hoeboy (?)

[George Thompson]

An unprincipled scoundrel, named Conrad Sweidenmeyer, or some such outlandish name, has long been in the habit of making sausages and Bologna puddings out of dead rats, cats, dogs, and even horses, by which abominable villainy he has realized a considerable fortune.  ***  People can not be too cautious how they even touch sausages -- even when made properly and by Christians, there is something disgusting about them; but as they are now made, by hoeboys, and out of putrid dogs and rats, they are truly horrifying.  The sale of them ought to be interdicted by law.
        Subterranean, June 28, 1845, p. 2, col. 3

Is this perhaps "hoe-boy", i. e., farmer?   Sweidenmeyer seems like a typical city guy, though.  But perhaps other sausage vendors at the time were from the country.  Otherwise, I'm baffled.

Bon appetit.

GAT

George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much lately.

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