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

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Here is an earlier citation from Wichita of the hyphenated
"wild-and-wooly" without "hard to curry". The word "woolly" has one
"l".

Date: April 12, 1872
Newspaper: The Wichita City Eagle
Newspaper Location: Wichita, Kansas
Article: Our Advertisers
Quote Page 4, Column 3
Database: Newspapers.com
https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-weekly-eagle-wildwooly/194258505/

[Begin excerpt]
In another line we find Houghton, Mills & Co.--the Blue Store--where
is kept one of the largest, most fashionable and select stocks of
men's and boys' clothing, gents' furnishing goods, etc., west of the
Missouri river cities. They take measures at their store and show
samples of goods, with the latest New York fashion plates, and thus
can transfigure in two weeks the long-haired, wild-and-wooly and
hard-to-handle of the frontier into the finished-appearing Broadway
swell.
[End excerpt]

Garson

On Thu, Mar 26, 2026 at 5:56 PM ADSGarson O'Toole
<adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> 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

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