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“The Sucker State”

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Illinois

* From my tchotchke collection…

* Nobody really knows for sure how Illinois got that nickname way back in the 19th Century, but Jared Olar took a look at some of the theories. Here’s one…

For this particular question, the earliest explanation is that given by Illinois Gov. Thomas Ford in his 1854 “A History of Illinois.” Ford said the first settlers of southern Illinois came to be called “Suckers” as an analogy to the “suckers” (young sprouts and shoots) of the tobacco plant.

“These poor emigrants from the slave States were jeeringly and derisively called ‘suckers,’ because there were asserted to be a burthen upon the people of wealth; and when they removed to Illinois they were supposed to have stripped themselves off from the parent stem and gone away to perish like the ‘sucker’ of the tobacco plant. This name was given to the Illinoisans at the Galena mines by the Missourians.”

It is probably no accident that both Ford and Chapman mention the mines at Galena – it seems that is where the nickname “Sucker” was first given to Illinoisans. Ford’s explanation appears earlier than Chapman’s explanation, which makes Ford’s explanation more likely – but it cannot be held to be certainly true.

As it happens, it was also by analogy that plant sprouts first came to be called “suckers.” The Online Etymology Dictionary says “sucker” is a Middle English word from the late 1300s meaning a young child who has not yet been weaned. By the 1570s, the word had begun to be applied to plant shoots, since the shoots were like little “children” of the plant. Sucker fish aren’t mentioned in literature until 1753, and it wasn’t until 1836 that the American slang term “sucker,” meaning a fool, someone with childlike naïveté who is easily tricked, first appeared (and no, it was not in reference to Illinoisans).

Whether the nickname derives from reed straws, fish, tobacco sprouts, or fools, the Illinois General Assembly in 1955 voted to adopt “Land of Lincoln” as our state’s official nickname. Today “Prairie State” is still sometimes heard, but “Sucker State” is rare, heard very little outside the circles of Illinois historical study.

posted by Rich Miller
Wednesday, Nov 28, 18 @ 9:47 am

Comments

When CME’s Terry Duffy got that nice tax exemption, the Merc was thinking this very thing. Maybe a futures contract in suckers Terry?

Comment by labour Wednesday, Nov 28, 18 @ 9:56 am
Of course the modified Chicago flag below your tchotchkes have us all wondering what those particular suckers are made of.

Comment by Montrose Wednesday, Nov 28, 18 @ 10:04 am
Did a little Googling, and by golly there’s a song out there from 1855-

https://oregondigital.org/sets/sheetmusic/oregondigital:n583xt987#page/4/mode/1up

Comment by Anon221 Wednesday, Nov 28, 18 @ 10:06 am
– tchotchke — my new favorite word of the day.

Thank you Rich for making me look it up.

Comment by illini Wednesday, Nov 28, 18 @ 10:08 am
@Anon221 -

Thanks for that! The song is a fascinating look at what was happening in our state back then. I like that bit about the “railroads . . . run through thro’ ev’ry mans quarter section.”

And it sounds as though even back in 1855, people were leaving the state. I must send that to my cousin in Portland for that line calling Oregon “that humbug grand”!.

Comment by JoanP Wednesday, Nov 28, 18 @ 10:14 am
===but “Sucker State” is rare, heard very little outside the circles of Illinois historical study.===

Still widely used by Moody’s, Fitch, Standard and Poor and a host of bond salesmen on Wall Street.

Comment by 47th Ward Wednesday, Nov 28, 18 @ 10:17 am
–Still widely used by Moody’s, Fitch, Standard and Poor and a host of bond salesmen on Wall Street.–

And those LLCs and Trusts who buy the old bills.

Comment by wordslinger Wednesday, Nov 28, 18 @ 10:36 am
Palestine illinois was the land registration site for Illinois Territory in the early years. The name was picked to encourage religious people to move in and settle the land. Tobacco was a cash crop.

Comment by Al Wednesday, Nov 28, 18 @ 10:48 am
I was always told or read somewhere that it had to do with real estate. Selling bad land or land with no clear title to easterners moving west. Also supposedly lots of Indiana buyers. They were all suckers that bought and moved here

Comment by DuPage Saint Wednesday, Nov 28, 18 @ 10:52 am
JoanP- You’re welcome:) I think a lot of the out-migration had to do with the CA Gold Rush.

Here’s a couple more from the Google:

https://localwiki.org/yuba-sutter/Sucker_Flat

https://www.historycolorado.org/sites/default/files/media/document/2018/ColoradoMagazine_v36n2_April1959.pdf (Go to page 113 in the document or use Edit and Find for “sucker” for the citation)

Comment by Anon221 Wednesday, Nov 28, 18 @ 10:56 am
This is some cool historical stuff.

There’s always more to learn about your state.

Thanks for posting it, Rich.

Comment by Oswego Willy Wednesday, Nov 28, 18 @ 11:16 am
I’ve always gone with the fish reference. The river cities *were* Illinois in the early 1800s, so the Galena tie seems very plausible. P.T Barnum seems to have had the most affect on “sucker” becoming a pejorative. I choose to remember it from “Lincoln and Liberty Too” …”the pride of the Suckers so lucky- for Lincoln and Liberty Too.”

Comment by Proud Sucker Wednesday, Nov 28, 18 @ 4:23 pm
The Mahomet, Illinois paper was “The Sucker State” back in the sixties and seventies. We were taught in school that the name came from a sucker fish that was common in our rivers.

Comment by Seymourkid Wednesday, Nov 28, 18 @ 4:35 pm