Town once called Kingston. When Fort Sumter was fired upon the name of Kingston was changed to Sumpter on account of there being another Kingston in the state. The name Sumpter was wrongly spelled on an early map and the letter "p" is still inserted. Fort Sumter was named for Thomas Sumter of the Revolutionary War and the word means a pack-horse or the driver of a pack-horse.

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[Source: Cole. Baraboo and Other Place Names in Sauk County, Wisconsin, p. 43.]