"Rackensack" (=Arkansas) query

[GSCole]

Not sure about the why or how, but MOA-Cornell a mention of rackensack:

In response to a question, "What command do you belong to?", there are
the responses:  "'Rackensack,' said the man in the blue cap.
"'Arkansas,' said the other in the same breath."

In "Dr. Sevier", by George W. Cable, p.703, in The Century, 28#5, Sept.
1884.

http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/moa/pageviewer?frames=1&coll=moa&view=50&root=%2Fmoa%2Fcent%2Fcent0028%2F&tif=00713.TIF&cite=http%3A%2F%2Fcdl.library.cornell.edu%2Fcgi-bin%2Fmoa%2Fmoa-cgi%3Fnotisid%3DABP2287-0028-192
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MOA-U. of Michigan, in books, has several hits, including reference to a
district in Arkansas, and:

_From the stage coach to the pulpit, being an autobiographical
sketch...._ by Hiram K. Stimson, p.416, Saint Louis: R.A. Campbell, 1874
has --

Under a subtitle -- A night with the "Rackensacks" and "Pukes. (sic)--
is the statement "All Western people will understand what is meant by
the above names.  But, for the instruction of our friends in the
East...."

"A Rackensack is a dweller in Arkansas, of the loafer order; and a Puke
is a rough of Missouri, or a 'border ruffian.'"

http://www.hti.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/pageviewer-idx?c=moa&cc=moa&sid=bd6af902982f7d3182621d074f6f4a24&q1=rackensack&idno=AJK2081.0001.001&view=image&seq=0418

George Cole
Shippensburg University