, named for Revolutionary War veteran James Cosey, who settled here in eighteen nineteen on what is now South Main Street. The Reverend Alexander Travis gave the place its permanent name for the abundance of ferns and evergreen foliage surrounding his congregation. Conecuh County had been organized in eighteen eighteen, but its county seat moved several times before landing here.

After Sparta was burned during the Civil War, the seat shifted to Evergreen in eighteen sixty-six, riding the railroad line that now ran through town. The name Conecuh itself likely comes from a Muscogee Creek word meaning land of cane. Today Evergreen is a quiet county seat holding down a corner of southwest Alabama that few travelers slow down to see.