On Nov. 29. 1834, the Vincennes Sun used the caption, "Hoosier and Mammoth Pumpkins," over an article reprinted from the Cincinnati Mirror concerning a load of big pumpkins from Indiana.
These extracts sufficiently demonstrate the general acceptation of the name in the two years following the publication of Finley's poem. The diversified spelling of the word at this period shows that it was new in print, and indeed some years elapsed before the now accepted spelling became universal. On Jan. 6, 1838 the Ft. Wayne Sentinel, republished the portion of the poem beginning with the words, "Blest Indiana, in her soil." It was very probable that this publication was made directly from an original copy of the carrier's address, for Thomas Tigar, one of the founders and editors of the Ft. Wayne Sentinel, had been connected with the Indianapolis press in January 1833, and the old-fashioned newspaperman was accustomed to preserve articles that struck his fancy, and reproduce them. In this publication the poem is given as in the Finley manuscript, except that the first two times the word occurs it is spelled "hoosier" and once afterward "hoosheer," the latter evidently a typograpical error. At the other points it is spelled "hoosher." This original form of the word also indicates that there has been some change in the pronunciation, and this is confirmed from another source. For many years there have been perodical discussions of the origin of the word in the newspapers of the State, and in one of these, which occurred in the Indianapolis Journal, in 1860, when numerous contemporaries of Finley were still living, Hon. Jere Smith, a prominent citizen of Winchester, made this statement:
My recollection is that the word began to be used in this country in the fall of 1824, but it might have been as late as 1826 or 1827, when the Louisville & Portland canal was being made. I first heard it at a corn-husking. It was used in the sense of "rip-roaring," "half horse" and "half alligator," and such like backwoods coinages. It was then, and for some years afterwards, spoken as if spelled "husher," the "u" having the sound it has in "bush," "push," etc. In 1829, 1830 and 1831 its sound glided into "hoosher," till finally Mr. Finley's "Hoosier's Nest" made the present orthography and pronunciation classical, and it has remained so since.[[7]]
Of course, this is not conclusive evidence that there was a change in pronunciation, for Mr. Smith's observation may have extended to one neighborhood only, and it may have taken on a variant pronunciation at the start, but his testimony, in connection with the changed spelling, is certainly very plausible.
There have been offered a number of explanations of the origin of the word, and naturally those most commonly heard are those that have been most extensively presented in print. Of the "authorities" on the subject perhaps the best known is Bartlett "Dictionary of Americanism's" which was originally published in 1838 and was widely circulated in that and the subsequent edition, besides being frequently quoted. Its statement is as follows:
Hoosier. A nickname given at the West, to natives of Indiana.
A correspondent of the Providence Journal, writing from Indiana, gives the following account of the origin of this term:
Throughout all the early Western settlements were men who rejoiced in their physical strength, and on numerous occasions, at log-rollings and house-raisings, demonstrated this to their entire satisfaction. They were styled by their fellow-citizens, hushers, from their primary capacity to still their opponents. It was a common term for a bully throughout the West. The boatmen of Indiana were formerly as rude and primitive a set as could well belong to a civilized country, and they were often in the habit of displaying their pugilistic accomplishments upon the levee at New Orleans. Upon a certain occasion there one of these rustic professors of the "noble art" very adroitly and successfully practiced the "fancy" upon several individuals at one time. Being himself not a native of the Western world, in the exuberance of his exultation he sprang up, exclaiming, in a foreign accent, "I'm a hoosier, I'm a hoosier." Some of the New Orleans papers reported the case, and afterwards transferred the corruption of the word "husher" (hoosier) to all the boatmen from Indiana, and from thence to all her citizens. The Kentuckians, on the contrary, maintained that the nickname expresses the gruff exclamation of their neighbors, when one knocks at a door, etc., "Who's yere?"
Both of these theories have had adherents, and especially the latter, though nobody has ever found any basis for their historical features beyond the assertion of this newspaper correspondent. Nobody has ever produced any evidence of the use of the word "husher" as here indicated. It is not found in any dictionary of any kind—not even in Bartlett's. I have never found any indication of its former use or its present survival. And there is no greater evidence of the use of the expression "Who's yere?" when approaching a house. As a matter of fact, the common custom when coming to a house and desiring communication with the residents was to call, "Hallo the house!" And this custom is referred to in Finley's line:
He hailed the house, and then alighted.