[Ads-l] "Wild and woolly" (1873)

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Barry Popik has a pertinent entry

Wild and Woolly
https://barrypopik.com/blog/wild_and_woolly

On Thu, Mar 26, 2026 at 5:41 PM ADSGarson O'Toole
<adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Interesting topic, Dave. Here is a slightly earlier citation in a
> Kansas newspaper.
>
> Date: May 18, 1873
> Newspaper: The Kansas Daily Commonwealth
> Newspaper Location:
> Article: FROM WICHITA
> Quote Page 2, Column 1
> Database: Newspapers.com
>
> https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-daily-commonwealth-wildwooly/194256072/
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> FROM WICHITA.
>
> The Long Horn Capital--A Characteristic Letter--A Jumble of News--Free
> Discussion of the Indian Problem, &c.
>
> To the Editor of the Commonwealth: Here we are right from the Chisholm
> trail, wild and woolly and hard to curry. Wichita is booming, the long
> horned lantern -jawed and speckle-top booted Texan is here, not
> singly, but in droves. He perambulates every saloon, bagnio,
> dance-house, gambling shop, and clothing store in town ...
> [End excerpt]
>
> Garson
>
> On Thu, Mar 26, 2026 at 9:14 AM dave at wilton.net <dave at wilton.net> wrote:
> >
> >
> > The OED has 1884.
> >
> > “Wild and Woolly and Hard to Curry.” Dallas Daily Herald (Texas), 10 August 1873, 4/3. Portal To Texas History: Texas Digital Newspaper Program. [ https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth279849/m1/4/ ]( https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth279849/m1/4/ )
> >
> > Describing a fight in Brooklyn, Texas between two drunks on 7 August 1873
> >
> > "Griffin was led down the street some one hundred yards to the drug store. Valentine refused to be pacified when they met and clinched, and Va[l]entine drew another Derringer, but it dropped in the scuffle. Griffin got him down, when he was pulled off. When Valentine regained his feet he threw a short piece of plank at Griffin which he dodged, and yelled in return, 'Wild and woolly and hard to curry.' This was fuel to the flame."
> >
> > And there is this from the same paper a few years later:
> >
> > Comanche Jim. “Frontier Racket” (18 January 1877). Dallas Daily Herald (Texas), 24 January 1877, 4/3. Portal To Texas History: Texas Digital Newspaper Program. [ https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth280913/m1/4/ ]( https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth280913/m1/4/ )
> >
> > "Now that the law is touched in the person of Mr. Jeffries, the wild and woolly cow-boys no doubt wjll [sic] be compelled to lay aside their weapons on entering the township in order that the more peaceable and respectable members of the community may have a show for their lives. The excuse that Fort Griffin is a frontier town and that Indians are dangerous is now getting 'too thin' to justify men necessarily carrying weapons, which, as a matter of consequence, they use, when frontier whisky makes them feel like it."
> >
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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