Educate me: Weird US State Nicknames (c. 1845)

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I am reading a list of US State nicknames from the 19th Century. It’s a list supposedly collected in 1885 by Whitman and probably originally from a May 1845 article in the Broadway Journal.

Many of the nicknames would surprise few. Indiana Hoosiers. Vermont Green Mountain Boys. Iowa Hawkeyes. They are still used, to some degree.

But what of these nicknames? Educate me.

Alabama Lizards
Connecticut Wooden Nutmegs
Florida Fly Up The Creeks
Illinois Suckers
Maryland Claw Thumpers
Mississippi Tad Poles
Missouri Pukes
New Jersey Clam Catchers
Oregon Hard Cases
Pennsylvania Logher Heads
South Carolina Weasels

Well?

2

Of course, a few of these words have taken on different meanings over the sesquicentennial…

3

More than I wanted to know about wooden nutmegs:

TL;DR
Hucksters, particularly “Yankee” hucksters supposedly cheated people by selling them fake nutmeg and Connecticut took that as sort of a badge of pride.

4

Maybe that article also explains why King Arthur’s Court was not visited by, say, a Yankee from Yellowstone?

5

What did Suckers and Pukes even mean in 1850?

6

In Wisconsin the less traditional nicknames include the Wiscos, the Wisconsonians, the Sconnies, the Cheeseheads, 3rd class on the 3rd coast.

7

Connecticut is still called the Nutmeg State (though more often it’s called the Constitution State).

8

The terms date back apparently to an 1835 article.

It is well known, that the inhabitants of the several western States are called by certain nicknames. Those of Michigan are called wolverines; of Indiana, hooshers; of Illinois, suckers; of Ohio, buckeyes; of Kentucky, corn-crackers; of Missouri pukes, &c. To call a person by his right nickname, is always taken in good part, and gives no offence; but nothing is more offensive than to mis-nickname—that is, were you to call a hoosher a wolverine, his blood would be up in a moment, and he would immediately show fight. [A.A. Parker, “Trip to the West and Texas,” Concord, N.H., 1835]

I searched back to 1830 and didn’t find a better article, or any at all, although also in 1835 an article called the Missourians “pewks.” It also varies the spelling of other terms from the above. That testifies to the terms’ newness.

Western Names - The Ohioan is a “Buckeye;” an Indianian a “Hoosier;” an Illinoisan a “Sucker;” a Missourian a “Pewk;” a Kentuckian a “Corncracker;” and a Michiganian a “Wolverene.”

“Sucker” is the name for a common freshwater fresh and is especially prevalant in the Ozarks in Missouri.

“Puke” sounds somewhat similar to “pike” and pike are also a very common Midwestern freshwater fish.

Given the other food/animal names, I wouldn’t be surprised if these also fell into that category. I can’t find anything close to confirmation, though.

9

Minnesota became known as the Gopher State due to a political cartoon. Mind you, they labelled the thirteen striped ground squirrel a gopher, which it is not but the nickname stuck so well that the University of Minnesota (Twin Cities campuses, anyway) became the Golden Gophers.

We do have gophers/prairie dogs, but that’s not what is depicted in the original cartoon.

We tend to call our state Minnesnowta, for obvious reasons.

10

I am struck by how many of these seem to refer to locally available seafood. This seems kind of odd in itself. Are there other countries where people from different states or seneschals or sectors are also largely named after seafood?

11

The funny thing about calling Ohioans “Buckeyes” is that the Ohio buckeye tree’s natural range is confined almost entirely to Kentucky: It’s named for the river, not the state. We do get some of the related horse chestnuts here, but even they aren’t all that common: I can tell you where two specific horse chestnut trees are, but I wouldn’t even have to search to find an oak or maple.