The park is named after William McIntosh, an Indian Chief of both Creek Indian and British descent, thus the English name, who ran a plantation on the grounds. He served under Andrew Jackson and had a distinguished military and political career, helping to establish many US-Creek treaties. Despite all that, his cousin on his Dads side got elected Governor of Georgia by promising to remove all Native Americans from the state and that put him on the Creeks bad side. Ultimately they murdered him and burned his plantation.