Comments on: Hoosier

By: Gabriel Canada

Gabriel Canada — Sun, 28 Nov 2004 22:51:03 +0000

I doubt very much that St. Louis holds James Whitcomb Riley in High regard. You should. As well as authors Like Booth Tarkington hat followed him. Riley though best known as a childrenâ??s poet he also proved a point early in his career that paved the way for entire generations of Midwestern authors. He faked an Edgar Allen Poe Poem and sent it to an eastern newspaper. It was published and believed to be one of his best. But when they revealed the hoax people still believed that it was an original Poe poem because it was considered too good to have been written by a western author. Some new York newspapers went as far as saying â??Faking a poem is one thing but to create and entire fictions city of Kokomo Indiana now that is ridiculous.â?
This exposed eastern bias towards western writers and changed the worldâ??s perception of them. He and many other Hoosier authors showed the world that our plains, prairies, and people were all our won. We were a new nation with splendors all our own.
Tarkington helped authors in another way. He helped expose the over the transom attitude of editors in the east for publishing. This is an attitude that is now very much still alive but he helped to show that it was foolish. His first book the Gentleman from Indiana was an amazing success. When first proposed to the editor of the newspaper it was serialized in it wasnâ??t even read. When Mr. Tarkingtonâ??s sister finally convinced him to read it and publish it the newspaperâ??s circulation increased by five times.
These hardly seem the actions of unintelligent or unskilled people. Yet they were Hoosier to the core. They wrote constantly of Hoosier life and their writing was some of the most beloved of their time. I could name other important Hoosier figures but it would take too much time. There is a significant impact that we have brought about for the good of this country and region but one of the values that Hoosiers seem to hold and that many otherâ??s donâ??t is humility.

By: Hoosier Truth

Hoosier Truth — Tue, 20 Jul 2004 21:02:36 +0000

Two final points — when you contact your British lexicographer don’t forget to check out THE JACOB P DUNN FABRICATED WORD “HOOZER” too. You will find that to be blarney as well.

Regarding Harry Hosier (btw Harry never spelled his last name as “HOOSIER” only Prof William Pierson attempted that ploy in an Indiana History Mag/Rag). Harry always called himself a Hosier — but after dodging 171 years of facts why should Indiana bother now??

Anyway “Black Harry” as he was called, never preached anywhere as far west as Morgantown, WV (& never in Indiana), he died in 1807 of alcohol related illnesses as other states were being formed like Ohio. He also was very reluctant to preach in the south because of slavery and yet most inhabitants of Indiana are chronicled to have come from the south & North Carolina in OVERWHELMING NUMBERS!! (check out the Greg Rose Indiana Migration study). So yea Harry has no connection to Indiana, not around in the timeframe of statehood, and DID NOT INFLUENCE the people who would move to Indiana but “Jamie” Madison claims “Harry did it” (HE’S A REAL “HOOSIER HISTORIAN” — USE THE ORIGINAL MEANING PLEASE)

Has James Madison done any REAL research or is he just spewing more parlor game bilge? Remember James Madison is the leading proponent of “WE WILL NEVER KNOW THE REAL HOOSIER ANSWER”. If he is Indiana’s best expert — it will be another 1000 years before Hoosiers get a clue.

I am laughing so hard I need a hanky to remove the tears from my eyes.

Go Dave Berry and Go Missouri — YOU GOT “HOOSIER” RIGHT.

By: Hoosier Truth

Hoosier Truth — Tue, 20 Jul 2004 20:34:13 +0000

Everything about Hoosier — the why it became a disparaging word in the 18th century, how it becomes connected to Indiana — et all — has already been published in April of 1999 in an IU Linguistics Journal called “The Nickname Hoosier and Its Ethnohistoric Backgroundâ? Eurasian Studies Yearbook 1999 Vol 71, pg 224: Bloomington, Ind., Eurolingua, April 1999.

Missouri, being settled / pioneered around the same time as Indiana by the same type of folks (migrating NC germans) know the original use of Hoosier from their former home of NORTH Carolina.

North Carolina was the original “HOOSIER” state — at least that is where it started. AAAH but how many languages can most Hoosiers speak??

Hoosier originally meant ill-mannered rustics, awkward and to botch a job. But how long can Indiana intellectuals (not to mention friends of Indiana) possibly expect to BOTCH the job of defining your moniker???

I think Missouri (and Dave Berry) treats Indiana with all the respect they truthfully deserve after a 171 year debacle of trying to find out the nature of YOUR MONIKER. Not to mention all the flat out lying done by Jacob P. Dunn. HOOSIER HAS NEVER EXISTED AS an Oxford English word — Call any Oxford English lexicographer (call the Cumberland of England TOO).

But now if you go look in Random House’s Early American Slang (pre-Websters by about 100 years) BINGO!

Hoosier is an American WORD — PERIOD and regretably a disparaging one at least early on in 18th Century America.

Try the URL above and get this off your list of things to do.

As Capt Kirk once said to Khan in a Star Trek movie “We are laughing at your superior intellect (Indiana).”

Don’t “Hoosier” this moniker anymore. It makes the rest of us in the heartland of America wonder if a “Hoosier Historian” is actually an oxymoron???

If you forget the URL, go to Google and type in “Hoosier Theory” using quotes. The URL above is the first site listed and first in Hoosier truth.

However I must admit this assumes modern Hoosiers can use a computer.

Really Agitate People — Tell them the TRUTH!! The Truth Detector

By: Hoosier

Hoosier — Thu, 29 Apr 2004 01:02:34 +0000

WTF? Born and raised in Indiana, and I have never heard about this little twist on the nickname.

;)~
Hoosier.

By: paul

paul — Sun, 18 Apr 2004 23:34:11 +0000

I found this article to be very entertaining. Hoosier is to a St. Louisian, as the city dump is to art. And this must mean I’m a hoosier too. Rock on – South side! (circa 1987)
We love white castles, Cardinals and beer. Not neccessarily in that order. Oh, and don’t tell me you never went dumpster diving.

By: kurt

kurt — Tue, 02 Dec 2003 00:43:54 +0000

see below

By: Becky

Becky — Wed, 26 Nov 2003 06:00:34 +0000

I grew up in St. Louis and have been around the world and I have found that no one outside of St. Louis has a clue of what a Hoosier is. I tell my kids, like my Mom told me, that if their clothes don’t match that they’ll look like a Hoosier. Funny story: my Father-in-law, who grew up in Chicago, when he met my Dad, who grew up in St. Louis.. My father-in-law said “aren’t hoosier’s from Missouri”, my Dad about came out of his chair. I’ll never know if my father-in-law knew he had insulted my Dad, but I intervened and said “Indiana is the Hooiser state, not Missouri”.

By: Mark

Mark — Thu, 13 Nov 2003 20:20:42 +0000

As a native St. Louisan, I must say that the word “Hoosier” is entrenched in our vernacular from (almost) the moment we can speak. When I was very young, and would try to dress myself in mismatched clothing, my mother would tell me that I wasn’t going out dressed like the “town hoosier.” This expression came from her mother, and so on up the line.

Hoosier is such a fantastic word — so encompassing, so direct. There really isn’t another word like it. Ask any St. Louisan — being asked to not use the word “hoosier” would be like giving up our Cardinals. It just ain’t gonna happen.

By: pmarie

pmarie — Tue, 10 Jun 2003 08:00:51 +0000

I’m sorry, but I just love the word “Hoosier” as used in the St. Louis sense. Now that I live far away, I am immensely entertained by the fact that people outside St. Louis have no idea what the word “hoosier” means for me. My family used the word hoosier so often they actually amended the word grammatically! I have many a fond memory of my mother screaming off the back porch (admittedly a hoosier herself) at the kids (all part of one big hoosier family): “You little hoosiers get back in here & get your shoes on!” Or my father (the King of Hoosiers) would scream at our delapidated house during rennovation “who the hell hoosierfied this damn thing?”

I can’t help it. I find it totally hysterical & try to spread the word and concept wherever I go! Sometimes there just isn’t another word to replace it!

By: Jeff

Jeff — Thu, 23 Jan 2003 16:01:29 +0000

Nice article, jerk.
Did you know that Indiana is home to the worlds largest KKK chapter? Are you aware that Indiana is primarily an agricultural state, whereas Kentucky’s economy is split between industry(coal) and agriculture(tobacco)? Are you aware of the irony in writing an article that complains about the way the rest of the country sees your backward state, then disparaging your neighbors in the same article? You, sir, have proven yourself to be a Hoosier in the truest sense of the word, the St. Louis sense. Really, what other group of people is slow enough to take an insult and turn it into a symbol of state pride? I guess by your logic (and opinion of kentuckians) we should take to calling ourselves the Kentucky Rednecks, have the Redneck Lotto, build the RedneckDome, host a car race called the Redneck500, etc? Give me a break.

By: Danny

Danny — Tue, 21 Jan 2003 10:34:51 +0000

In Indiana, 4th grade presents elementary students with Indiana History, and I remember my teacher that year confidently informing the class of her definition of Hoosier (allegedly supported by historical fact).
Her definition derived from the theory that 19th century Hoosiers would take flatboats down the Wabash and Ohio, then the Mississippi, on in to New Orleans to push their grain and other agricultural goods. On the Mississippi, the pre-dawn and dawn hours were often blindingly foggy, and flatboat pilots would decipher one another’s location by shouting “Who’s aire..?”
The flatboaters from other states and regions supposedly quickly came to call Indiana natives “Hoosier” in jesting reference to their distinctive river calls.
I always thought it made historical, sense, even if specific tangible evidence hadn’t been shown to support the theory. Anyway, that’s how I heard it.

By: Eric

Eric — Tue, 21 Jan 2003 01:54:40 +0000

I’m a native St. Louisan and grew up knowing Hoosier only by its St. Louis definition. I remember when the movie Hoosiers came out, we made so much fun of the title, and none of our friends saw it.

And when I was in college in Indiana, hearing commercials with politicians hyping their “hoosier values” and seeing signs for the “Hoosier Lotto” cracked me up.

It wasn’t until college that I learned that people in St. Louis were the only ones that thought hoosier was a derogatory term.

I always wondered where that came from. Now I can say I know. Maybe.

Incidentally, hoosier is a very handy term, and I have found that there is no comparable word that I can use now that I am living away from St. Louis.

By: m.a.

m.a. — Mon, 20 Jan 2003 18:26:59 +0000

how is it that we know the tooth brush was invented in kentucky? if it were invented anywhere else, it would have been called the teeth brush.