The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1907-06-13
ORIGIN Of THE
WORD ''HOOSIER"
And Its Application to the Residents
OF the State Of Indiana.

historical searchlight on the ques-
ton Of the origin of the wof
"Hoos1er, says the Indianapolis,
News, and in an interesting paper
read before the Indiana historical
society land just published by the
society, thoroughly exhausts the
theme. Nearly all of the theories
that have been advanced on the
subject, such as the Who's here?"
the Husar," &C., have been fam
tastic and unsupported by substan-
tial evidence or reason. Mr.. Dunn
very properly attaches no credence
to any of them. After careful in
vestigation and collection of early
authorities, he concludes that the
word was first put in print by John
Finley in his poem, The Hoosier's
Nest" published January I, 1888.
This is probably true, though it
may have been used with a local
application in some southern pa
pers before that. The evidence
shows beyond doubt that the word
IS of old English origin and was in
common use in the south to indi
cate rough, uncouth countryman
from any locality before it was ap-
piled distinctively to Indiana or
its citizens. 1t probably was ap-
piled derisively to Indianians be.
fore Finleyappropriated it and made
1t classic. The fact that it came
into general use within less than a
year after the publication of his
verses indicates that it may al
ready have become a distinctive
appellation of Indiana when he
wrote. Mr.. Dunn presents sever
al examples OF its newspaper use
as applied to Indiana within a
year or 50 after the application of
poem; but here is one he overlook
ed. Niles Register of December
%, 1883, less than year after the
publication of the poem, said:
The Hoosier-A new paper with
this title has lately commenced, i.
Greencastle, Ind, by J. B. Ray,
late governor of that state. The
following account of the origin of
the term which forms the some
what eccentric title of the news
paper, and which is now in fire.
quent use to designate the citizens
OF the state, we find in the Pitts
burg Statesman: "Hoosier-the
Hoosier State. The good citizens
OF our sister state of Indiana have
been called Hoosiers for some time
past at home and abroad, some
times honorably and sometimes
the reverse. As the term has be-
come general it is high time that
its origin and definition should be
as generally known. Before that
section of the public lands was
regularly surveyed, many families
located and were called squatters.
The surveyors on finding one of
these would ask, Who's here?'
and place the name on their map.
The question became familiar that
on the exclamation of another
Who's here?' became equally so
until it eventuated in the general
term of Hoosier."
The theory here presented as to
the origin of the word Hoosier is
fanciful and altogether improbable,
but the publication of the article
in Niles Register published at
Baltimore) of December %, 1888,
copied from a Pittsburg paper of
previous date, shows that the
word was already then in pretty
general use. In fact, the article
says, the words "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 In
diana and her people before Finley
used it. But the origin and ETY.
mology 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