Stolen from the Pulaski County Community Development Commission website: http://pulaskionline.org/name/
Information about General Pulaski is included in the Memorial Swinging Bridge Project posts because… well… the bridge was dedicated to “soldiers and sailors” from Pulaski County. Since our county was named in his honor… well… here ya go!
Photo from Wikipedia
The truth is that we’re not 100-percent positive why we pronounce the name of our home ‘pə-LAS-sky’, when the Polish name is pronounced ‘pə-LAS-kee’. It’s been that way for longer than anyone can remember. However, we know enough to make an educated guess.
In the late 1830s, between the 1835 legislative act approving the establishment of Pulaski County and the official organization in 1839, George Terry moved to the Winamac area from nearby Cass County. Mr. Terry had come to Indiana from Upstate New York. His father, Charles, lost his life due to wounds suffered during the Battle of Sodus Point in the War of 1812. The battle was fought near Fishville, New York, which was renamed ‘Pulaski’ — pronounced with a long ‘i’ rather than a long ‘e’ — upon incorporation in 1832.
Our best guess is that Mr. Terry carried the mispronunciation from New York to Indiana. The opportunities for long-distance spoken communication being non-existent, locals had no way of knowing that the final syllable should have sounded like a long ‘e’. What’s your guess?