Ashland, Doswell, Mechanicsville, Montpelier, Old Church, Pamunkey, Scotchtown, Totopotomoy . . .

Ever drive up Interstate 95, or east on U.S. 360, or west on U.S. 33, and wonder how all those places in Hanover County got their names?

Here's a guide to some of the names, as gleaned from published Hanover histories and still-living researchers such as Rosanne Groat Shalf, Anne Geddy Cross and Dale Paige Talley.

A good, quick read that can tell you lots about the county in a short time is Robert Bolling Lancaster's "A Sketch of the Early History of Hanover County Virginia and Its Large and Important Contributions to the American Revolution." You can find it in Pamunkey Regional Library branches.

Let's begin with the county itself:

Hanover County, once part of New Kent County, was created by the Virginia General Assembly on Nov. 26, 1720. It was named in honor of King George I of England, who at the time of his coronation was elector of Hanover in Germany.

Ashland was founded in 1851 on the Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac railroad as a mineral springs resort known as Slash Cottage, named for the nearby slashes, or swamps.

Its name was changed in 1855 to Ashland in honor of the Kentucky home of Hanover native Henry Clay, who almost became president.

Randolph-Macon College, the oldest Methodist-affiliated college in the United States, was relocated to Ashland from Boydton in 1868 because the rail lines to Boydton had been destroyed during the Civil War.

Bear Island was a house built in the 1830s on the site of an earlier structure. In the mid-1800s, abolitionist John Brown visited there and secretly tried to incite the Gwathmey family slaves to murder the family.

Unsuccessful, Brown moved on to Harpers Ferry, where he was captured by a company of Marines commanded by Col. Robert E. Lee.

Chickahominy is an Indian tribe. The name means "turkey lick."

Cold Harbor is a term that once was used for weather shelters found along coach roads. They offered unheated protection from the elements.

Doswell, now renowned as the I-95 exit for Kings Dominion theme park, was known as Hanover Junction at the time of the Civil War.

It was renamed in honor of Maj. Thomas W. Doswell, who bred thoroughbred horses that once were among the most accomplished in the nation.

The area has outstanding racing pedigree -- Secretariat, perhaps the greatest racehorse of modern times, was born not far away at Meadow Farm, on the border of Hanover and Caroline counties.

Hanovertown, nestled on a bend of the Pamunkey River, was the area's first settlement. It was formed in 1676 as Page's Warehouse, named for the family that established a tobacco trading post there.

At one time, Hanovertown was the largest tobacco port in the New World. When the House of Burgesses decided to move the state's capital from Williamsburg in 1779, Hanovertown came within a few votes of being selected. But Richmond was chosen.

Only a monument on River Road remains to mark Hanovertown's existence.

Mechanicsville was named for the wheelwright and blacksmith shops at the forks of the road that met at Mechanicsville Turnpike.

Mechumps Creek, near the county courthouse, is named for an Indian chief who lived in that area.

A brother-in-law of Chief Powhatan, Mechumps renounced Powhatan and helped the early settlers. (His sister was one of Powhatan's favorite wives.)

Montpelier likely got its name from James Madison's estate in Orange County, because Madison's wife, Dolley, had lived in Hanover at one time.

Old Church -- Immanuel Episcopal Church was established in Hanovertown before 1684 but was moved in 1718 about 4 miles south to the crossroads that now marks the center of the Old Church community.

Pamunkey, the name of an Indian tribe, means "where we took a sweat."

Pole Green doesn't have much to do with a pole or a green, but rather with the family of George Polegreen, a landowner whose name is listed in the 1688 parish book of St. Peter's Parish.

Historic Polegreen Church fell victim to fighting in the Civil War, when Confederate artillery soldiers fired on the church in an effort to dislodge Union sharpshooters who had occupied it. An artillery round set the church ablaze.

Scotchtown, one of the colony's early plantation houses, originally was a grant of 9,976 acres deeded in 1717 to Charles Chiswell of Williamsburg, who built an ironworks there.

Scots were imported to build mills, laundries, blacksmith shops and even a castle. Soon after the main house was erected, an outbreak of yellow fever killed some of the workers and scared others back to Scotland.

Patrick Henry, Virginia's first governor, bought the house and 960 acres in 1771 and lived there for several years. He sold it in 1778.

Signal Hill, off U.S. 301 near Hanover Courthouse, was a large house built in 1857. During the Battle of Hanover Court House -- also known as the Battle of Slash Church (May 27, 1862) -- the house was used as a signal station, thus giving the area a new name.

Totopotomoy was a Pamunkey Indian chief who befriended Virginia's early settlers. Totopotomoy was killed while fighting for the English near what is now Richmond in 1656.

Contact Ed Kelleher at (804) 649-6148 or ekelleher@timesdispatch.com