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    INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY PUBLICATIONS

    VOLUME IV          NUMBER 2

    THE WORD HOOSIER

    _By_ JACOB PIATT DUNN

    AND

    JOHN FINLEY

    _By_ MRS. SARAH A. WRIGLEY
    (His Daughter)

    INDIANAPOLIS
    THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY
    1907




THE WORD "HOOSIER."


During the period of about three-quarters of a century in which the
State of Indiana and its people have been designated by the word
"Hoosier," there has been a large amount of discussion of the origin and
meaning of the term, but with a notable lack of any satisfactory result.
Some of these discussions have been almost wholly conjectural in
character, but others have been more methodical, and of the latter the
latest and most exhaustive--that of Mr. Meredith Nicholson[1]--sums up
the results in the statement "The origin of the term 'Hoosier' is not
known with certainty." Indeed the statement might properly have been
made much broader, for a consideration of the various theories offered
leaves the unprejudiced investigator with the feeling that the real
solution of the problem has not even been suggested. This lack of
satisfactory conclusions, however, may be of some value, for it strongly
suggests the probability that the various theorists have made some false
assumption of fact, and have thus been thrown on a false scent, at the
very beginning of their investigations.

As is natural in such a case, there has been much of assertion of what
was merely conjectural, often accompanied by the pioneer's effort to
make evidence of his theory by the statement that he was "in Indiana at
the time and knows the facts." The acceptance of all such testimony
would necessarily lead to the adoption of several conflicting
conclusions. In addition to this cause of error, there have crept into
the discussion several misstatements of fact that have been commonly
adopted, and it is evident that in order to reach any reliable
conclusion now, it will be necessary to examine the facts critically and
ascertain what are tenable.

The traditional belief in Indiana is that the word was first put in
print by John Finley, in his poem "The Hoosiers Nest," and this is
noted by Berry Sulgrove, who was certainly as well acquainted with
Indiana tradition as any man of his time.[2] This belief is at least
probably well founded, for up to the present time no prior use of the
word in print has been discovered. This poem attracted much attention at
the time, and was unquestionably the chief cause of the widespread
adoption of the word in its application to Indiana, for which reasons it
becomes a natural starting-point in the inquiry.

It is stated by Oliver H. Smith that this poem originally appeared as a
New Year's "carriers' address" of the Indianapolis Journal in 1830,[3]
and this statement has commonly been followed by other writers, but this
is clearly erroneous, as any one may see by inspection of the files of
the Journal, for it printed its address in the body of the paper in
1830, and it is a totally different production. After that year it
discontinued this practice and issued its addresses on separate sheets,
as is commonly done at present. No printed copy of the original
publication is in existence, so far as known, but Mr. Finley's
daughter--Mrs. Sarah Wrigley, former librarian of the Morrison Library,
at Richmond, Indiana--has a manuscript copy, in the author's
handwriting, which fixes the date of publication as Jan. 1, 1833. There
is no reason to question this date, although Mr. Finley states in his
little volume of poems printed in 1860, that this poem was written in
1830. The poem as it originally appeared was never reprinted in full, so
far as is known, and in that form it is entirely unknown to the present
generation, although it has been reproduced in several forms, and in two
of them by direct authority of the author.[4] The author used his
privilege of revising his work, and while he may have improved his
poetry, he seriously marred its historical value.

As the manuscript copy is presumably a literal transcript of the
original publication, with possibly the exception that the title may
have been added at a later date, I reproduce it here in full:

    ADDRESS
    Of the Carrier of the Indianapolis Journal,
    January 1, 1833.
    THE HOOSIER'S NEST.

      Compelled to seek the Muse's aid,
    Your carrier feels almost dismay'd
    When he attempts in nothing less
    Than verse his patrons to address,
    Aware how very few excel
    In the fair art he loves so well,
    And that the wight who would pursue it
    Must give his whole attention to it;
    But, ever as his mind delights
    To follow fancy's airy flights
    Some object of terrestrial mien
    Uncourteously obtrudes between
    And rudely scatters to the winds
    The tangled threads of thought he spins;
    His wayward, wild imagination
    Seeks objects of its own creation
    Where Joy and Pleasure, hand in hand,
    Escort him over "Fairyland,"
    Till some imperious earth-born care
    Will give the order, "As you were!"
    From this the captious may infer
    That I am but a groveling cur
    Who would essay to pass for more
    Than other people take me for,
    So, lest my friends be led to doubt it,
    I think I'll say no more about it,
    But hope that on this noted day
    My annual tribute of a lay
    In dogg'rel numbers will suffice
    For such as are not over nice.

    The great events which have occur'd
    (And all have seen, or read or heard)
    Within a year, are quite too many
    For me to tarry long on any--
    Then let not retrospection roam
    But be confined to things at home.
    A four years' wordy war just o'er
    Has left us where we were before
    Old Hick'ry triumphs,--we submit
    (Although we thought another fit)
    For all of Jeffersonian school
    Wish the majority to rule--
    Elected for another term
    We hope his measures will be firm
    But peaceful, as the case requires
    To nullify the nullifiers--
    And if executive constructions
    By inf'rence prove the sage deductions
    That Uncle Sam's "old Mother Bank"
    Is managed by a foreign crank
    And constituted by adoption
    The "heir apparent" of corruption--
    No matter if the facts will show
    That such assertions are not so,
    His Veto vengeance must pursue her
    And all that are appended to her--
    But tho' hard times may sorely press us,
    And want, and debts, and duns distress us,
    We'll share a part of Mammon's manna
    By chart'ring Banks in Indiana.

      Blest Indiana! In whose soil
    Men seek the sure rewards of toil,
    And honest poverty and worth
    Find here the best retreat on earth,
    While hosts of Preachers, Doctors, Lawyers,
    All independent as wood-sawyers,
    With men of every hue and fashion,
    Flock to this rising "Hoosher" nation.
    Men who can legislate or plow,
    Wage politics or milk a cow--
    So plastic are their various parts,
    Within the circle of their arts,
    With equal tact the "Hoosher" loons,
    Hunt offices or hunt raccoons.
    A captain, colonel, or a'squire,
    Who would ascend a little higher,
    Must court the people, honest souls.
    He bows, caresses and cajoles,
    Till they conceive he has more merit
    Than nature willed he should inherit,
    And, running counter to his nature,
    He runs into the Legislature,
    Where if he pass for wise and mute,
    Or chance to steer the proper chute,
    In half a dozen years or more
    He's qualified for Congress floor.

      I would not have the world suppose
    Our public men are all like those,
    For even in this infant State
    Some may be wise, and good, and great.
    But, having gone so far, 'twould seem
    (Since "Hoosher" manners is the theme)
    That I, lest strangers take exception,
    Should give a more minute description,
    And if my strains be not seraphic
    I trust you'll find them somewhat graphic.

      Suppose in riding somewhere West
    A stranger found a "Hoosher's" nest,
    In other words, a buckeye cabin
    Just big enough to hold Queen Mab in,
    Its situation low but airy
    Was on the borders of a prairie,
    And fearing he might be benighted
    He hailed the house and then alighted
    The "Hoosher" met him at the door,
    Their salutations soon were o'er;
    He took the stranger's horse aside
    And to a sturdy sapling tied;
    Then, having stripped the saddle off,
    He fed him in a sugar trough.
    The stranger stooped to enter in,
    The entrance closing with a pin,
    And manifested strong desire
    To seat him by the log heap fire,
    Where half a dozen Hoosheroons,
    With mush and milk, tincups and spoons,
    White heads, bare feet and dirty faces,
    Seemed much inclined to keep their places,
    But Madam, anxious to display
    Her rough and undisputed sway,
    Her offspring to the ladder led
    And cuffed the youngsters up to bed.
    Invited shortly to partake
    Of venison, milk and johnny-cake
    The stranger made a hearty meal
    And glances round the room would steal;
    One side was lined with skins of "varments"
    The other spread with divers garments,
    Dried pumpkins overhead were strung
    Where venison hams in plenty hung,
    Two rifles placed above the door,
    Three dogs lay stretched upon the floor,
    In short, the domicile was rife,
    With specimens of "Hoosher" life.

      The host who centered his affections,
    On game, and range, and quarter sections
    Discoursed his weary guest for hours,
    Till Somnus' ever potent powers
    Of sublunary cares bereft them
    And then I came away and left them.
      No matter how the story ended
    The application I intended
    Is from the famous Scottish poet
    Who seemed to feel as well as know it
    "That buirdly chiels and clever hizzies
    Are bred in sic a way as this is."
    One more subject I'll barely mention
    To which I ask your kind attention
    My pockets are so shrunk of late
    I can not nibble "Hoosher bait."

It will be noted that throughout the manuscript the word is spelled
"Hoosher" and is always put in quotation marks. Mrs. Wrigley informs me
that her father had no knowledge of the origin of the word, but found it
in verbal use when he wrote. She is confident, however, that he coined
the word "hoosheroon," and the probability of this is increased by the
fact that he did not quote it in his manuscript. In later editions of
the poem he used the form "Hoosier." His original spelling shows that
the word was not common in print, and several years passed before the
spelling became fixed in its present form.

Although the word "Hoosier" has not been found in print earlier than
January 1, 1833, it became common enough immediately afterwards. In fact
the term seems to have met general approval, and to have been accepted
by everybody. On January 8, 1833, at the Jackson dinner at Indianapolis,
John W. Davis gave the toast, "The Hooshier State of Indiana."[5] On
August 3, 1833, the Indiana Democrat published the following prospectus
of a new paper to be established by ex-Gov. Ray and partner:

     PROSPECTUS
     FOR PUBLISHING
     THE HOOSIER
     AT GREENCASTLE, INDIANA,
     BY J. B. RAY & W. M. TANNEHILL.

     We intend publishing a real _Newspaper_. To this promise,
     (though comprehensive enough) we would add, that it is
     intended to make the _moral_ and political world contribute
     their full share, in enriching its columns.

     The arts and sciences, and agriculture and commerce, and
     literature shall all receive a due portion of our care.

     Left to our choice we might refrain from remark on presidential
     matters; but supposing, that you may require an intimation,
     suffice it to say, that our past preference has been for
     General Jackson and his administration; and we deem it
     premature to decide as to the future without knowing who are to
     be the candidates. Those men who shall sustain _Western
     measures_, shall be our men. Believing that there is but _one_
     interest in the _West_, and but little occasion for partyism
     beyond the investigation of principles and the conduct of
     functionaries, we would rather encourage _union_ than excite
     _division_. We shall constantly keep in view the happiness,
     interest and prosperity of _all_. To the _good_, this paper
     will be as a shield; to the _bad_, a terror.

     The Hoosier will be published weekly, at $2 in advance and 25
     cents for every three months delay of payment, per annum, on a
     good sheet of