[Ads-l] "Hill Billies" and variants (1881-1889)

[Baker, John]

Nice job on these, Bonnie.  Here is a slightly earlier 1880 example, with an explanation of the term:

“Descending a small mountain in Johnson County, I came to a branch at its base.  Here I observed five or six little mountain boys, the oldest of whom was under the age of ten.  These little tow-headed boys, hatless all, wore a shirt apiece and nothing more – very short shirts they were, too.  Now ordinarily a mountain child will stare at a stranger much the same as a young calf, with a sort of a steady bovine gaze, so to say.  These, attracted by the noise of my approach, threw hasty side-long glances my way, and then seemed to center their gaze on one common object.  On a nearer approach I observed a huge rattlesnake in the center of the circle made by these little “hill billies.”  (A “hill billy” is a mountain male child.)”

The Cincinnati Commercial, Aug. 27, 1880 – Supplement, at 1, col. 5 (NewspaperArchive).  The article is datelined Louisa, Ky., Aug. 23, 1880.  NewspaperArchive presents it as Cincinnati Commercial Newspaper Archives August 27, 1880 Page 9.

John Baker

From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> On Behalf Of Bonnie Taylor-Blake
Sent: Saturday, April 13, 2024 6:34 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: "Hill Billies" and variants (1881-1889)

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Just more Kentucky "hill billies." This time from 1880.

-- Bonnie

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A couple of hill billies, Messrs. Haines and Meece, that live in the
coal mining district of Pulaski county, got into a difficulty over the
settlement of a coal bill, when Meece settled all accounts with Haines
by knocking him in the head with a lump of coal, putting an end to
both Haines and the account.

["Fresh State News," The Sentinel (Shelbyville, Kentucky), 25 November
1880, p. 2; https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-shelby-sentinel-hill-billies-1125/145310920/<https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-shelby-sentinel-hill-billies-1125/145310920>]


On Sun, Mar 23, 2014 at 1:29 PM Bonnie Taylor-Blake
<b.taylorblake at gmail.com<mailto:b.taylorblake at gmail.com>> wrote:
>
> A couple years ago Fred Shapiro pushed "hillbilly" back to 1891 [1].
> (The OED shows as its earliest example a usage from 1900.) Here are
> some slightly earlier sightings.
>
> -- Bonnie
>
> [1] http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind1202D&L=ADS-L&P=R7871<http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind1202D&L=ADS-L&P=R7871>
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------
>
> NICHOLASVILLE, October 17. -- This has been Court-day, and a quiet
> one, until about dark, when ten or fifteen roughs, known locally as
> "Hill Billies" undertook to take the city. They, by firing off
> pistols, shouting and other boisterous conduct, created great
> consternation among the citizens, and the police endeavored to arrest
> them, but without avail, as they were too many for him. [From
> "Nicholasville, Kentucky; The Town Taken by Roughs," The Cincinnati
> Enquirer, 18 October 1881, p. 2.]
>
>
> FOUR drunken hill Billys had a pic-nic while loading a wagon with
> furniture here last Friday. One of them became nettled because a
> small boy would n't [sic] treat him to a cigar, and offered to loan
> him forty dollars, at 10 per cent. interest. [The Bourbon News
> (Paris, Bourbon County, KY), 14 March 1882, p. 1.]
>
>
> The foolish custom of poetizing in dog lingo the address on letters is
> now taking place between some one in Fieming [sic] county and and
> [sic] ex-citizen of that place here. It ought to be prohibited by the
> Postmaster General from passing through the mails. It is an old
> fashioned "Hill Billy" custom which is very nauseating to the strictly
> refined. [From "Millersburg," The Semi-Weekly Bourbon News (Paris,
> Bourbon County, KY), 28 September 1883, p. 4.]
>
>
> HUNG -- A telegram from Wiliiamsburg [sic] says: Jo Early was swung
> at 2:35 for the murder of the school teacher. When they entered the
> jail for him he had nothing to say. A lot of "hill Billys" and a
> negro raised a big fuss as he was brought out and he was hurried on to
> a scaffold and swung immediately. [The Semi-Weekly Interior Journal
> (Stanford, KY), 8 December 1885, p. 3.]
>
>
> "That fellow is a pumpkin-voiced Jonah, a hill billy, but the girl is
> an agreeable angel. Ah, there, my spasm," he was saying, but he never
> finished. [From "Railway Romances; Incidents of a Journey on the
> Train with Two Newly-Married Couple [sic]. Courier-Journal
> (Louisville, KY), 14 February 1886, p. 10.]
>
>
> They are principally what the Frankfort girls picturesquely term
> "Hill-billys," tough-grained old fellows, and mountain men, who have
> stood by the South family for years. [From "The Penitentiary Muddle,"
> Semi-Weekly South Kentuckian (Hospkinsville, KY), 23 February 1886, p.
> 2. This was originally published in The Louisville Post. "The South
> family" refers to the family of Warden South.]
>
>
> Mr. McMillan, of Clay, answered that no man but a "hill Billy" did'nt
> [sic] know the Hon. John C. Brown, of Giles county, who is an
> ex-governor of Tennessee. [From "Wholly Inharmonious; Right Ballots
> for Governor but No Nomination," The Knoxville (TN) Journal, 11 May
> 1888, p. 1.]
>
>
> County Judge Colyer is a thick-headed, prejudiced "hill Billy," who
> cares nothing for the peace and happiness of his constituents, nor
> anything else that tends to advance the interest of the county, which
> he as been the instigator in bringing into disrepute. [From "Sad
> State of Affairs in Rockcastle," Semi-Weekly Interior Journal
> (Stanford, KY), 10 September 1889, p. 2.]
>
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