WHY IS OHIO CALLED THE BUCKEYE STATE?
AN ADDRESS BY WILLIAM M.
FARRAR.
THE name Buckeye, as applied to the
State of Ohio, is
an accepted sobriquet, so well
recognized and so generally
understood throughout the United States,
that its use re-
quires no explanation, although the
origin of the term
and its significance are not without
question, and therefore be-
come proper subjects of consideration
during this Centennial
year.
The usual and most commonly accepted
solution is,
that it originates from the buckeye
tree, which is indigen-
ous to the State of Ohio and is not
found elsewhere. This,
however, is not altogether correct, as
it is also found both
in Kentucky and Indiana, and in some few
localities in
West Virginia, and perhaps elsewhere. But
while such
is the fact, its natural locality
appears to be in the State
of Ohio, and its native soil in the rich
valleys of the Mus-
kingum, Hockhocking, Scioto, Miamis, and
Ohio, where
in the early settlement of the State it
was found growing
in great abundance, and because of the
luxuriance of its
foliage, the richly colored dyes of its
fruit, and its ready
adaptation to the wants and conveniences
of the pioneers,
it was highly prized by them for many
useful purposes.
It was also well known to and much
prized by the
Indians, from whose rude language comes
its name,
"Hetuck," meaning the eye of
the buck, because of the
striking resemblance in color and shape
between the brown
nut and the eye of that animal, the
peculiar spot upon the
one corresponding to the iris in the
other. In its application,
however, we have reversed the term, and
call the person
or thing to which it is applied a
buckeye.
In a very interesting after-dinner
speech, made by Dr.
Daniel Drake, the eminent botanist and
historian of the
Ohio Valley, at a banquet given at the
city of Cincinnati
on the occasion of the forty-fourth
anniversary of the
174
Why is Ohio Called the Buckeye State? 175
State, the buckeye was very ably
discussed, its botanical
classification given, its peculiar
characteristics and dis-
tinctive properties referred to, and the
opinion expressed
that the name was at first applied as a
nickname, or term
of derision, but has since been raised
into a title of honor.
This conclusion does not seem to be
altogether war-
ranted, for the name is not only of
Indian origin, as stated,
but the first application of it ever
made to a white man
was made by the Indians themselves, and
intended by them as
an expression of their highest sense of
admiration.
S. P. Hildreth, the pioneer historian of
Marietta, to
whom we are indebted for so many
interesting events re-
lating to the settlement at the mouth of
the Muskingum,
tells us that upon the opening of the
first court in the
Northwest Territory, to-wit: on the 2d
day of September,
1788, a procession was formed at the
Point, where most of
the settlers resided, and marched up a
path that had been
cut and cleared through the forest to
Campus Martins
Hall, in the following order:
1st. The High Sheriff with drawn sword.
2d. The citizens.
3d. Officers of the garrison at Fort
Harmar.
4th. Members of the Bar.
5th. Supreme Judges.
6th. The Governor and clergymen.
7th. The newly appointed Judges of the
Court of Com-
mon Pleas, General Rufus Putnam and
Benjamin Tupper.
There, the whole countermarched and the
judges, Put-
nam and Tupper took their seats; the
clergyman, Rev. Dr.
Cutler, invoked the divine blessing, and
the sheriff, Col-
onel Ebenezer Sproat, proclaimed with
his solemn O yes!
that a court is opened for the
administration of even-
handed justice, to the poor as well as
to the rich, to the
guilty and the innocent without respect
of persons, none
to be punished without a trial by their
peers, and then in
pursuance of law; and that although this
scene was exhib-
ited thus early in the settlement of the
State, few ever
176 Ohio Archaeological and Historical Quarterly.
equalled it in the dignity and exalted characters of the
actors; and that among the spectators who witnessed the
ceremony and were deeply impressed by its solemnity and
seeming significance, was a large body of Indians collected
from some of the most powerful tribes of the Northwest,
for the purpose of making a treaty with the whites.
Always fond of ceremony among themselves, they wit-
nessed the parade of which they little suspected the import,
with the greatest interest, and were especially impressed
with the high sheriff who led the procession with drawn
sword; we are told that he was over six feet in height, well
proportioned and of commanding presence, and that his
fine physical proportions and dignified bearing excited
their highest admiration, which they expressed by the
word "Hetuck," or in their language "big buckeye." It
was not spoken in derision, but was the expression of their
greatest admiration, and was afterwards often jocularly
applied to Colonel Sproat, and became a sort of nickname
by which he was familiarly known among his associates.
That was certainly its first known application to an indi-
vidual' in the sense now used, but there is no evidence that
the name continued to be so used and applied from that
time forward, or that it became a fixed and accepted sou-
briquet of the State and people until more than half a century
afterwards.
During all of which time the buckeye continued to be
an object of more or less interest, and as immigration
made its way across the State, and the settlements ex-
tended into the rich valleys, where it was found by trav-
elers and explorers, and was by them carried back to the
East and shown as a rare curiosity, from what was then
known as the "Far West," possessing certain medicinal
properties for which it was highly prized. But the name
never became fully crystallized until 1840, when in the
crucible of what is known as the "bitterest, longest, and
most extraordinary political contest ever waged in the
United States," the name Buckeye became a fixed sobri-
Why is Ohio Called the Buckeye
State? 177
quet of the State of Ohio and its
people, known and
understood wherever either is spoken of,
and likely to
continue as long as either shall be
remembered or the
English language endures.
The manner in which this was brought
about is one of
the singular events of that political
epoch.
General William Henry Harrison having
become the
candidate of his party for President, an
opposition news-
paper said "that he was better
fitted to sit in a log cabin
and drink hard cider than rule in the
White House." The
remark was at once taken up by his
friends and became a
party slogan of that ever-memorable
canvass. Harrison
became the log cabin candidate, and was
pictured as sitting
by the door of a rude log cabin through
which could be
seen a barrel of hard cider, while the
walls were hung
with coon skins and decorated with
strings of buckeyes.
Political excitement spread with
wonderful rapidity;
there was music in the air, and on the
22d of February,
1840, a State convention was held at the
city of Columbus
to nominate a candidate for Governor.
That was before
the day of railroads, yet from most of
the counties of the
State, large delegations in wagons and
on horseback made
their way to the capital to participate
in the convention.
Among the many curious devices resorted
to to give ex-
pression to the ideas embodied in the
canvass, there ap-
peared in the procession a veritable log
cabin, from Clarke
county, built of buckeye logs upon a
wagon and drawn in
the procession by horses, while from the
roof and inside
of the cabin was sung this song:
"Oh where, tell me where
Was your buckeye cabin made.
'Twas built among the merry boys,
Who wield the plough and spade,
Where the log cabins stand,
In the bonnie buckeye shade."
" Oh what, tell me what, is to be your cabin's fate?
Vol. II-12
178
Ohio Archaeological and Historical Quarterly.
We'll wheel it to the capitol and
place it there elate,
For a token and a sign
of the Bonnie Buckeye State."
From that time forward the buckeye
became an impor-
tant factor in the canvass, cabins were
multiplied and
drawn in processions at all the leading
meetings. The
name was applied to General Harrison as
-
" Hurrah for the father of the Great West,
For the Buckeye who follows the
plow."
The name was also applied to Mr. Corwin,
the candidate
for Governor, as-
" Tom Corwin is a Buckeye boy,
Who stands not for the pay."
And generally as -
"Come all ye jolly Buckeye boys,
And listen to my song."
" See what a host of lumber,
And buckeye poles are here-
And Buckeye boys without number,
Aloft the logs to rear."
But the buckeye was not only thus woven
into song and
sung and shouted from every log cabin,
but it became a
popular emblem of the party and an
article of commerce,
more especially along the old National
Road, over which
the public travel of the country was
carried at that day in
stage coaches; and men are yet
living,who, in 1840, resided
at Zanesville, and can remember seeing
crowds of men and
boys going to the woods in the morning
and returning
later in the day carrying great bundles
of buckeye sticks,
to be converted into canes and sold to
travelers, or sent
to adjoining States to be used for
campaign purposes.
At a mass meeting held in western
Pennsylvania in
1840, delegations were organized by townships, and at a
preliminary meeting held to appoint
officers to marshal
the procession and make other necessary
arrangements, it
was resolved that each officer so
appointed should provide
himself with a buckeye cane as a badge
of authority, and
thereupon committees were sent to Ohio
to procure a sup-
ply of canes for the occasion; with what
success can be
Why is Ohio Called the Buckeye State? 179
judged from the fact that while a
procession extending
over two miles in length and numbering
more than fifteen
hundred people, halted on one of the
Chartiers Creek hills
until the one in front moved out of its
way, an inventory
taken showed the number of buckeye canes
carried in the
delegation to be 1,432, and in addition
over one hundred
strings of buckeye beads were worn by a
crew of young
ladies dressed in white, who rode in an
immense canoe
and carried banners representing the
several States of the
Union.
These may seem to be rather trivial
affairs to be referred
to on such an occasion as the present,
but they serve to
show the extent of the sentiment that
prevailed at the
time, and the molding process going on,
so that when the
long and heated canvass finally closed
with a sweeping
victory for the Buckeye candidate, the
crystallization was
complete, and the name " Buckeye
" was irrevocably fixed
upon the State and people of Ohio, and
continues to the
present day one of the most popular and
familiar sobri-
quets in use.
So early as 1841 the President
of an Eastern College
established for the education of young
women, showing a
friend over the establishment said,
"there is a young lady
from New York, that one is from
Virginia, and this," point-
ing to another, "is one of our new
Buckeye girls." A few
years later the Hon. S. S. Cox, a native
Buckeye, and then
a resident of Ohio, made a tour of
Europe and wrote home
a series of bright and interesting
letters over the nom de
plume of "A Buckeye Abroad," which were extensively
read and helped still further to fix the
name and give it
character. The Buckeye State has now a
population of
more than three million live Buckeyes,
Buckeye coal and
mining companies, Buckeye manufactories
of every kind
and description, Buckeye reapers and
mowers, Buckeye
stock, farms, houses, hotels, furnaces,
rolling mills, gas and
oil wells, fairs, conventions, etc., and
on to-morrow we pro-
pose to celebrate a Buckeye centennial.
WHY IS OHIO CALLED THE BUCKEYE STATE?
AN ADDRESS BY WILLIAM M.
FARRAR.
THE name Buckeye, as applied to the
State of Ohio, is
an accepted sobriquet, so well
recognized and so generally
understood throughout the United States,
that its use re-
quires no explanation, although the
origin of the term
and its significance are not without
question, and therefore be-
come proper subjects of consideration
during this Centennial
year.
The usual and most commonly accepted
solution is,
that it originates from the buckeye
tree, which is indigen-
ous to the State of Ohio and is not
found elsewhere. This,
however, is not altogether correct, as
it is also found both
in Kentucky and Indiana, and in some few
localities in
West Virginia, and perhaps elsewhere. But
while such
is the fact, its natural locality
appears to be in the State
of Ohio, and its native soil in the rich
valleys of the Mus-
kingum, Hockhocking, Scioto, Miamis, and
Ohio, where
in the early settlement of the State it
was found growing
in great abundance, and because of the
luxuriance of its
foliage, the richly colored dyes of its
fruit, and its ready
adaptation to the wants and conveniences
of the pioneers,
it was highly prized by them for many
useful purposes.
It was also well known to and much
prized by the
Indians, from whose rude language comes
its name,
"Hetuck," meaning the eye of
the buck, because of the
striking resemblance in color and shape
between the brown
nut and the eye of that animal, the
peculiar spot upon the
one corresponding to the iris in the
other. In its application,
however, we have reversed the term, and
call the person
or thing to which it is applied a
buckeye.
In a very interesting after-dinner
speech, made by Dr.
Daniel Drake, the eminent botanist and
historian of the
Ohio Valley, at a banquet given at the
city of Cincinnati
on the occasion of the forty-fourth
anniversary of the
174