The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1886-01-21
Origin OF Yankee Doodle.

Yankee Doodle was the theme of an
interesting paper read by Mr. George H.
Moore, IL. D., before the New York His
torical Society recently. The subject,
said Mr.. Moore, naturally divides itself
into two parts; first, rs to the origin Of
Yankee, anu, second, concerning the
time with which the word is indissolRbly
linked, Gordon, writing in 1775, says
Yankee was the favorite word of one
| Jonathan Hastings, living in Cambridge
in l7I3, and. used as a term of excel
leaee. Ehe students at Harvard thus be-
came acquainted with it and linking it
with Hastings, from whom they hired
horses. it Became a byword and was
scattered over the country. There is
little or no authority 10 rest this stale
ment of the origin upon. The first reg
istered Yankee was one William Marr, a
slave in the Carolinas, who in an stlver-
tisement in a small English paper in 1725
is thus called" Mr.. Moore then passed
over in rapid succession the various sup
posed Indian derivatives of the word, in
Guiding that in Irving's History of New
York. F" ana the hitherto accepted author
ity of the Moravian missionary in Penn
sylyania that it was a corruption of YEN
geese, the Indian phonetic spelling of En-
glish, and continued:
The word is not Indian or Greek, but
is pure Dutch, expressive of contempt,
and probably the most so in the vocabu-
larry of the early New York Dutch; Yam
kin meant in that dialect to grumble,
snarl or yelp, and its derivative noun
Yanker meant howling cur. 1t was
not in use save among the lower classes,
for reasons which now shut out slang
| from use by educated people, but it was
weli-known word. In the collisions
between the New Englanders and the
| New York Dutch bad blood was aroused,
and the New Englanders despised the
| Dutch, while the latter abominated the
former, and both very fervidly. Hence
| the use of the word to indicate the con-
| tempt which existed. Every circum-
J stance points to its birth in the collisions
between the Dutch and the colonist To
| this day the Yankees are looked upon
with distrust by the remnants of the real
| Dutchmen now outside New England.
The word was wei known before the
| tune" continued Mr.. Moore, '.but the
latter unquestionably came from En-
| gland, despite the assertions that it is a
well known Netherland peasant song,
| or that KoSsuth, when here, recognized
| it as Hungarian dance, or that it is
| known as the ancient sword dance of the
| Biscayans. The words and tune were
undoubtedly first welded together by Dr.
| Richard Shuckberg, who was connected
| with the British army when the colonial
| troops from New England marched into
camp at Albany TO join the British reg
| ulars on the way to fight the French.
| The doctor knew of the tune as Fisher s
| jig of which q verse ran:
! Lucy LCcket lost her pocket,
Lydia Fisher found it, etc.
| The appearance of the troops called
| down the derision of the British officers,
and soon the hit of the doctor became
| known throughout the army as a method
of showing the contempt for the colo
malls, and this continued until after Lex
ington, the British troops leaving in 1775,
when they tarred and feathered one
Thomas Ditson in Boston, marching to
the tune, as the best known way of heap
ing contempt on the Yankees. This was
| changed at Lexington. when the British
commander was asked how he liked the
| tune and answered. How they did
make us dance to it, Doodle" Mr.
Moore said, always meant triiler. and
| Is thus referred to in the Lancashire
| hornpipe, written in 1862"
He closed his paper by relating the
| incident AZ the surrender of CORVALLIS
when the British, not wishing to sur
render to the despised c0lonials, turned
to the French contingent and prepared
to ground their arms. Seeing this Lafa-
yette ordered the French bands to play
Yankee Doodle" and to this tune the
arms were laid down and the revolution
| ended