"I am from Missouri and they have got to show me" antedated (?) to 1896

[Stephen Goranson]

OED has 1897   Washington Post 9 May 27   ‘I'm from Missouri, and they'll have to show me.’ That is what John Duffer, of Pike County, Missouri, remarked as he was being patched up in the office of Dr. Creighton at Manitou.

Headline: On to Victory;; Article Type: News/Opinion
Paper: Omaha World Herald, published as Morning World-Herald; Date: 11-07-1896; Volume: XXXII; Issue: 38; Page: [1]; col. 4. Location: Omaha, Nebraska [America's Historical Newspapers]

"Mr. Bryan could better afford to be defeated than the people could afford to have him defeated," said D. Clem Deaver [Nebraska Populist congress candidate] today."....
"They say Mr. McKinley is the advance agent of prosperity but I am from Missouri and they have got to show me."

Stephen Goranson
www.duke.edu/~goranson

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