Show d Y The Origin cl U Hoosier A story of tho origin of the nave Hoosier perhaps the true one was told tho other day In the white winter win-ter of his age by John B Stackwell Urn oldest Inhabitant of Chartestown InJ and a former sheriff of Clark county Mr Stockwoll was born near Chnrlcslown In 1811 Though 94 years old ho has a vast fund of plo nror reminiscences which ho recounts entertainingly but the story of tho origin of the Hoosier name ho had not told for years Tho other day Mr Stockwoll met Carl Urayflold editor of the Clark bounty CItizen on Main street and a happy thought struck him i Did you over hear how tho name i Haoslcr originated ho asked I Ive heard several explanations was tho reply but none Is satisfactory satisfac-tory Then I will tell you tho true story sto-ry said the old man seating himself before a butcher shop where a chair always Invites tho loiterer I Tho word IB a corruption of tho llooslerlsin husher The Incident that gave tho state Its nickname continued Mr Stock well happened at tho digging of the Portland carnal around tho falls of tho Ohio at Louisville Tho date was i believe about 1820 and tho tale was told mo by William Coombs who wasH was-H leading citizen ot this town In his day Ha said that a gang of Indl nnlans from Clark county took a subcontract sub-contract to dig tho canal Tho Indl unlans lived together In n separate camp and several other companies ot laborers had their camps near by Of course there was plenty of liquor liq-uor In tho Kentucky camp One day fi big Kcntucklan got Jubilantly drunk and started to clean out tho Indiana crowd Ho posted himself before the Clark county camp Ilka Goliath of old shouting tauntingly that ho was tha best man there I am from Lexington yelled the big fellow where tho women ore tho jiwectcst and tho horses arc tho fleetest fleet-est and tho whisky is complotest of any place In tho universe and whero tho lie always calls for a blow I stand up beforo this wholo camp and call tho d Ho Ill fight tho first man that takes it up Then out from the Indiana camp strode a man whoso namo Ive forgotten forgot-ten It Is a pity It Is for ho ought lo havo a skyscraping monument Ho was six feet high and of the good old stock that smashed tho Prophet of Tlppecnnoo anti took Kaskasla and Vlncennea from tho British Ills words were few but ho knew how to do things You hush said tho Indlantan simply as ho stopped out from his companions I call the IIn Ho cried the Ken tu del jm onco more You hush said tho Clark county man again you hush and go away But tho big man did not hush Then tho Indiana man sailed In and gavo him a terrific thrashing Tho Ken tucklan was mauled black and blue and finally begged for mercy Tho victor vic-tor allowed him to rise and the combatants com-batants l retired to their separate auar tern You wiped up tho earth with him said one of tho Hoosier friends ad the champions return to tho camp I < Yes was the reply I made him hush Im a husher Tho story got abroad in tho camp and soon the Indianians wero nil known as Hushcrs about tho falls The name was scattered everywhere and people who did not know how the term originated corrupted It to Ilooslcr When ho had heard tho story John Carr tho butcher recalled that his father fa-ther Col Thomas Carr an early sheriff of Clark county had told him tho same story in his boyhood Both ho and Carl Brayfleld whose father was for many years chief of tho asso clato bench of tho Vlncennes district under tho old constitution romemboj that tho word Huslior meaning one who could silence those who annoyed him by force was current all over In Indiana With the spread of education educa-tion tho old dialect began to pass away nnd the word Husher became corrupted Into Hoosier But tho name to which It gave birth fastened Itselt to the state with lands more lasting than brass It survived n famous namo when tho word from which It derives Its origin was rescued as it were by tho skin of tho teeth from the unbreakable silence of the grave A few years more and tho word husher would have been hushed forever for-ever |