The Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1???-1928, 1906-07-16
The Origin
Of HooSier"

story of the origin OF the name
"Hoosier' perhaps the true one, was
told the other day, in the white wiz
, ter of his age b. John S. Stockwell
the oldest inhabitant OF Charlestown,
Ind, and a former sheriff of Clark
county Mr. Stockwell was born near
Charlestown in 1914. Though "a
years old he has a vast fund of pic
, neer "reminiscences. which he recounts
entertainingly, but the story Of the
origin of the Hooser name he had not
: told for years,
The other day Mr.. Stockwel met
Carl Brayfied, editor of the Clark
County Citizen, on Main street, and a
happy thought struck him.
did you ever hear how the name
Hoosier originated" he asked,
I've heard several explanation
was the reply, but none Is satisfac-
tory"
Then | will tell you the true sto-|
ry, said the Old man, seating himself
before butcher shop, where a chair
always invites the loiterer.
THE word is corruption Of the
/ HooSlerlsm huSher.
THE incident that gave the state
its nickname" continued Mr. Stock
we'll happened at the digging Of the
| Portland canal around the falls of the
/ Ohio at Louisville. The date was.
/ 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 Indi-
anians from Clark county took a sub
/ contract to dig the canal The Tndi
anians lived together in a separate
/ camp and several other companies of
\ laborers had their camps near by.
"Of course. there was plenty of liz /
nor in the Kentucky camp. One day
a big Kentuckian got jubilantly drunk /
aad started to clean out the Indiana /
crowd. lie posted himself before the I
Clark county camp like Goliath of old. /
shouting tauntingly THAI he was the /
best man there.
81 am from Lexington, yelled the
big fellow where the women are the
sweetest and the horses are the feet
est and the whisky is competest Of
any tIGNE III tiF uulNEt5t dAit A4tEit
the lie always calls for a blow I
stand up before this whole camp and
call the d. lie! I'll fight the first
man that takes it upl"
"Then out from the Indiana camp
strobe a man whose name I've forgot
ten. 1t Is a pity it is, for he ought
to have a skyscraping monument. He
was six feet high and Of the good old
stock that smashed the Prophet of
Tippecanoe and took Kaskasia and
Vincennes from the British. His
words were few, but Ia knew how
TO do things.
"'YcA hush said the Inlianian
simply, as ne stepped out from mis-
companions.
81 call the d--n lie, cried the Ken
tuckian once more.
"'You hush, said the Clark county
man again; you hush ANA go away
But the big man did not hush. Then
the Indiana man sailed in and gave
him a terrific thrashing The Ken
tuGkian was mauled black and blue,
and finally begged for mercy The vic ,
tor allowed him TO rise and the com
batants retired to their separate quar- ,
tiers.
"'You wiped up the earth with ,
him. said one of the Hoosier friends
on the champions return to the camp. ,
Yes was the reply, 4 made him
hush. I'm a husher
"The story got abroad in the camp,
and soon the Indianians were all
known as 'Hushers about the falls.
The name was scattered everywhere,
and people who did not know how
the term originated corrupted it to
When he had heard the story John
Carr, the butcher, recalled that his IA
Their Col Thomas Carr an early
sheriff of Clark county, had told him i,
the same story in his boyhood. Both /,
he and Carl Brayfeld, whose father
was for many years chief Of the assoc
ciate bench OF the Vincennes district :
under the old constitution. remember y
that the word "Husher." meaning one =
who could silence those who annoyed
him by force. was current all over
In Indiana With the spread OF educa-
ton the old dialect began TO pass ,
away. and the word "Husher" became =
corrupted into Hoosier. But the name Il
10 which It gave birth fastened itself 6
10 the state with bonds more lasting y
than brass. II survived a famous It
rame when the word from which it
derives its origin was rescued. as it p
we're. by the skin Of the teeth, from q
he unbreakable silence OF the grave +
A few years more and the word
'husher" would have been hushed for oil
sver
b,
Sunday Dyspepsia.