Gin Mill (1864, 1865, 1866)

[Bapopik at AOL.COM]

SEAFOOD (1835)--Yes, it's not a great citation for what we now call "seafood."  Maybe "seafood" originally meant "food for sailors"?.

---------------------------------------------------------------
GIN MILL

   OED has 1872 for "gin mill."  Merriam-Webster has 1865.


   This is the earliest from the NEW YORK TIMES:

MIDNIGHT DOMICILIARY VISITS. The Lodging Dens of the Sixth WardSqualor and Filth of the Fever Nests--"Gin Mills" and their Customers-A Glimpse Into the Very Depths of Human Misery. BOARD OF ALDERMEN. The Widening of Ann and Fulton; New York, New York, N.Y.; Jan 16, 1866; pg. 8, 1 pgs

(It's interesting reading about the Five Points home of the gangs of New York, with "'JOHN LANE's rum shop'--the policemen call the place gin-mills..." and "These women, so lost, so fallen, are called Lofters in the police vocabulary"--ed.)


     From ACCESSIBLE ARCHIVES:

ITEM #9502
May 20, 1864
The New York Herald
NEWS FROM KEY WEST.
Capture of Tampa, Florida, by Union Forces.
Our Key West Correspondence.

KEY WEST, Fla., May 12, 1864.
(...)
The prisoners have arrived here, and are confined in the
fort. Among them is a Mr. Mulraman [?], who owns considerable
property in this place, among it the house containing the
Provost Marshaloffice. This man once kept a << gin mill>>  here,
and when Florida seceded he hoisted the rebel flag. Not
satisfied with this feat, he actually had the sublime impudence
to send to the fort to Major French, then commanding the post,
an order to salute it. Only fancy his feelings when he was
brought before Provost Marshal Brown, occupying his house,
and, under his own roof, was ordered to be committed to Fort
Taylor.  (...)