Unusual use of "Tarheel" (1848, 1852)

[Joel S. Berson]

I'm interested in the 1852 associations of the surnames with
political personages.

Andrew Jackson Croutcutter?  There may have been a utensil called by
someone a "crout cutter", but Darn.  It's no longer available and
cannot be viewed.  For "krautcutter", several Ghits, including a
Wanted ad -- "I need either new or used (antique ok) krautcutter for
preparing sauerkraut."  Apparently one device was patented in 1891.

A cabbage-slicer?  Why would that be associated with Old Hickory?

("Croutcutter" is alleged to have appeared in the Nashville Daily
Union, March 24, 1866, p. 1 --
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83025718/1866-03-24/ed-1/seq-1/.)

Henry Clay Snakefeeder?  As far as I can tell, he was not a patron of
Copperheads.  (He had died a few months earlier than the article.)

Fred Douglass Tarheel?  He certainly was not a poor white, and for
the later connotation I read that he was born in Maryland.

John Quitman Screwdriver?  I learn that he was governor of
Mississippi 1850--1851 and a Fire-Eater ("an unorganized group of
extremist pro-slavery Southern politicians").  1835 -- "One who
drives a 'screwy' horse."?

In curiosity,
Joel

At 9/21/2013 05:16 PM, Bonnie Taylor-Blake wrote:
>A few years ago I shared an 1846 usage of "Tar heels," which seemed
>applied generally to poor whites of the South and not especially
>reserved for North Carolinians.  (The earliest "Tar Heels" as a
>designation for North Carolinians is currently found in the 6 February
>1863 entry of a diary kept by a North Carolina confederate officer.)
>
>Here are two antebellum sightings of "Tarheel," again without any
>apparent reference to North Carolinians, though they do show a novel
>(to me) usage, as the last name of fictional characters.  Below,
>asterisks signify the use of italics.
>
>-- Bonnie
>
>-----------------------------
>
>Mrs. Farthingale was the other day, overlooking a lazy son of Guinea
>in her employ, as he was sweeping down the sanded floor of the
>kitchen, and remarking the queer figures the dark one drew with his
>broom, observed:
>
>"Well Caesar, you can draw, pretty well, can't you?"
>
>"Yah, yes, Missus, I can draw fust rate; last Saturday, I took a
>policy for Pompey Tarheel, and I drawed fifty *dollars*!"
>
>Mrs. F. drew herself up into one of her highly dignified attitudes,
>and left the kitchen.
>
>[From "Drawing," The Litchfield (Connecticut) Republican, 10 February
>1848, p. 1; via Genealogy Bank.]
>
>-----------------------------
>
>Well, we are glad the election is over, if we *did* "come out a little
>horn."  Democrats will now discover that there are *some* decent
>people among the Whigs, and *vice versa*.  A Whig lady can now lend
>her Democratic neighbor her coffee-mill, and in turn, borrow an egg to
>put in her pan-cakes.  Andrew Jackson Croutcutter will now be allowed
>to play with Henry Clay Snakefeeder's pet hog; and Fred Douglass
>Tarheel will se-saw with John Quitman Screwdriver, and take the South
>side of the fence.  All will go just as if one person were as good as
>another!  [From "A Funny Man," The (Huntington) Indiana Herald, 24
>November 1852, p. 2; via newspapers.com.  The Herald's editor notes
>that he is reproducing a column penned by "[t]he witty editor of the
>*Emporium*, published in Germantown, Ohio.")
>
>--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org