The first historical account of the area comes from de Soto’s chroniclers as he marched south along the east bank of the Coosa River in 1540, encountering the town of Talisi at the edges of the Mississippian-era chiefdoms of Coosa and Tuskaloosa.
The inhabitants of the Coosa River Valley were later united as the Creek Indians, whose encounters with the Spanish and French had a significant influence on the history of Sylacauga. Events that occurred between these three groups were partly responsible for the settlement of the village of Chalakagay in 1748 near modern Sylacauga by refugee Shawnee Indians led by Peter Chartier, and Chalakagay was later listed in the French territorial records in 1759 as being a town inhabited by 50 Shawnee Indian warriors.
On December 18, 1832, the Alabama State Legislature created Talladega County from Creek land ceded in March under the Treaty of Cusseta, and settlers streamed in. The city’s name, however, can be traced to a group of Shawnee warriors who came south from Ohio in 1748 and established the town of Chalakagay. Over time, the name evolved to Souillacouga and then to Syllacoga by 1838. It became Sylacauga in 1887.
Source: Wikipedia contributors, “Sylacauga, Alabama,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia (accessed June 8, 2019).