The Washington herald., 1907-06-02
ORIGIN OF WORD "HOOSIER."
How Indiana Came to Be So Called
Remains Mystery.

Jacob p. Dunn has turned his historical
searchlight on the question Of the origin
NJ the word "Hoosier" Says the Indian
arolis News and i'm an interesting paper
read before the Indiana historical society
@ud just published by the societvl,
thoroughly eNhausts the theme. Nearly
all OF the theories that have been ad-
yauced on the subject. SUCH as the
who's here?" the "Hussar." sc. have
been fantastic and unsupported by sub
s,auual evidence OF vcJs0n. MI Dunn
very properly attaches no credeuce To- any
Of them. After careful investigation and
collection of early authorities he CON
cIudes that the word was first put fu
print hy John Finley in his poem, The
Hp0sier's Nest" published January ].
l>& This is probably true. though it may
have been used with "a local application
bon some southern papers before that
The evidence shows beyond doubt that
the word is Of Old English origin and YVES
in common use in the South to indicate
rough. uue0Uth comtTymau from any
locality before il was applied distinCtiyely
fD Indiana or its citizens. 10 probably was
l.4.4.Il LI-.H TLN |'' llL'tIHtllNliH h'lflf
Finley appropriated it and made it classic.
The fact that it came into general use
within less than year after the pgbIi-
cation Of his verses indicates that it may
already have become a distinctive appelia-
ti0u of Indiana when he wrote Mr. Dunn
presents several examples of its news
paper use as applied to Indiana within
a year or so after the publication of the
s. I..
Niles Register Of December y 1888, less
than a year after the publication of the
poem, said.
The hoo~i-r-A new paper with this title has
lately commenced iu Gregucastle, Ind, ly J. B.
Ray Iat, governor of That state. The following ar-
count 0f the origin - the term which forms tbe
somewhat tCetutrir title Of the newspaper and which
is now ia frequent usa % designate the citizens Of
the state. We find IN the rittsbWg Statesman:
Ho1ssr-the Hoosi5r State The good citizens Of
our sister state of Indiana have b.5u called Horscrs
for some time past at home and abroad. sometimes
honcuby and sometimes the reverse. As the term
has become general % is high time that ITS origin
and definition should b. as generally known. Before
that section Of the public lands regularly survey
Cd many families located and were called sluatters.
The surveyors on finding one Of these would ask,
Who's here. and place the name on their map
Tie question became 50 familiar that on the INST
view Of the smoke Of a cabin the exclamation of
another Who's hercE became equally SD until u
TCHtJated IN the general term of Hoosier'
The theory here presented as TO the
origin Of the word Hoosier is fanciful and
improbable, but the publication
Of the article in Niles Register pub
lished at BALTIMORE Of December 2S. 1893.
copied from a Pittsburg paper of a pre-
yious date, shows that the word was al
ready then i'm Pretty general use. In fact.
the article says, the word is in frequent
use" and that citizens Of Indiana have
been called Hoosiers for some time past,
at home and abroad
This rather indicates that the word was
specially attached to Indiana and her
people before Finley used IT, But the
origin and etymology of the word remain
as much a mystery as ever. except that
it was in common use from an early day
in some parts of the South to signify "a
rough or uncouth person. No matter
where it originated or what it may have
meant once. the people of Indiana have
made it an honorable appellation.