Nicknames of the States (in the 1800s)

 

1884 Map of Nicknames of the States

(Click to enlarge)

The Tennessee Whelps?

I was fiddling around, trying to find out who Bays of Bays Mountain was – never found out - and I came across a Milwaukee Sentinel and Herald story from 1843 about state nicknames.

Now realize in 1843 there weren’t 50 states. Florida and Wisconsin were both listed as “territories.”

And the nicknames weren’t always the ones we know today.

The story said, “As every State in the Union, except Alabama, has in addition to its regular name as baptized for history, a more characteristic designation for every-day use, and as these work-day names very often used, are not in all cases understood, we copy the following list, for the benefit of such as are not familiar with them.”

There followed a list of two dozen nicknames.

Okay, many are familiar today, 170 years later.

Massachusetts then and now was the Bay State.

Likewise for New Hampshire the Granite State, New York the Empire State, Pennsylvania the Keystone State and Virginia the Old Dominion State.

But Tennessee wasn’t listed as the Volunteer State, even though the article was published three decades after the War of 1812, when so many Tennessee boys “volunteered.”

In 1843 Tennessee was the Lion’s Den.

The Huh?

There is no explanation. It’s just a list.

I tried finding out. The best I could come up with was on the official Tennessee website, “J.C. Thomas refers to Tennessee as the Lion’s Den State on page 22 of Manual of Useful Information published by the Werner Company in 1893. Mr. Thomas does not give any background. George Earlie Shankle suggests in State Names, Flags, Seals, Songs, Birds, Flowers and Other Symbols (1934) that ‘Probably its origin and application to this State are in some way connected with the life and activities of Andrew Jackson.’”

Hey, it could be a lot worse.

Kentucky was the Corn-cracker State because of its superior production of Indian Corn. Bluegrass State was in the future.

North Carolina was the Rip Van Winkle State.

Illinois was the Suckers State. You can fill in your own punch line.

There were a few oddities. Delaware’s nickname was Little Delaware. Huh?

New Jersey was known as Jersey Blues.

Most unfortunate of all were Arkansas and Missouri.

Arkansas was listed as the Tooth-Pickers State.

And Missouri was the Pukes State.

 

I should have quit while I was ahead. But in my quest to find out why we were called the Lion’s Den, I uncovered another list of state nicknames, this one from 1889.

Can you imagine 102,000 in Neyland Stadium cheering as the team took the field: “Go Whelps!” That was Tennessee’s nickname in the 1889 list, the Tennessee Whelps. A whelp is a puppy.

The list comes from the 1889 edition of the book “American Notes and Queries: A Medium of Intercommunication for Literary Men, General Readers, Etc.”

My favorites:

Florida Fly-Up-The Creeks

Georgia Buzzards

Maryland Craw-Thumpers

Nebraska Bug Eaters

Texas Beet Heads

And, hello former University of South Carolina football coach Steve Spurrier…the South Carolina Weasels.

The complete list:

Alabama Lizards; Arkansas Toothpicks; California Gold Hunters; Colorado Rovers; Connecticut Wooden Nutmegs; Delaware Muskrats ; Florida Fly-Up-The Creeks; Georgia Buzzards; Illinois Suckers; Indiana Hoosiers; Iowa Hawkeyes; Kansas Jayhawkers; Kentucky Corn Crackers; Louisiana Creoles; Maine Foxes; Maryland Craw-Thumpers; Michigan Wolverines; Minnesota Gophers; Mississippi Tadpoles; Missouri Pukes; Nebraska Bug Eaters; Nevada Sage Hens; New Hampshire Granite Boys; New Jersey Blues or Clam Catchers; New York Knickerbockers; North Carolina Tar Heels; Ohio Buckeyes; Oregon Web Feet; Pennsylvania Pennenites or Leatherheads; Rhode Island Gun Flints; South Carolina Weasels; Tennessee; Whelps; Texas Beet Heads; Vermont Green Mountain Boys; Virginia Beetles; and Wisconsin Badgers.

If some of those nicknames had stuck, college football would be very different today.

 

Another whimsical map from H.W. Hill & Co., this from 1878 and depicting farm animal populations of states. 

Since my wife is from Illinois, I dug around to see if I could find the origin of that “Illinois Sucker” nickname.

I found it in a letter to the New York Journal of Commerce on Aug. 21, 1844:

NICKNAMES IN THE WESTERN STATES.

It is singular what a nack the western people have of giving nicknames. As you are aware, Indiana people are called "Hoosiers;" those of Kentucky, "Corn Crackers;" those of Ohio," Buckeyes;" those of Illinois, "Suckers," of Iowa," Hawkeyes, and of Wisconsin, "Badgers." The two last are new titles. All these names have originated from some incident or other. That of "Sucker," I am told, originated with the miners of Galena. There is a small fish called the "Sucker," which ascends the small streams in Upper Illinois in summer, and disappears in the autumn. About the same time, the miners. say, a lot of "diggers," traders and speculators, appear in their "diggings, from the southern part of Illinois, and after “sucking" at them through the summer, go south again in the autumn with their namesakes. The term was at first applied to the people in the southern part of Illinois, but finally became applied to the people of the whole state, by those of the adjoining states. The term "these diggings,” also originated at the lead mines. When a man finds business unprofitable and clears out, he is said to "quit these diggings." When a man has just arrived, he is said to be a new man "in these diggings."

 

I also found a story from The People’s Press of Kingston, New York on July 9, 1853 that detailed the nicknames of a number of famous people of that era:

“General Andrew Jackson was called old Hickory, on account of his inflexible character; his diplomatic successor in the White House, [Martin van Buren] was known as the Little Magician; and his son John Van Buren remains until now the Prince. Gen. William Henry Harrison was Old Tip, an abbreviation of Tippecanoe, where he defeated the Indians under their Prophet, the brother of Tecumseh. General Zachary Taylor was designated by the name of Zack, Rough and Ready; Henry Clay as the Mill Boy of the Slashes, in remembrance of his origin. Daniel Webster was the great Expounder-the Godlike, or simply Black Dan. Ohio Senator Thomas Corwin is the Wagon Boy. Thomas Benton, the Great Missourian, is known as Old Bullion. Stephen Douglas, the Democratic Senator from Illinois, the Little Giant. General Winfield Scott, Chippewa, from his victory over the English in the late war, and a Hasty Plate of Soup, from an expression which slipped from his pen. Gen. Sam Houston, San Jacinto, from the battle field on which he defeated President Santa Anna and all his army, etc.

“The Cities have their nicknames; Washington for instance, is the city of Magnificent Distances; New York, the Empire City; Philadelphia, the Quaker City; Baltimore, the Monumental City; Boston the City of Notions, or Puritan City; New Haven, the Elm City; Buffalo, the Queen City of the Lakes; Pittsburg, the Iron City; Cleveland, the Forest City; Cincinnati, Porkopolis, or the Queen City of the West; St. Louis, the Mound City; Louisville, the Fall City; New Orleans, the Crescent City.

“All those nicknames are familiar to and frequently used by the Americans, and not only in jest in the same way as they collectively accept the designation of Yankees if this word is used in contradistinction of English. In the States themselves, Southerners and Westerners disclaim this appellation; they use it to designate the New Englander whilst in New England again every State disowns it except Connecticut, which is proud to be the original Yankee State.”