The Hoosier will be published weekly, at $2 in advance and 25 cents for every three months delay of payment, per annum, on a good sheet of paper of superroyal size, to be enlarged to an imperial as the subscription will justify it.
This paper shall do honor to the people of Putnam county; and we expect to see them patronize us. The press is now at Greencastle. Let subscription papers be returned by the 1st of Sept. when the first number will appear.
On Oct. 26, 1833 the Indiana Democrat republished from the Cincinnati Republican a discussion of the origin and making of the word "Hoosier," which will be quoted in full hereafter, which shows that the term had then obtained general adoption. C. F. Hoffman, a traveler who passed through the northern part of the state, says, under date of Dec. 29, 1833:
I am now in the land of the Hooshiers, and find that long-haired race much more civilized than some of their Western neighbors are willing to represent them. The term "Hooshier," like that of Yankee, or Buckeye, first applied contemptuously, has now become a soubriquet that bears nothing invidious with it to the ear of an Indianian. [[6]]
On Jan. 4, 1834, the Indiana Democrat quoted from the Maysville, Ky., Monitor, "The Hoosier State like true democrats have taken the lead in appointing delegates to a National Convention etc." On May 10, 1834, the Indianapolis Journal printed the following editorial paragraph:
The Hooshier, started some time ago by Messrs. Ray and Tannehill, at Greencastle, has sunk into repose; and a new paper entitled the "Greencastle Advertiser," published by James M. Grooms, has taken its place.
It is quite possible that this statement was made with the mischievous intent of stirring up Gov. Ray, for he was rather sensitive, and the Whigs seemed to delight in starting stories that called forth indignant denials from him. If this was the purpose it was successful, for on May 31 the Journal said:
We understand that another No. of the Hooshier has been recently received in town, and that it contains quite a bitter complaint about our remark a week or two ago, that it had "sunk into repose." We assure the Editor that we made the remark as a mere matter of news, without any intention to rejoice at the suspension of the paper. Several weeks had passed over without any paper being received, and it was currently reported that it had "blowed out" and therefore, as a mere passing remark, we stated that it had "sunk into repose." We have no objection that it should live a thousand years.
The new paper, however, did not last as long as that. It was sold in the fall of 1834 to J. W. Osborn who continued the publication, but changed the name, in the following spring, to the "Western Plough Boy." On Sept. 19, 1834, the Indiana Democrat had the following reference to Mr. Finley:
The poet laureat of Hoosierland and editor of the Richmond Palladium has threatened to cut acquaintance with B. of the Democrat!! The gentleman alluded to is the same individual that was unceremoniously robbed, by the Cincinnati Chronicle, of the credit of immortalizing our State in verse, by that justly celebrated epic of the "Hoosier's Nest."