Alma: Named for a Crimean War Battle

The village of Alma in Marion County, Illinois took its name from a battle fought on the other side of the world. John S. Martin mapped it out in eighteen fifty-four under the name Rantoul, which was already taken, and by eighteen fifty-five residents had switched to Alma, honoring the Battle of the Alma, the first major clash of the Crimean War, fought in September eighteen fifty-four on a river in what is now Ukraine.

British and French forces defeated the Russian army there, and the name Alma briefly became fashionable across the English-speaking world for towns, ships, and daughters. The Illinois Alma sat in fruit country, surrounded by orchards, melon patches, and daffodil fields. A fire in December nineteen oh eight burned down the entire business district.

Residents rebuilt in brick, though the town never recovered its earlier size. About three hundred people call Alma home today.