[Ads-l] Birth of Paul Bunyan?

[Jonathan Lighter]

Correction:

 The 1904 mention of the giant Bunyan was in Minnesota, not Wisconsin -
which is where the first collection of Bunyan stories appeared in 1909.

JL

On Sun, Nov 16, 2025 at 5:03 PM Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> TL/DR.
>
> Wiki-P offers the "first known reference to Paul Bunyan in print" as a
> Michigan newspaper reference of 1893, without context, to a "Paul Bunion"
> [sic}, apparently a real logger, apparently not a giant.
>
> The name "Paul Bunion" appears occasionally in newspapers around 1900, but
> not in reference to a giant lumberman. "Paul Bunyon" appears even less
> often, and ditto.
>
> The character "Paul Bunyan" gained prominence for the first time, at least
> in print, in 1904, with ref. to the "year of the blue snow."
>
> So what do we make of this:
>
> 1885* Ohio County News* (Hartford, Ky.) (Apr. 15) 3 [Newspapers.com]:
>
> “Paul Bunyan is the name of an infant son of Mr. and Mrs. W. A. Gordon, of
> Sutton, who is quite a remarkable chap. He is not quite seven months old,
> weighs twenty pounds, can sit alone, say papa and momma and is noted for
> his great strength. He lifted a six pound flat iron up the other day with
> one hand and put it in his lap. His mamma then gave him an eight pound flat
> iron and he lifted that up with ease. She then gave him both irons, one in
> each hand and he lifted them both up off the floor at the same time. Who
> can beat this baby?”
> Hartford had a population of about 700 in 1885.
>
> Pro-Paul:
> 1. This is the sole appearance of the name "Paul Bunyan" [sic] I've found
> in Newspapers.com before 1900.
> 2. The point of the story is the infant's great strength and large size.
> (A seven-month-old boy in the 1880s might be expected to weigh 17 or 18
> pounds.)
>
> Anti-Paul:
> 1. Hartford, Ky., seems not to be in a region noted for logging.
> 2. Hartford, Ky., is far from Wisconsin, where the first Bunyan stories
> were printed.
> 3. Maybe the kid was named for St. Paul and John Bunyan.
> 4. Or for a relative named Bunyan.
>
> Yet if the factual story of a weight-lifting baby named Paul Bunyan
> began circulating in 1885, he might have mutated into a folkloric grownup
> giant by 1893 or later.   The "Pocahontas Times" of Marlinton, W. Va. (July
> 4, 1901), p. 3 (GenealogyBank) mentions a logger whose name, " 'Paul
> Bunyan' " [sic] appears to be a nickname or pseudonym - names like "H. R.
> Warner" and "Fred Beard" appear without the inverted commas of  " 'Paul
> Bunyan,' " but the obvious nickname " 'Old Smoke' " also bears them.
> ("Paul" is said to be "sharpening six axes and going to see six girls.")
>
> FWIW, "Bunyan" has always been a very rare surname in the US, according to
> Ancestry.com, with fewer than 300 American Bunyan families in 1880.
>
> Food for thought, if not much else.
>
> JL
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>


-- 
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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