sucker=Illinoisian

[callary ed]

Possibly (perhaps probably) from a fish, but interesting stories abound. I
have not been able to track down a copy of A W Read's research on the
origin of "sucker," since it was apparently never published but only given
as a convention address and I imagine that it would be the most complete
record around. Mencken traces the term to 1834. In any case, one George
Brunk reported "Late in the fall of
1826 I was on board a steamboat bound down the [Mississippi] River, when a
man from Missouri stepped up and asked 'boys, where are you going?' The
answer was, 'Home.' 'Well,' he replied, 'you put me in mind of suckers; up
in the spring, spawn and all return in the fall.' The name studk to
Illinoisans and when Judge Sawyer came up to the [Galena lead] mines on
circuit court duty, he was called the 'king of Suckers.'"

A second account goes gack to Revolutionary times when George Rogers Clark
secured Kaskaskia for the Americans: "It was summer and a very hot day,
and as [Rogers] entered the town he saw the Frenchmen sitting quietly on
their little verandahs, in front of their houses, sucking their juleps
through straws. He rushed upon the, crying, 'Surrender, you suckers, you!'
The Frenchmen surrendered, and from that day to this Illinoisans have been
known as 'suckers.'" (This account was written in the late 1890s; I don't
have the complete citation at hand.)

The state nickname has been used in a number of creative ways; Hawthorne
racetrack sponsors the "Little Sucker Stakes" but I venture that the
illusion would be lost on most people, who would see the name only as a
marker, with nothing to do with Illinois.


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Edward Callary                      Phone: 815-753-6627
English Department                  email: ecallary at niu.edu
Northern Illinois University        FAX: 815-753-0606
DeKalb, Il 60115-2863
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