[Ads-l] Katie bar the door

Thu Apr 17 13:21:42 UTC 2025

To supplement what's in Dave's fine column, I'll note that we have
some additional early sightings of "Katie, bar the door" and variants,
which I've included far below. I share these in case we can glean
anything more about an original source. Some of these have already
been mentioned on the list and also appear in Dave's analysis. (Jon
Lighter tipped me off to the 1874 sighting, which I don't think had
shown up here before and which had been unknown to me.)

One of the more interesting early sightings is something mentioned in
the exchange at the following URL. (BTW, "JEL" is not Jonathan E.
Lighter, I asked.)

https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/554373/katy-bar-the-gate-origins-katherine-who

Here it is in "Number Ninety-Nine," a Black stevedore's song, reported
by Lafcadio Hearn in 1876.

I went down to Bucktown,
Nebber was dar before,
Great big niggah knocked me down,
But Katy barred the door.
[Chorus]

https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=inu.30000100356603&view=1up&seq=67&q1=%22katy+barred%22
[p. 60]. Here it is in Hearn's original column, but it's barely
legible, https://www.genealogybank.com/doc/newspapers/image/v2%3A1233E9DEDC3D81AB%40GB3NEWS-12497B53CB82DA88%402406331-12497B53EFED4980%401-12497B5508C56838%40%255BIllegible%255D%2BLife%2B%255BIllegible%255D?h=1&fname=levee&lname=&fullname=&kwinc=&kwexc=&sort=old&rgfromDate=03/17/1876&rgtoDate=03/17/1876&formDate=03/17/1876&formDateFlex=exact&dateType=date&processingtime=&addedFrom=&addedTo=&sid=fhwgqfmbbdzrluombizqcsihsymtwlhh_wma-gateway002_1692276053096

-- Bonnie

--------------------------------------

(I'm sorry that I don't have sources for all that follow. Most of
these are from the databases at newspapers.com and genealogybank.com.
Feel free to ask me to dig a little deeper if you need to see
contexts. -- BTB)

-------------------------------

The Custom House Packet, with the Custom House colored band, U.S.
Marshal Packard, in command, with the old flag triumphantly kissing
the breeze of old Red, the band playing "Katie, Bar The Door," and
with waving rags touched the wharf and proceeded to land her precious
cargo. [From "The Radical Barbecue," The (Alexandria) Louisiana
Democrat , 2 October 1872, p. 2, via Chronicling of America.]

-------------------------------

I take it every citizen has registered [to vote]. If they have not
they should at once do so. They must not be in the condition of him
who cried: "Kitty bar the door!" (Laughter.) [From "The Governor's
Remarks," within "The Sixth Ward Radical Republican Centra Club," The
New Orleans Weekly Louisianian, 10 October 1874, p. 2.]

-------------------------------

--- wel, I dont think I did and wil tel you in this, wel Benny he went
tu Suda skule a few sundaiz ago and hurd one uv the teechers askin
queschun and answered it. hiz self by saying it was "Katy bar the dore
with him," and he askt the klas who was it that he went back on Jesus?
[From "That Catharine," a humorous letter to the editor written by
"Catharine," Xenia (Ohio) Gazette, 25 January 1876, p. 2.]

-------------------------------

This winsome maid had lovers many,
Whose love she did implore,
There was George and Fred and Harry,
And Ed who numbered with the score,
But when the soldier came in,
It was "Katie bar the door."

[From "A Soldier's Wedding," The Sedalia (Missouri) Weekly Bazoo, 26
March 1878, p. 3, via Chronicling of America.]

-------------------------------

"Get up, Kate, and bar the door," horse-thieves are abroad in the
land. W.C. Underwood, of McLean, had a fine mare stolen Saturday
night. [In "Local News," Owensboro (Kentucky) Messenger, 12 March
1879, p. 3.]

-------------------------------

To sum it all up, my advice to anyone thinking of going there would be
"don't," unless they have a pocketfull of the "rhino" which they can
afford to lose. I saw it was "Katy bar the door" with me unless I
skipped, and I lost no time in skipping. [From "A Limaite Just from
Leadville," The Democrat (Lima, Ohio), 30 October 1879, p. 3.]

-------------------------------

M. V. Monarch's new distillery starts to-day, and it's "Katy bar the
door" to all common distilleries. [From "Local Messages," The
Owensboro [Kentucky] Messenger, 18 May 1880, p. 3.]

-------------------------------

Well, there are saloon Bars, and Bars to the Court Houses -- you plead
at one for something to take, and at the other because you have taken
something, and don't wish to go behind the Bars, for its, Katy Bar the
door with you, when they get you in there. [From "WANTED," The Daily
Evening Reporter (Washington, Pennsylvania), 3 December 1880, p. 3.]

-------------------------------

Last, by no means least, are Mr. Sturgis Whitlock's chestnut mares
Olive, [time], and Patchen Maid, [time], trotters, either double or
single. It is "Kitty bar the door" when they get after you. [By "Fair
Oaks," "Horse Gossip: Chat from New Haven, Conn.," Turf, Field, and
Farm, 17 February 1882, p. 102.]

-------------------------------

But if we get up a reputation for freezing to everything that comes in
our way, instead of a Democratic inauguration at the capitol on the
8th of next January, we may expect to be confronted with an array of
the honest yeomanry in the land, armed with shot guns, the muzzles of
which will say in language too plain to be unmistakable, "Katy, bar
the door," and there will be no inauguration. [From "Who Stole the
Money?," The Cincinnati Commercial Tribune, 27 October 1882, p. 5.]

-------------------------------

Mr. Nash's friends feel very sore over his defeat, and some of the
most inconsolable declare it to be their purpose to bring him out as a
candidate for re-election to the lower house of the legislature. It
will be "Katy, bar the door," with him if they do. [From "Dallas," The
Fort Worth (Texas) Daily Gazette, 27 July 1884, p. 5.]

-------------------------------

The prisoners gave no special trouble en route, and Whiting was
cordially welcomed by the prison attaches, who will take care that he
does not escape.  When he came within sight of the prison walls
Whiting remarked, "Well, it's Katie bar the door." [From "Curbstone
Notes," The Indianapolis (Indiana) News, 20 June 1885, p. 1.]

-------------------------------

The song, Kate, Shut the Door, by Miss K. McCabe, was well rendered.
[in "St. Aloysius Entertainment," The Wilkes-Barre Record, 6 September
1886, p. 1.]

-------------------------------

As [Dick Williamson] left Happy Hollow he began singing "Good by My
Lover, Good by." and when the wagon stopped in front of his home they
started to take him out, he raised up and said: "I guess it is Katy
bar the door with Dick." [From "Double Murder; Happy Hollow the Scene
of a Fatal Shooting Scrape," The Hocking Sentinel (Logan, Ohio), 12
November 1886, p. 2.]

-------------------------------

We would like exceedingly well to be able to give a correct report of
the doings of the association to readers of the JOURNAL, but the edict
has gone forth, and it is "Katie, go bar the door," so far as the
great organ of enterprise is concerned. [The Caldwell (Kansas) Daily
Journal, 29 March 1887, p. 4.]

-------------------------------

"Yes, Tom, but by Jove, I thought it was bar-the-door-Katie on my
coming; the little woman begins to object to it." [From "A Letter from
Evans," The Greensboro (North Carolina) North State, 15 September
1887, p. 7.]

-------------------------------

"No, Mr. Kelly," she said, "you will entertain no cabinet officers,
nor presidents, nor first ladies in this house while your daughter is
being married like a hired girl in the house of a stranger. Behave
like a father and give her the sort of a wedding she deserves, poor
dear, or when your guests arrive they'll hear me since, 'Katie, bar
the door.'" ["An Incident of the Trip," The Kalamazoo Gazette, 12
October 1887, p. 1.]

-------------------------------

Ye see, ginerl'l like the warlike manner in which I spoke, fur he saw
that ef I came across an Ingin hit'd be "Katie, bar the door" with
that savage. [From "Fighting Redskins," in Milwaukee Daily Sentinel,
31 October 1888, attributed to Montgomery M. Folsom, reprinted from
The Atlanta Constitution.]

On Thu, Apr 17, 2025 at 7:13 AM dave at wilton.net <dave at wilton.net> wrote:
>
>
> Here is my write up of the phrase:
>
> [ https://www.wordorigins.org/big-list-entries/katy-bar-the-door ]( https://www.wordorigins.org/big-list-entries/katy-bar-the-door )
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: "Bill Mullins" <amcombill at HOTMAIL.COM>
> Sent: Thursday, April 17, 2025 3:05am
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: [ADS-L] Katie bar the door
>
>
>
> Does anyone here know the origin of the subject phrase?

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