The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-06-26
Special Dispatch to the Cincinnati El

QuHtT
 N HARLESTOWN, INDIA story of S the origin of the name ''Hoosier," |" O perhaps the true one, was told yesterday, lin the white winter of his age," by John s. Stockwell the oldest inhabitant of this place and former sheriff of Clark county. MT. Stockwell was born near Charlestown in 1874 Though 94 years old he has a vast fund of pioneer reminiscence which he re- counts entertainingly. but the story of the origin of the Hoosier name he had not told for years. The story has never been published.
 Yesterday MT. Stockwell met Carl Bray field editor of the Clark County Citizen, on Main street, and happy thought struck him.
 Did you ever hear how the name Hoosier originated?" he asked
 i've heard several explanations. was the reply but none is satisfactory
 Then I will tell you the true story,' said the old man, seating himself before John B. Carr's butcher shop, where Q chair always invites the loiterer
 '"The word Is a corruption of the Hoos- ierism 'husher
 "The incident that gave the state its nickname" continued Mir. Stockwell, happened at the digging of the Portland canal around the falls of the Ohio at Louisville. The date was. 1 believe. about 1920, and the tale was told me by William Coombs, who was leading citizen of this town In his day. He said that a gang of Indianans from Clark county took a sub-contract to dig the canal. The Indianians lived together in a separate camp and several other companies of la borers had their camps near by.
 "Of course. there was plenty of liquor in the Kentucky camp. One day big Kentuckian got jubilantly drunk and started to clean out the Indiana crowd. He posted himself before the Clark coun- ty camp like Goliath of old, shouting tauntingly that he was the best man there.
 " T am from Lexington yelled the big fellow, where the women are the sweet est and the horses are the fastest and the whisky is completest of any place in the universe and where the lie always calls for blow. I stand up before this whole 1 camp and call the d. lie! I'll fight the first man that takes 1t up!'
 "Then out from the Indiana camp strode man whose name I've forgotten It Is a pity 1t Is, for he ought to have a sky scraping monument. He was six feet high and of the good old stock that smashed the prophet at Tippecanoe and took Kaskasia and Vincennes from the British His words were few, but he knew how to do things.
 "'You husfl said the Indianian simply, as he stepped out from his companions.
 "I call the d-n lie.'' cried the Ken tuckian once more.
 "'You hush, said the Clark county man again; you hush and go away But the big man did not hush. Then the 1n- diana man sailed in and gave him ter rife thrashing. The Kentuckian was mauled black and blue. and finally begged for mercy. The victor allowed him to rise and the combatants retired to their sepa- rate quarters.
 "'You wiped up the earth with him. said one of the Hoosier's friends on the champions return to the camp.
 "'Yes, was the reply I made him hush. I'm a husher
 ''The story got abroad in the camp, and soon the Indianians were all known as sHushers about the falls. The name was scattered everywhere, and people who dld not know how the term originated cor rupted it to Hoosier.''
 | When he had heard the story' John Carr, the butcher, recalled that h's father l Col Thomas Carr, early sheriff of | Clark county, had told him the same | story in his boyhood. Both he and Carl Brayfield, whose father was for many years chief of the associate bench of the vincennes district under the old consti- tuition. remember that the word Hush 1 er.r meaning one who could silence those who annoyed him by force. was current all over Indiana. With the spread of edu- l cation the old dialect began to pass away l and the word "Husher'' became corrupted into Hoosier., But the name to which il