The Meanings of Hoosier

4 I TRACES I Fall 2008 0265-08 Traces-Body.indd 4 11/13/08 4:02:48 PM With 2008 marking the 175th anniversary of the publication of John Finley’s obscure. Yet Nicholson was also defensive poem “The Hoosier’s Nest,” questions remain about the origins and meanings about the linguistic origins of the term of the popular moniker as applied to the early people of Indiana prior to Finley’s and its specific application to Indianans, poem and its adoption as the state’s nickname. Upon its first appearance in 1833, bemoaning, in part “the assumption being the poem was soon copied throughout the young United States, and many long- in many quarters that the Hoosier Com- time residents, homesteaders, and travelers also became aware of it. Finley origi- monwealth is in some way set apart from nally wrote “Hoosier” as “Hoosher” (a then common phonetic spelling), and her neighbors by reason of the uncouth- both versions were certainly spoken for several years prior to the 1830s. ness and ignorance of the inhabitants; and the word ‘Hoosier’ has perhaps been An examination of the uses of the many others have searched for this “Holy unfortunate as applied to Indianians in it words “Hoosher” and “Hoosier” as they Grail” to reveal the origin and meaning has sometimes been taken as a synonym were written by or about people living of Indiana’s ubiquitous nickname, delving for boorishness and illiteracy.” in Indiana during the first generation of into the original sources of the word, its Nicholson further argued that early In- statehood and pioneer era offers a glimpse meanings, possible linguistic history, and diana frontier inhabitants were not all that of its connotations preceding its general humorous folklore speculations as it was different from those of Ohio and Illinois, acceptance by the 1840s. Although more applied to residents of Indiana by both but without benefit of a more romanti- than fifty Indiana-related references had insiders and outsiders. cized view allowed for similar frontier folk appeared by then and are included below, Meredith Nicholson asserted in The of Tennessee and Kentucky. Although not- a comprehensive survey of the subsequent Hoosiers (1900) that although the ex- ing that the word Hoosier had long been litany of positive, negative, humorous, and act origins of the word “Hoosier” were used in Tennessee, Virginia, and the serious references is not the subject of this not then known, it was only second to Carolinas to refer to a “rough country- review. Notable authors Meredith Nichol- “Yankee” as a sobriquet. He realistically man,” he affirmed that Indiana residents son, Jacob Piatt Dunn Jr., Heath Bowman, concluded that with the appearance and surely adopted it without reference to R. Carlyle Buley, Walter Havinghurst, acceptance of Finley’s poem in the 1830s, manners or literacy. He also mentioned Ronald L. Baker, Marvin Carmony, and the local meaning was certainly not then the common, but doubtful, origins TRACES I Fall 2008 I 5 0265-08 Traces-Body.indd 5 11/13/08 4:02:57 PM T h e M eanings of H o o s i e r allegedly contrived from such phonetic became generally accepted. Like Nichol- poem the word “no longer designated a corruptions as “Husher” (the victors of son, he considered such fanciful origins as rough, uncouth backwoodsman, but a riverboat brawls or other demonstrators “Husher,” “Hussar,” and “Who’s yere?” to self-reliant man who was able to subdue of personal strength), a Louisville baker have little or no credibility. After recount- the wilderness, defend his home, and com- named Hoosier (but also noting an 1830 ing that James Whitcomb Riley (who had mand the respect of his neighbors.” Dunn Cincinnati reference to a gingerbread), designated Finley “The Hoosier Poet”) theorized about the “Southern” version’s a local “Who’s here?” expression uttered humorously offered “Who’s ear?” as his probable linguistic roots, tracing it to an to hail strangers at a cabin door, and own satirical counter to the other outland- Anglo-Saxon “hoo” associated with high “Hussar” (a light cavalryman common to ish theories of the time, Dunn debunked ground, and thence morphing into an old European armies, not to be confused with the similarly unfounded allegations of Cumberland English dialect term “Hooz- shock cavalry; this alleged source also was “Hoosier’s men” (construction workers), a er” used to describe something unusually a man who arrived after Finley’s poem Louisville baker’s “Hoosier” bread, “Hus- large or even hill dwellers. Its flow from appeared). sar,” Native American “Hoosa,” (maize), American Colonial southern coastal to hill It fell to the Indiana Historical “Hoosieroon” (apocryphal Spanish deriva- country as common banter seemed quite Society’s own Dunn, in his The Word tion; Finley coined the term to refer to a logical to him. Moreover, most of Indiana’s Hoosier (1907), to provide what remains child), “Huzur” (Indian Hindu term by initial settlers (especially in southern and one of the most extensive studies of this way of England), and the Revolutionary southeastern Indiana where the term was question—and just as importantly many War exclamation “huzza!” most noticed) migrated from or had their primary sources then available. Refer- The Indiana historian concluded by own origins in these same southern states. encing Nicholson and other numerous pointing the Indiana origins of the word Most authors since Dunn have es- opinions since the 1830s that had cre- itself toward the commonly used southern sentially returned to his thorough study. ated uncertainty about the word with “a expression for people considered rustic, Ronald Baker’s From Needmore to Prosper- notable lack of any satisfactory results,” rough class, backwoods, uncouth, or coun- ity: Hoosier Place Names in Folklore and Dunn examined the popular opinions and try. Unlike Nicholson’s bemoaning this History (1995) remains one of the best re- actual evidence and effectively concluded appellation, Dunn was quick to point out cent examples. Baker provided an overview that many theories were simply based on that its adoption in Indiana was in spite of the past searches by Dunn, Nicholson, false assumptions of fact. He determined of its prior meanings and taken on with a and others for the origination and mean- that Finley’s poem was drafted well before humorous spirit at a time when westerners ings of Hoosier, while also highlighting the its publication and that it was a sepa- (today’s Midwest) were fond of adopting folklore and legendary aspects that have rate “Carrier’s Address” document that state nicknames, and that the “double- been attached to the term. He attributed accompanied the January 1, 1833, issue sense” meaning was essentially gone by the much of the latter phenomenon (and its of the Indianapolis Journal (Dunn could late 1830s. Wrigley also affirmed the no- attendant double-sense meaning of the not locate a surviving copy, nor have any tion that when her father wrote his famous word long after its adoption by residents of surfaced in the past hundred years). He also found that the initial version used the word Hoosher as Finley had heard it The Indiana historian concluded by spoken for several years and that the poet certainly did not create the word. He reprinted the entire poem from a version pointing the Indiana origins of the then owned by Finley’s daughter, Sarah Wrigley (who later donated it to the Indi- word itself toward the commonly ana State Library, where it can no longer be found). used southern expression for people Dunn also provided and substanti- ated a number of primary sources wherein considered rustic, rough class, back- “Hoosher” and “Hoosier” both appeared in the early decades of statehood as it woods, uncouth, or country. 6 I TRACES I Fall 2008 0265-08 Traces-Body.indd 6 11/13/08 4:02:58 PM T h e M eanings of H o o s i e r Indiana) to mid- to late- nineteenth-cen- tury East Coast hack writers and so-called almanacs more concerned with creating colorful characters to ridicule and contrast with the supposedly culturally superior Yankees. He agreed with most of Dunn’s dismissals of the more humorous theories INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY and the term’s obvious southern origins, but he considered the Ohio River boatmen and related “husher” appellation in the sense of a ruffian to also have merit. In the June 2007 issue of the Indiana Magazine of History, Jonathan Clark Smith examined and updated the boatmen appellation in great detail. A reexamination of many of the original expressions of the words “Hoosher” and “Hoosier,” both known and unknown to Dunn and others, is nonetheless illuminating. One of the earliest known references recorded in private correspondence was well-established for several years. reproduced by Sandford Cox in his Recol- Dunn noted the regional fondness for lections . of the Wabash Valley (1860). A nicknames at this time, often accepted July 14, 1827, incident that was actually with humor, and he mentioned an a practical joke played on local residents 1830 Cincinnati account by a Rev- about a (fictional) Indian raid on frontier erend T. A. Goodwin who described Indiana was recounted in part as: “The a gingerbread favored by Indiana squatter, who fabricated the story and per- residents as “Hoosier-bait” (which petuated the false alarm, took a circuitous term would later appear in Finley’s route and returned home that evening; poem). and while others were busy building tem- George L. Murdock of Cincinnati of- porary block houses, and rubbing up their fered a complimentary, if honorific, use of Sheet music for the songs “Hello Hoosier guns to meet the Indians, he was quietly the term when he sent a business proposi- Town,” written by Edwin S.

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