LICK SKILLET
- Program
- Subject
- Location
- Lat/Long
- Grant Recipient
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Legends & Lore®
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Folklore
- 15 Choccolocco St, Oxford, AL 36203, USA
- 33.615193, -85.834871
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City of Oxford
LICK SKILLET
Inscription
LICK SKILLETOXFORD’S FORMER NAME
RECALLS SCARCITY ON THE
FRONTIER, WHEN A TRAVELER
WAS FED, BUT HAD TO
“LICK THE SKILLET”
ALABAMA FOLKLIFE ASSOCIATION
WILLIAM G. POMEROY FOUNDATION 2021
The present-day City of Oxford was established in 1852 on land inhabited by Native American tribes for thousands of years. During the 1830s white settlers moved into the area. An article written by Christopher Maloney and published to the website, Encyclopedia of Alabama, provides additional detail:
Prior to non-Indian settlement, the area that currently includes Oxford was inhabited by Creeks of the Abeika towns. Situated just northwest of the Cheaha Mountain. Oxford began as a small log-cabin community known as Lick Skillet and became a trade center for cotton farmers.
The legend surrounding the curious name of Lick Skillet begins with a traveler passing through the modest community looking for a meal and accommodations. A local who aided the traveler directed him to “lick the skillet” for any remaining food, as it wasn’t plentiful.