Hoosier / ˈ h uː ʒ ər / is the official demonym for the people of the U.S. state of Indiana . The origin of the term remains a matter of debate, but "Hoosier" was in general use by the 1840s, having been popularized by Richmond resident John Finley's 1833 poem "The Hoosier's Nest". Indiana adopted the nickname "The Hoosier State" more than 150 years ago.
84-561: Hoosier most commonly refers to a person from the U.S. state of Indiana, known as The Hoosier State . Hoosier may also refer to: Hoosier "Hoosier" is used in the names of numerous Indiana-based businesses and organizations. "Hoosiers" is also the name of the Indiana University athletic teams . As there is no accepted embodiment of a Hoosier, the IU schools are represented through their letters and colors alone. The term
168-517: A blessing that the Lord had put it into our hearts to wait upon... those gentle-men. They pitied our situation, and subscribed largely towards the church, and were very friendly towards us and advised us how to go on. We appointed Mr. Ralston our treasurer. Dr. Rush did much for us in public by his influence. I hope the name of Dr. Benjamin Rush and Mr. Robert Ralston will never be forgotten among us. They were
252-728: A connection to the Methodist minister Rev . Harry Hosier ( c. 1750 –May 1806), who evangelized the American frontier at the beginning of the 19th century as part of the Second Great Awakening . "Black Harry" had been born a slave in North Carolina and sold north to Baltimore , Maryland , before gaining his freedom and beginning his ministry around the end of the American Revolution . He
336-592: A general and a soldier from among 10,000 people. There is not a king in Europe that would not look like a valet de chambre by his side." Rush believed that, while America was free from British rule, the "American Revolution" had yet to finish. As expressed in his 1787 'Address to the People of the United States', "The American war is over: but this is far from being the case with the American revolution. On
420-483: A judgment of $ 5,000 and $ 3,000 in court costs, which was only partially paid before Cobbett returned to England. Nonetheless, Rush's practice waned as he continued to advocate bloodletting and purges, much to the chagrin of his friend Thomas Jefferson. Some even blamed Rush's bleeding for hastening the death of Benjamin Franklin , as well as George Washington (although the only one of Washington's medics who opposed
504-422: A letter to John Adams , Rush describes his religious views as "a compound of the orthodoxy and heterodoxy of most of our Christian churches." Christian Universalists consider him one of their founders, although Rush stopped attending that church after the death of his friend, former Baptist pastor Elhanan Winchester , in 1797. Rush fought for temperance and both public and Sunday schools. He helped found
588-615: A medical libertarian: "Unless we put medical freedoms into the Constitution, the time will come when medicine will organize into an undercover dictatorship [. . .] To restrict the art of healing to one class of men and deny equal privileges to others will constitute the Bastille of medical science. All such laws are un-American and despotic and have no place in a republic [. . .] The Constitution of this republic should make special privilege for medical freedom as well as religious freedom,"
672-434: A member of the cabinets of James Madison, James Monroe, John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, James K. Polk , and Zachary Taylor (at one point during each of their presidencies). In 1812, Rush helped reconcile the friendship of Jefferson and Adams by encouraging the two former presidents to resume writing to each other. Once divided over politics and political rivalries, Jefferson and Adams grew close. On July 4, 1826,
756-400: A more enlightened penal system. As a leading physician, Rush had a major impact on the emerging medical profession. As an Enlightenment intellectual, Rush was committed to organizing all medical knowledge around explanatory theories, rather than relying on empirical methods . Rush argued that illness was the result of imbalances in the body's physical system and was caused by malfunctions in
840-516: A piece of bread, and afterwards spreading over it, a thin covering of butter." Rush followed the standard procedures of bleeding and treatment with mercury, he did believe that "coercion" and "restraint", the physical punishment, chains and dungeons, which were the practice of the time, were the answer as proven by his invention of the restraint chair and other devices. For this reason, some aspects of his approach could be seen as similar to Moral Therapy , which would soon rise to prominence in at least
924-610: A prominent Presbyterian doctor and professor of chemistry in Philadelphia, he provided a bold and respected voice against the slave trade. He warmly praised the ministry of "Black Harry" Hosier , the freedman circuit rider who accompanied Bishop Francis Asbury during the establishment of the Methodist Church in America, but the highlight of his involvement was the pamphlet he wrote in 1773 entitled "An Address to
SECTION 10
#17327730507141008-610: A stranger." Rush published one of the first descriptions and treatments for psychiatric disorders in American medicine, Medical Inquiries and Observations, Upon the Diseases of the Mind (1812). He undertook to classify different forms of mental illness and to theorize as to their causes and possible cures. Rush believed (incorrectly) that many mental illnesses were caused by disruptions of blood circulation or by sensory overload and treated them with devices meant to improve circulation to
1092-541: A systematic manner, and he is considered the father of American Psychiatry. During his career, he educated over 3,000 medical students, and several of these established Rush Medical College in Chicago in his honor after his death. His students included Valentine Seaman , who mapped yellow fever mortality patterns in New York and introduced the smallpox vaccine to the United States in 1799. One of his last apprentices
1176-429: A tavern in the foothills of southern Indiana. One was cut and a third Frenchman walked in to see an ear on the dirt floor of the tavern, prompting him to slur out "Whosh ear?" Two related stories trace the origin of the term to gangs of workers from Indiana under the direction of a Mr. Hoosier. The account related by Dunn is that a Louisville contractor named Samuel Hoosier preferred to hire workers from communities on
1260-539: A variant spelling of his name (possibly influenced by the "yokel" slang ) during the decades after his ministry. According to Washington County newspaper reports of the time, Abraham Stover was Colonel of the Indiana Militia. He was a colorful figure in early Washington County history. Along with his son-in-law, John B. Brough, he was considered one of the two strongest men in Washington County. He
1344-404: Is his analysis of race. In reviewing the case of Henry Moss, a slave who lost his dark skin color (probably through vitiligo ), Rush characterized being black as a hereditary and curable skin disease. Rush wrote that the "disease, instead of inviting us [whites] to tyrannise over them [blacks], it should entitle them to a double portion of our humanity." He added that this "should teach white people
1428-704: Is likely a misattribution. No primary source for it has been found, and the words "un-American" and "undercover" are anachronisms, as their usage as such did not appear until after Rush's death. Before 1779, Rush's religious views were influenced by what he described as "Fletcher's controversy with the Calvinists in favor of the Universality of the atonement." After hearing Elhanan Winchester preach, Rush indicated that this theology "embraced and reconciled my ancient calvinistical, and my newly adopted ( Arminian ) principles. From that time on I have never doubted upon
1512-633: Is universally accepted by residents of Indiana and, as of 2017, is also the official demonym used by the U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO), making it the only GPO-recommended demonym of any US state that is not directly formed from the state's name. Before 2017, the GPO-recommended demonym for the state was "Indianian". In addition to "The Hoosier's Nest," the term also appeared in the Indianapolis Journal 's "Carrier's Address" on January 1, 1833. There are many suggestions for
1596-537: The College of Philadelphia (which in 1791 changed its name to its present name, University of Pennsylvania ). After his election to the revived American Philosophical Society in 1768, Rush served as the society's curator from 1770 to 1773, as secretary from 1773 to 1773, and vice president from 1797 to 1801. Rush ultimately published the first American textbook on chemistry and several volumes on medical student education and wrote influential patriotic essays. Rush
1680-802: The Continental Army and became a professor of chemistry, medical theory, and clinical practice at the University of Pennsylvania . Dr. Benjamin Rush was a leader of the American Enlightenment and an enthusiastic supporter of the American Revolution . He was a leader in Pennsylvania's ratification of the U.S. Constitution in 1788. He was prominent in many reforms, especially in the areas of medicine and education. He opposed slavery, advocated free public schools, and sought improved, but patriarchal, education for women, and
1764-509: The French words for 'redness', rougeur , or 'red-faced', rougeaud . According to this hypothesis, the early pejorative use of the word Hoosier may have a link to the color red ("rouge" in French) which is associated with indigenous peoples , pejoratively called "red men" or " red-skins ", and also with poor white people by calling them " red-necks ". Humorous folk etymologies for
SECTION 20
#17327730507141848-559: The United States Mint , serving from 1797 to 1813. He was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1788. He became a professor of medical theory and clinical practice at the University of Pennsylvania in 1791, though the quality of his medicine was quite primitive even for the time: he advocated bloodletting for almost any illness, long after its practice had declined. While teaching at
1932-656: The University of Edinburgh in Scotland, where Rush studied from 1766 to 1768 and earned an M.D. degree. Rush became fluent in French, Italian, and Spanish as a result of his studies and European tour. While at Edinburgh , he became a friend of the Earl of Leven and his family, including William Leslie . Returning to the Colonies in 1769, Rush opened a medical practice in Philadelphia and became professor of chemistry at
2016-494: The West Indies where there were yellow fever outbreaks every year. However, he also helped the population of the city by convincing Richard Allen to ask members of his African Methodist Episcopal Church and other free blacks, who it was believed were less affected by yellow fever than other Philadelphians, to perform volunteer aid work for doctors and funeral homes . Rush came down with yellow fever himself during
2100-561: The etymology of the word as applied to Indiana residents. Jacob Piatt Dunn , longtime secretary of the Indiana Historical Society , published The Word Hoosier , a similar attempt, in 1907. Both chronicled some of the popular and satirical etymologies circulating at the time and focused much of their attention on the use of the word in the Upland South to refer to woodsmen, yokels, and rough people. Dunn traced
2184-673: The 1793 epidemic, although he recovered from it. Rush took on several social causes during his lifetime. Rush became a social activist and an abolitionist and was a founding member of the Philadelphia Society for Alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons (known today as the Pennsylvania Prison Society ), which greatly influenced the construction of Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia. He supported Thomas Jefferson for president in 1796 over
2268-549: The 50th anniversary of the signing of the U.S. Declaration of Independence , Jefferson and Adams both died within hours of each other. After dying of typhus fever , he was buried (in Section N67) along with his wife Julia in the Christ Church Burial Ground in Philadelphia, not far from where Benjamin Franklin is buried. At the site, a small plaque honoring Benjamin Rush has been placed. However,
2352-779: The Bible Society at Philadelphia (now known as the Pennsylvania Bible Society ) and promoted the American Sunday School Union . When many public schools stopped using the Bible as a textbook, Rush proposed that the U.S. government require such use, as well as furnish an American Bible to every family at public expense. In 1806, Rush proposed inscribing "The Son of Man Came into the World, Not To Destroy Men's Lives, But To Save Them." above
2436-505: The Indiana pioneers calling out "Who'sh 'ere?" as a general greeting and warning when hearing someone in the bushes and tall grass, to avoid shooting a relative or friend in error. The poet James Whitcomb Riley facetiously suggested that the fierce brawling that took place in Indiana involved enough biting that the expression "Whose ear?" became notable. This arose from or inspired the story of two 19th-century French immigrants brawling in
2520-563: The Indiana side of the Ohio River like New Albany rather than Kentuckians. During the excavation of the first canal around the Falls of the Ohio from 1826 to 1833, his employees became known as "Hoosier's men" and then simply "Hoosiers". The usage spread from these hard-working laborers to all of the Indiana boatmen in the area and then spread north with the settlement of the state. The story
2604-548: The Inhabitants of the British Settlements in America, upon Slave-Keeping." In this first of his many attacks on the social evils of his day, he assailed the slave trade as well as the entire institution of slavery. Rush argued scientifically that Blacks were not by nature intellectually or morally inferior. Any apparent evidence to the contrary was only the perverted expression of slavery, which "is so foreign to
Hoosier (disambiguation) - Misplaced Pages Continue
2688-472: The Pennsylvania legislature to abolish the death penalty for all crimes other than first-degree murder . He authored a 1792 treatise on punishing murder by death in which he made three principal arguments: Rush led the state of Pennsylvania to establish the first state penitentiary, the Walnut Street Prison , in 1790. Rush campaigned for long-term imprisonment, the denial of liberty, as both
2772-640: The Solemnity with which the whole business was conducted." While Rush was representing Pennsylvania in the Continental Congress (and serving on its medical committee), he also used his medical skills in the field. Rush accompanied the Philadelphia militia during the battles after which the British occupied Philadelphia and most of New Jersey. He was depicted serving in the Battle of Princeton in
2856-616: The United States in its form and adoption is as much the work of a Divine Providence as any of the miracles recorded in the Old and New Testament". In 1798, after the Constitution's adoption, Rush declared: "The only foundation for a useful education in a republic is to be laid in Religion. Without this there can be no virtue, and without virtue there can be no liberty, and liberty is the object and life of all republican governments." One quote popularly assigned to Rush, however, which portrays him as
2940-815: The University of Pennsylvania, one of his students was future president William Henry Harrison , who took a chemistry class from Rush. He was also founder of Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania . In 1794, he was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences . In the 1793 Philadelphia yellow fever epidemic , Rush treated patients with bleeding, calomel, and other early medicinal techniques that often were ineffective and actually brought many patients closer to their deathbeds. Rush's ideas on yellow fever treatments differed from those of many experienced French doctors, who came from
3024-666: The bleeding was Rush's former student), and Rush insisted upon being bled himself shortly before his death (as he had during the yellow fever epidemic two decades earlier). Rush also wrote the first case report on dengue fever (published in 1789 on a case from 1780). Perhaps his greatest contributions to physical medicine were his establishment of a public dispensary for low-income patients (Philadelphia Dispensary), and public works associated with draining and rerouting Dock Creek (eliminating mosquito breeding grounds, which greatly decreased typhus , typhoid and cholera outbreaks). Another of Rush's medical views that now draws criticism
3108-520: The book Shanties from the Seven Seas by Stan Hugill, in reference to its former use to denote cotton -stowers, who would move bales of cotton to and from the holds of ships and force them in tightly by means of jackscrews . A Hoosier cabinet , often shortened to "hoosier", is a type of free-standing kitchen cabinet popular in the early decades of the twentieth century. Almost all of these cabinets were produced by companies located in Indiana and
3192-520: The brain such as a centrifugal spinning board, and inactivity/sensory deprivation via a restraining chair with a sensory-deprivation head enclosure ("tranquilizer chair"). After seeing mental patients in appalling conditions in Pennsylvania Hospital, Rush led a successful campaign in 1792 for the state to build a separate mental ward where the patients could be kept in more humane conditions. Rush believed, as did so many physicians of
3276-504: The brain. His approach prepared the way for later medical research, but Rush undertook none of it. He promoted public health by advocating clean environment and stressing the importance of personal and military hygiene. His study of mental disorder made him one of the founders of American psychiatry . In 1965, the American Psychiatric Association recognized Rush as the "father of American psychiatry". Rush
3360-460: The contrary, nothing but the first act of the great drama is closed." In this address, he encouraged Americans to "come forward" and continue advancements on behalf of America. In 1783, he was appointed to the staff of Pennsylvania Hospital , and he remained a member until his death. He was elected to the Pennsylvania convention which adopted the Federal constitution and was appointed treasurer of
3444-476: The derivation of the word but none is universally accepted. In 1833 the Pittsburgh Statesman said the term had been in use for "some time past" and suggested it originated from census workers calling "Who's here?". Also in 1833, former Indiana Governor James B. Ray began publishing a newspaper titled The Hoosier . In 1900, Meredith Nicholson wrote The Hoosiers , an early attempt to study
Hoosier (disambiguation) - Misplaced Pages Continue
3528-516: The doors of courthouses and other public buildings. Earlier, on July 16, 1776, Rush had complained to Patrick Henry about a provision in Virginia's constitution of 1776 which forbade clergymen from serving in the legislature. Rush felt that the United States was the work of God: "I do not believe that the Constitution was the offspring of inspiration, but I am as perfectly satisfied that the Union of
3612-403: The early settlers had adopted the nickname self-mockingly and that it had lost its negative associations by the time of Finley's poem. Johnathan Clark Smith subsequently showed that Nicholson and Dunn's earliest sources within Indiana were mistaken. A letter by James Curtis cited by Dunn and others as the earliest known use of the term was actually written in 1846, not 1826. Similarly, the use of
3696-461: The end of the month after Continental Congress delegate John Witherspoon , chairman of a committee to investigate Morgan's and Rush's charges of misappropriation and mismanagement against Shippen, told Rush his complaints would not produce reform. Rush later expressed regret for his gossip against Washington. In a letter to John Adams in 1812, Rush wrote, "He [Washington] was the highly favored instrument whose patriotism and name contributed greatly to
3780-517: The establishment of the independence of the United States." Rush also successfully pleaded with Washington's biographers Justice Bushrod Washington and Chief Justice John Marshall to delete his association with those stinging words. In his 2005 book 1776 , David McCullough quotes Rush, referring to George Washington: The Philadelphia physician and patriot Benjamin Rush, a staunch admirer, observed that Washington "has so much martial dignity in his deportment that you would distinguish him to be
3864-605: The eventual winner, John Adams. In 1803, Jefferson sent Meriwether Lewis to Philadelphia to prepare for the Lewis and Clark Expedition under the tutelage of Rush, who taught Lewis about frontier illnesses and the performance of bloodletting. Rush provided the corps with a medical kit that included: In 1766, when Rush set out for his studies in Edinburgh, he was outraged by the sight of 100 slave ships in Liverpool harbor. As
3948-489: The failure of two treatments, sweats in vinegar-wrapped blankets accompanied by mercury rubs, and cold baths. William Cobbett vociferously objected to Rush's extreme use of bloodletting, and even in Rush's day and location, many physicians had abandoned on scientific grounds this favorite remedy of Rush's former teachers Thomas Sydenham and Hermann Boerhaave . Cobbett accused Rush of killing more patients than he had saved. Rush ultimately sued Cobbett for libel , winning
4032-578: The family. At age eight, Benjamin was sent to live with an aunt and uncle to receive an education. He and his older brother Jacob attended a school run by Reverend Samuel Finley , which later became West Nottingham Academy . In 1760, after further studies at the College of New Jersey, which in 1895 became Princeton University , Rush graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree at age 14. From 1761 to 1766, Rush apprenticed under Dr. John Redman in Philadelphia. Redman encouraged him to further his studies at
4116-435: The hospitals under his command, ultimately led to Rush's resignation in 1778. Rush criticized General George Washington in two handwritten but unsigned letters while still serving under the surgeon general. One, to Virginia Governor Patrick Henry dated October 13, 1778, quotes General Thomas Conway saying that if not for God's grace the ongoing war would have been lost by Washington and his weak counselors. Henry forwarded
4200-439: The human mind, that the moral faculties, as well as those of the understanding are debased, and rendered torpid by it." Rush deemed public punishments such as putting a person on display in stocks , common at the time, to be counterproductive. Instead, he proposed private confinement, labor, solitude, and religious instruction for criminals, and he opposed the death penalty. His outspoken opposition to capital punishment pushed
4284-488: The idea that people with mental illness are people who have an illness, rather than inhuman animals. He is quoted to have said, "Terror acts powerfully upon the body, through the medium of the mind, and should be employed in the cure of madness." He also championed the idea of "partial madness," or that people could have varying degrees of mental illness. The American Psychiatric Association 's seal bears an image of Rush's purported profile at its center. The outer ring of
SECTION 50
#17327730507144368-718: The letter to Washington, despite Rush's request that the criticism be conveyed orally, and Washington recognized the handwriting. At the time, the supposed Conway Cabal was reportedly trying to replace Washington with Horatio Gates as commander-in-chief. Rush's letter relayed General John Sullivan 's criticism that forces directly under Washington were undisciplined and mob-like, and contrasted Gates' army as "a well-regulated family". Ten days later, Rush wrote to John Adams relaying complaints inside Washington's army, including about "bad bread, no order, universal disgust" and praising Conway, who had been appointed to inspector general. Shippen sought Rush's resignation and received it by
4452-571: The medical committee. Nonetheless, Rush accepted an appointment as surgeon-general of the middle department of the Continental Army. Rush's order "Directions for preserving the health of soldiers" became one of the foundations of preventive military medicine and was repeatedly republished, including as late as 1908. However, Rush's reporting of Shippen's misappropriation of food and wine supplies intended to comfort hospitalized soldiers, under-reporting of patient deaths, and failure to visit
4536-536: The most humane but severe punishment. This 1792 treatise was preceded by comments on the efficacy of the death penalty that he self-references and which, evidently, appeared in the second volume of the American Museum . After the Revolution, Rush proposed a new model of education for elite women that included English language, vocal music, dancing, sciences, bookkeeping, history, and moral philosophy. He
4620-829: The name derives from the largest of them, the Hoosier Manufacturing Co. of New Castle, Indiana . Other Indiana businesses include Hoosier Racing Tire and the Hoosier Bat Company, manufacturer of wooden baseball bats . The RCA Dome , former home of the Indianapolis Colts , was known as the "Hoosier Dome" before RCA purchased the naming rights in 1994. The RCA Dome was replaced by Lucas Oil Stadium in 2008. Benjamin Rush Dr. Benjamin Rush (January 4, 1746 [ O.S. December 24, 1745] – April 19, 1813)
4704-632: The necessity of keeping up that prejudice against [miscegenation], as it would tend to infect posterity with … their disorder" and called for an "endeavour to discover a remedy for it." Rush was interested in Native American health. He wanted to find out why Native Americans were susceptible to certain illnesses and whether they had higher mortality rates as compared to other people. Other questions that he raised were whether they dreamed more and if their hair turned gray as they got older. His fascination with indigenous peoples came from his interest in
4788-457: The painting The Death of General Mercer at the Battle of Princeton, January 3, 1777 by the American artist John Trumbull . The Army Medical Service was in disarray, between the military casualties, extremely high losses from typhoid , yellow fever and other camp illnesses, political conflicts between Dr. John Morgan and Dr. William Shippen Jr. , and inadequate supplies and guidance from
4872-521: The post-revolutionary period, as women claimed a role in creating the Republic. And so, the ideal of Republican motherhood emerged, lauding women's responsibility of instructing the young in the obligations of patriotism, the blessings of liberty and the true meaning of Republicanism . He opposed coeducational classrooms and insisted on the need to instruct all youth in the Christian religion. Rush
4956-576: The prophet Jeremiah . Rush regularly attended Christ Church in Philadelphia and counted William White among his closest friends (and neighbors). Ever the controversialist, Rush became involved in internal disputes over the revised Book of Common Prayer and the splitting of the Episcopal Church from the Church of England . He dabbled with Presbyterianism , Methodism (which split from Anglicanism in those years), and Unitarianism . In
5040-443: The seal contains the words "American Psychiatric Association 1844". The Association's history of the seal states: The choice of Rush (1746–1813) for the seal reflects his place in history. .... Rush's practice of psychiatry was based on bleeding, purging, and the use of the tranquilizer chair and gyrator. By 1844 these practices were considered erroneous and abandoned. Rush, however, was the first American to study mental disorder in
5124-560: The second, the Indian manners are more diluted. It is in the third species only that we behold civilization completed. It is to the third species of settlers only that it is proper to apply the term of farmers. While we record the voices of the first and second settlers, it is but just to mention their virtues likewise. Their mutual wants to produce mutual dependence; hence they are kind and friendly to each other. Their solitary situation makes visitors agreeable to them; hence they are hospitable to
SECTION 60
#17327730507145208-555: The signing of the Declaration of Independence. He described it as a scene of "pensive and awful silence". Rush said the delegates were called up, one after another, and then filed forward somberly to subscribe to what each thought was their ensuing death warrant. He related that the "gloom of the morning" was briefly interrupted when the rotund Benjamin Harrison of Virginia said to a diminutive Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts, at
5292-456: The signing table, "I shall have a great advantage over you, Mr. Gerry, when we are all hung for what we are now doing. From the size and weight of my body I shall die in a few minutes and be with the Angels, but from the lightness of your body you will dance in the air an hour or two before you are dead." According to Rush, Harrison's remark "procured a transient smile, but it was soon succeeded by
5376-560: The story into the Congressional Record in 1975, and matches the timing and location of Smith's subsequent research. However, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has been unable to find any record of a Hoosier or Hosier in surviving canal company records. The word "hoosier" has been used in Greater St. Louis as a pejorative for an unintelligent or uncultured person. The word is also encountered in sea shanties . In
5460-524: The subject of the salvation of all men ." To simplify, both believed in punishment after death for the wicked. His wife, Julia Rush, thought her husband like Martin Luther for his ardent passions, fearless attacks on old prejudices, and quick tongue against perceived enemies. Rush helped Richard Allen found the African Methodist Episcopal Church . In his autobiography, Allen wrote: ...By this time we had waited on Dr. Rush and Mr. Robert Ralston, and told them of our distressing situation. We considered it
5544-479: The term "hoosier" have a long history, as recounted by Dunn in The Word Hoosier . One account traces the word to the necessary caution of approaching houses on the frontier. In order to avoid being shot, a traveler would call out from afar to let themselves be known. The inhabitants of the cabin would then reply "Who's here?" which – in the Appalachian English of the early settlers – slurred into "Who'sh 'ere?" and thence into "Hoosier?" A variant of this account had
5628-432: The term in an 1859 newspaper item quoting an 1827 diary entry by Sandford Cox was more likely an editorial comment and not from the original diary. Smith's earliest sources led him to argue that the word originated as a term along the Ohio River for flatboatmen from Indiana and did not acquire its pejorative meanings until 1836, after Finley's poem. William Piersen, a history professor at Fisk University , argued for
5712-427: The theory that social scientists can better study the history of their own civilization by studying cultures in earlier stages of development, "primitive men". In his autobiography, he writes "From a review of the three different species of settlers, it appears that there are certain regular stages which mark the progress from the savage to civilized life. The first settler is nearly related to an Indian in his manners. In
5796-427: The time, that bleeding and active purging with mercury(I) chloride (calomel) were the preferable medical treatments for insanity, a fact evidenced by his statement that, "It is sometimes difficult to prevail upon patients in this state of madness, or even to compel them, to take mercury in any of the ways in which it is usually administered. In these cases I have succeeded, by sprinkling a few grains of calomel daily upon
5880-697: The two first gentlemen who espoused the cause of the oppressed and aided us in building the house of the Lord for the poor Africans to worship in. Here was the beginning and rise of the first African church in America." On January 11, 1776, Rush married Julia Stockton (1759–1848), daughter of Richard Stockton , another signer of the Declaration of Independence, and his wife Annis Boudinot Stockton . They had 13 children, 9 of whom survived their first year: John, Ann Emily, Richard , Susannah (died as an infant), Elizabeth Graeme (died as an infant), Mary B, James, William (died as an infant), Benjamin (died as an infant), Benjamin, Julia, Samuel, and William. Richard later became
5964-416: The walls of the hospital. Furthermore, Rush was one of the first people to describe Savant Syndrome. In 1789, he described the abilities of Thomas Fuller , an enslaved African who was a lightning calculator . His observation would later be described in other individuals by notable scientists like John Langdon Down . Rush pioneered the therapeutic approach to addiction . Prior to his work, drunkenness
6048-563: The wealthier institutions of Europe and the United States. Rush is sometimes considered a pioneer of occupational therapy particularly as it pertains to the institutionalized. In Diseases of the Mind (1812), Rush wrote: It has been remarked that the maniacs of the male sex in all hospitals, who assist in cutting wood, making fires, and digging in a garden, and the females who are employed in washing, ironing, and scrubbing floors, often recover, while persons, whose rank exempts them from performing such services, languish away their lives within
6132-777: The word back to the Cumbrian hoozer , meaning anything unusually large, derived from the Old English hoo (as at Sutton Hoo ), meaning "high" and "hill". The importance of immigrants from northern England and southern Scotland was reflected in numerous placenames including the Cumberland Mountains , the Cumberland River , and the Cumberland Gap . Nicholson defended the people of Indiana against such an association, while Dunn concluded that
6216-469: Was Samuel A. Cartwright , later a Confederate States of America surgeon charged with improving sanitary conditions in the camps around Vicksburg, Mississippi , and Port Hudson, Louisiana . Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, formerly Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center, was named in his honor. Rush advocated Christianity in public life and in education and sometimes compared himself to
6300-490: Was a close associate and personal friend of Bishop Francis Asbury , the "Father of the American Methodist Church". Benjamin Rush said of him that "making allowances for his illiteracy, he was the greatest orator in America". His sermons called on Methodists to reject slavery and to champion the common working man. Piersen proposed that Methodist communities inspired by his example took or were given
6384-402: Was a leading proponent of heroic medicine . He firmly believed in such practices as bloodletting patients (a practice now known to be generally harmful, but at the time common practice), as well as purges using calomel and other toxic substances. In his report on the Philadelphia yellow fever epidemic of 1793, Rush wrote: "I have found bleeding to be useful, not only in cases where the pulse
6468-615: Was active in the Sons of Liberty and was elected to attend the provincial conference to send delegates to the Continental Congress . Thomas Paine consulted Rush when writing the profoundly influential pro-independence pamphlet Common Sense . Starting in 1776, Rush represented Pennsylvania and signed the Declaration of Independence. He also represented Philadelphia at Pennsylvania's own Constitutional Convention. In an 1811 letter to John Adams, Rush recounted in stark fashion
6552-528: Was always being challenged to prove his might, and seems to have won several fights over men half his age. After whipping six or eight men in a fist fight in Louisville, Kentucky, he cracked his fists and said, "Ain't I a husher", which was changed in the news to "Hoosier", and thus originated the name of Hoosier in connection with Indiana men. Jorge Santander Serrano, a PhD student from Indiana University , has also suggested that Hoosier might come from
6636-616: Was an American revolutionary , a Founding Father of the United States and signatory to the U.S. Declaration of Independence , and a civic leader in Philadelphia , where he was a physician, politician, social reformer, humanitarian, educator, and the founder of Dickinson College . Rush was a Pennsylvania delegate to the Continental Congress . He later described his efforts in support of the American Revolution, saying: "He aimed right." He served as surgeon general of
6720-603: Was born to John Rush and Susanna Hall on January 4, 1746 (December 24, 1745, O.S.). The family, of English descent, lived on a farm in the Township of Byberry in Philadelphia County , about 14 miles outside of Philadelphia (the township was incorporated into Philadelphia in 1854). Rush was the fourth of seven children. His father died in July 1751 at age 39, leaving his mother, who ran a country store, to care for
6804-519: Was full and quick but where it was slow and tense. I have bled twice in many and in one acute case four times, with the happiest effect. I consider intrepidity in the use of the lancet , at present, to be necessary, as it is in the use of mercury and jalap , in this insidious and ferocious disease." During that epidemic, Rush gained acclaim for remaining in town and treating sometimes 100 patients per day (some through freed black volunteers coordinated by Richard Allen ), but many died. Even Rush acknowledged
6888-489: Was instrumental to the founding of the Young Ladies' Academy of Philadelphia , the first chartered women's institution of higher education in Philadelphia. Rush saw little need for training women in metaphysics, logic, mathematics, or advanced science; rather he wanted the emphasis on guiding women toward moral essays, poetry, history, and religious writings. This type of education for elite women grew dramatically during
6972-400: Was told to Dunn in 1901 by a man who had heard it from a Hoosier relative while traveling in southern Tennessee . Dunn could not find any family of the given name in any directory in the region or anyone else in southern Tennessee who had heard the story and accounted himself dubious. This version was subsequently retold by Gov . Evan Bayh and Sen . Vance Hartke , who introduced
7056-447: Was viewed as being sinful and a matter of choice. Rush believed that the alcoholic loses control over himself and identified the properties of alcohol, rather than the alcoholic's choice, as the causal agent. He developed the conception of alcoholism as a form of medical disease and proposed that alcoholics should be weaned from their addiction via less potent substances. Rush advocated for more humane mental institutions and perpetuated
#713286