The Unsolved Mystery of Sheriff Plummer’s Gold

Sheriff Henry Plummer insisted he hadn’t robbed any stagecoaches, that is until a hanging seemed imminent. That's when the sheriff changed his tune, promising to return with his weight in stolen gold if the vigilantes gave him a horse and two hours. History buffs still wonder whether he was guilty or an innocent man desperate to save his own life.

Sheriff Plummer was a man of means. Whether the sheriff gained his fortune entirely by honest means remains open to speculation. He did own a gold claim, but a convicted road agent had named him as leader of the "Innocents," a notorious outlaw band. 

A posthumous trial sponsored by Twin Bridges Public Schools and held in the Virginia City, Montana, courthouse on May 7, 1993 resulted in a six-six vote. The judge declared a mistrial. Plummer would have walked, never again to be tried on the same charges. That's not what happened on January 10, 1864. Plummer's pleas fell on deaf ears, and he swung at the wrong end of a rope.

Sheriff Henry Plummer, Wikimedia Commons; Public Domain

Lost Gold

Plummer took the location of his ill-gotten gold, if it existed, to the grave. The search for it began right after his death and continues today, centuries later. Although some claimed to find the cache, no evidence exists that anyone ever did.

The Innocents, also known as the Plummer Gang, reportedly waylaid stagecoaches traveling between Bannack City and Virginia City, about 25 miles away. At its peak, the Innocents, headquartered about 12 from Virginia City at Rattlesnake Ranch, consisted of about 100 road agents. Some claim that the gang committed other crimes, including over 100 murders, while others refute this idea.

Stagecoach, Library of Congress; Public Domain

Vigilante Justice

The Bannack goldrush began in 1862 and swelled to 3,000 prospectors by 1863. Dance halls and saloons went up at a faster pace than churches. Rotgut whiskey had a terrible effect on the miners, and the rate of crime and theft doubled. This state of affairs repeated across the West, leading settlers to call upon Washington DC for law and order. However, the Civil War raging in the East distracted politicians from the lawless frontier. Frustrated with the lack of response, townsfolk took matters into their own hands. The Vigilance Committee of Alder Gulch, headquartered in Virginia City, sprang into being.

The Vigilantes of Montana; or, Popular justice in the Rocky mountains; being a correct and impartial narrative of the chase, trial, capture, and execution of Henry Plummer's road agent band, together with accounts of the lives and crimes of many of the robbers and desperadoes, the whole being interspersed with sketches of life in the mining camps of the 'Far west.' by Thomas Dimsdale (1886) became the first book published in Montana. Dimsdale, a newspaper publisher, compiled his book from a newspaper series he authored for the Montana Post in 1865. Dimsdale provides a timeline for the activities of the vigilance committee as it doled out “mountain justice.” That usually meant a spur-of-the-moment trial followed by banishment or hanging.

The vigilantes made their first arrest in December 1863 near the Rattlesnake Ranch on the Ruby River and headed back to Virginia city with “Erastus Red” Yeager and George Brown, a pair of suspected outlaws, in tow. Along the way, Yeager confessed to his part in the Innocents gang and provided the vigilantes with a list of names. Yeager named Sheriff Henry Plummer as the leader. Yeager may have hoped to escape death by cooperating with the posse, which makes some wonder about the varacity of his list. We'll probably never know the truth. At any rate, it didn't save him. After a speedy trial, Yeager and Brown were hanged from a cottonwood tree.

Bannack, Montana; by Mr Hicks46, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Over the next several months, the vigilantes lynched twenty men on Yeager’s list, including Sheriff Plummer, and shot another dead in Bannack. It is unknown how many they banished from the territory, on pain of death. Alexander Toponce, a freight hauler and merchant who served Bannack at the time, mentioned the vigilantes in his autobiography: Reminiscences of Alexander Toponce (1923):”I don't think they made any mistake in hanging anybody. The only mistake they made was about fifty percent of those whom they merely banished should have been hung instead, as quite a number of these men were finally hung.”

Some of the men on Yeager’s list left town voluntarily, as might well be imagined. A corresponding drop in stagecoach robberies and crime in general seems to bear out Toponce's conclusions.

More Lost Gold

It wasn’t uncommon for outlaws to bury stolen gold in Montana. Since most of the Innocents died without divulging the locations of their loot, historians believe that lost gold peppers the landscape between Bannack and Virginia City. 

Final Thoughts

I've driven the road between Virginia City and Bannack. It's not hard to picture outlaws riding out to rob stagecoaches in the flat valley cut by the Ruby River. With mountains blued by distance rising in the background, the place has an other-worldly feeling. Bannack, with still stands, is protected as a state park. When I visited, you could walk into the buildings, which still contained the paraphanelia of living. Part of the town isn't there anymore, but I walked that direction to get the lay of the land--part of my research for the books I knew I would write.

Thomas Dimsdale’s Vigilantes of Montana contains his eyewitness account of Sheriff Plummer’s lynching, a resource I used when describing this scene for Hills of Nevermore (Montana Gold book 1). Although a work of fiction, Hills of Nevermore portrays real historical figures and events, including those involving Sheriff Plummer. The novel pits a widow with a dark secret against an Irish circuit preacher trying to leave his own past behind. Both need to make peace with themselves and God. Their romance plays out against Montana’s goldrush, a troubled time in America. The six-book Montana Gold series, explores faith, love, and courage in the Wild West.

About Janalyn Voigt

Janalyn Voigt fell in love with literature at an early age when her father read chapters from classics as bedtime stories. When Janalyn grew older, she put herself to sleep with tales "written" in her head. Today Janalyn is a storyteller who writes in several genres. Romance, mystery, adventure, history, and whimsy appear in all her novels.

Learn more about Janalyn Voigt.

Discover Montana Gold

Hills of Nevermore: A young widow hides her shameful secret from a blue-eyed circuit preacher.

Cheyenne Sunrise: A disillusioned young woman is forced to entrust herself to a half-Cheyenne guide.

Stagecoach to Liberty: To escape captivity, a young woman must trust a mysterious stranger.

The Forever Sky: Can a young widow with no faith in love reconcile with the man who broke her heart?

The Promise Tree: A preacher’s daughter knows she shouldn't encourage a troublemaker, no matter she promised him.

The Whispering Wind: Phoebe can have her pick of suitors but never the man she wants.

Learn More.

What do Murder, Jokes, and Air Have to Do with it? (Wild West Sayings We Use Today)

Diving into the history of words is not only entertaining. It can teach you something. Researching for this blog series always turns discoveries for me. Words and their histories teaches us about the past but also our present reality. So, what do murder, jokes, and air have to do with Wild West sayings we use today? Read on, my friend.

Wild West Sayings We Use Today, Part 26

P’shaw

Sometimes idioms surprise you. Take, p’shaw, for example. Would you guess that this way of expressing contempt, disdain, impatience, and/or a sense of absurdity dates from 1670 or earlier? Websters Dictionary lists p’shaw as ‘of imitative origin.’ P'shaw appears to be an example of onomatopoeia, the practice of naming words (like hiss or buzz) to imitate the sounds they make. P’shaw is thought to replicate the sound of air released in disgust through closed lips. We've all been there, right?

Historical Reference:

‘"Pshaw! Why do ye bother yourself wid texts, man, about so small a matter?" interrupted the landlady’ (James Fenimore Cooper; The Pioneers; 1823).

Example: “Pshaw! I’ll believe it when I see it.”

Pulling My| Your| His| Her| Our Leg

In the Wild West, people used ‘pulling my leg’ in the same way we do today—to be teasingly deceived by another person. It’s nice to know that folks have enjoyed a good joke for centuries.

Historical Reference: This expression is of unknown origin, but it is first recorded in Always Ready, or, Every One His Pride, a Novel by an unknown author (1859):

“I intend leaving as soon as possible; for I know, if I remain here, you will both spoil me by your kindness.”

“Not a bit of it,” said Ned, giving one of his hearty laughs. “I know you are pulling my leg,” continued he, “but I’ll tell you candidly what it is, Harry—we shall both miss you.”

Example: “I know you are pulling my leg when you say are too busy to go shopping!”

Raise Cain

This slang term for making a ruckus goes all the way back to the Biblical story of Cain and Abel, Adam and Eve’s sons. In the book of Genesis, Abel sacrificed to God the first fruits of his labor, whereas his brother offered God “the fruit of the ground.” Abel’s gift was one of faith, because he trusted that more of a harvest would follow. Hebrews 11:4 confirms this: “By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he received approval as righteous, God bearing witness by accepting his gifts.”

When God favored Abel’s sacrifice over his own, Cain became jealous and killed his brother. God banished Cain from farming, thus removing the source of supply he’d hoarded away from God. Cain was forced to wander the Earth in a fruitless existence the rest of his days.

Someone who raises Cain engages in actions that are violent and disturbing, just as Cain did. To fully understand the expression, we must go back to an earlier (14th-century) sense of ‘raise,’ which meant to summon a spirit. However, ‘raise Cain’ refers not to a spirit but to the sinful nature of mankind.

Historical Reference:

By the time this saying made it into print, it was common enough to inspire a joke. That is the form its first recorded use takes. “Why have we every reason to believe that Adam and Eve were both rowdies? Because … they both raised Cain” (The Daily Pennant newspaper, May 2, 1840 edition).

Example: They went out last night and raised Cain.

I’m curious. Did the background of any of the sayings surprise you? Leave a comment and let me know.

What's New with Janalyn Voigt

I'm currently on deadline for The Whispering Wind, the second installment in the Montana Treasure western historical romance series. For those following the series, this is Phoebe's story. This tough-but-sweet complex gal is one of my favorites, but I almost killed her off. That's right. In order to prove my theme in Cheyenne Sunrise (Montana Gold, book 2), an innocent character had to die. Phoebe was an enchanting three-year-old elf and the most likely victim. In fact, I'd created her for that purpose. 

Stories don't always go as you plan, and Phoebe grew into such a charming lass that my editor and publisher, Miralee Ferrell, proclaimed herself traumatized by Phoebe's untimely passing. I took the matter under consideration and determined that a minor character could die in Phoebe's place. Miralee thanked me profusely. We still pass comments about the matter while working back-and-forth on the books. Both of us are very glad that Phoebe survived.

For the curious, here's a bit about me:

Janalyn Voigt fell in love with literature at an early age when her father read chapters from classics as bedtime stories. When Janalyn grew older, she put herself to sleep with tales "written" in her head. Today Janalyn is a storyteller who writes in several genres. Romance, mystery, adventure, history, and whimsy appear in all her novels in proportions dictated by their genre. Janalyn Voigt is represented by Wordserve Literary.

Learn more about Janalyn and visit the bookstore at http://janalynvoigt.com.

The Promise Tree (Montana Treasure, book 1)

A preacher’s daughter shouldn’t encourage a troublemaker—no matter what her wayward heart desires.

Liberty has always believed she should marry a man of God, but Jake doesn’t qualify. The promises they’d made at age twelve can’t change that. If only Jake would stop pursuing her, she might keep from falling in love with him.

Jake fears he’ll lose Liberty to Beau, the new man in town. He doesn’t trust the smooth-talker—and certainly not with Liberty. Expressing his opinion sounds jealous and pushes Liberty further away. Jake’s efforts to forget the woman he loves lands him in jail for a crime he didn’t commit.

A bounty hunter on the trail of a notorious outlaw gallops into town, and Liberty finds herself in unexpected peril. When Jake rides after her, he faces a test of faith. Jake and Liberty must each overcome their own false beliefs. Only then can they experience the truth of God’s redeeming love.

Set during a troubled time in America, the Montana Treasure series explores faith, courage, and love in the Wild West. Read this heartwarming story to affirm your faith in love.

Discover The Promise Tree

Popcorn, Hunting, and Prayer? (Wild West Sayings We Use Today)

One of the best ways we connect with history is through language, and we do it every day! Calling fellow word-nerds as we explore more gems that rode into the modern vernacular by way of the Wild West. 

Today we’ll discuss a word with unsavory origins, touch on hunting, and end with prayer.

Wild West Sayings We Use Today – Part 25

Poppycock

When describing senseless talk and other nonsense in Wild West days, people would exclaim, “Poppycock!” Most of us don’t indulge in that anymore. The word has moved from an exclamation to name a brand of candied popcorn. That may be an unappetizing association, as it turns out.

Historical Reference: Poppycock summons to mind a portly British general who peers through a monocle at someone who brings up a political point to which he disagrees. Tapping his cane, acquired after a war injury, the general bellows, “Poppycock!”

Or is that just me? I thought not.

It may interest you to know that, although the origins of poppycock are uncertain, the British probably aren’t responsible. No, the guilty party is most likely the Dutch—more specifically Dutch immigrants to America. Poppycock emerged as a slang term in 1852, according to the Oxford English Dictionary. I mentioned guilt because the term appears to have evolved from a Dutch word I won’t repeat or translate, since it was used as a vulgarity.

Let’s move on to candied popcorn, shall we? It’s unclear how a swear word became the name of a popular treat, especially in that era. Either the main theory for the origins of poppycock is wrong, or else the word became detached somehow from its meaning. It doesn’t help that the origin of the name isn’t fully understood. Howard Vair is credited with inventing the popcorn treat in the 1950s as a snack to tote along on road trips. Ah, road trips! In the days before smartphones and satellite GPS, road trips were expeditions into the unknown. But I digress.

What we do know is that in 1969 Arnold Rebane, an employee of a Swiss company called Wander, filed a patent for a popcorn treat identical to Poppycock. The patent then passed to the Lincoln Snacks Company of Lincoln, Nebraska. ConAgra Foods acquired this product in September 2007 when it purchased Lincoln Snacks. Poppycock then appeared under Orville Redenbacher, which produces Poppycock today.

The original Poppycock recipe consisted of glazed popcorn, almonds, and pecans. Specialty versions feature chocolate, cashews, and pecans, and recipes for various versions have cropped up online.

Examples:

Slang term: “The reasons put forth for raising taxes are complete poppycock!”

Product name: “Please pick up a box of Poppycock while you’re at the grocery store.”

Pot Shot

This slang term refers to someone who derides another person in an opportunistic and possibly false way.

Historical Reference:

The figurative use of ‘pot shot’ derived from the actual practice of taking random or careless shots at animals, often from ambush. This provided easy meat for the pot but was frowned upon by those who revered hunting as a sport.

Pot shot appeared in 1836 as a literal term and had entered the slang lexicon by 1929.

Example: “That reporter shouldn’t have taken a potshot at the governor for political reasons.”

Pray Tell

This idiom started as a forthright inquiry that meant ‘I beg of you, tell me.’ Modern use is more complicated. Pray tell as a direct request to ‘please tell’ tends to sound archaic at best, snobbish at worst. The phrase might be used in a straightforward manner for emphasis or humor. However, we are more likely to hear it employed as a sarcastic barb, meaning ‘tell me if you dare.’

Historical Reference: ’Pray’ comes from ‘precari,’ which in Latin meant ‘to ask earnestly or beg.’ The nuance of ‘tell’ signifying ‘to reveal or disclose’ is from 1400.

The phrase, ‘I pray thee’ (I ask you) emerged somewhere around the year 1300. By the late-14th century, more people said, ‘I pray you.’ The 16th century saw the phrase shortened to ‘pray.’

Some attribute Shakespeare for creating ‘pray tell.’ While the idiom liberally sprinkles The Bard’s writings, its origins reach back much farther. The Oxford English Dictionary states that the first citation is from 1665. “But pray tell us once more in certainty whether it must consequently make 600 li a Yeare’ (Marvell Corr. Li Wks. 18725 il. 287).

Examples:

Direct Inquiry: “Where, pray tell, have you laid the scissors?”

For Emphasis or Humor: “Does your fiancé have a brother, pray tell?”

Sarcastic Question: “Pray tell, why are you sneaking in after your curfew?”

Questions for You

• Are you hungry, like me, for candied popcorn?
• Did you guess the word origins? 
• Did any surprise you? 

Pray tell. I’d love to know. 😊

What's New with Janalyn Voigt

I do have a bit of authorial news to relay, but first please indulge me in an anecdote. 

Recently, my husband couldn’t reconcile my use of the word ‘underage’ (pronounced ŭn′dər-ĭj, not ŭn′dər-ājd) to describe a shortfall. I know. Who talks like that? Probably only an author. He'd heard ‘overage,’ a word with an opposite meaning, but never ‘underage.’ I had to look up the word before he would believe it actually exists. I cheekily informed him not to challenge someone who spent long hours in childhood devouring dictionaries for fun.

And now for the author news. Next month, I'll participate in a huge promotional effort by many historical fiction authors. Stay tuned for details in my next post or sign up for The Creative Worlds of Janalyn Voigt mostly-monthly newsletter to learn more.

The Promise Tree (Montana Treasure, book 1)  

A preacher’s daughter shouldn’t encourage a troublemaker—no matter what her wayward heart desires.

Liberty has always believed she should marry a man of God, but Jake doesn’t qualify. The promises they’d made at age twelve can’t change that. If only Jake would stop pursuing her, she might keep from falling in love with him.

Jake fears he’ll lose Liberty to Beau, the new man in town. He doesn’t trust the smooth-talker—and certainly not with Liberty. Expressing his opinion sounds jealous and pushes Liberty further away. Jake’s efforts to forget the woman he loves lands him in jail for a crime he didn’t commit.

A bounty hunter on the trail of a notorious outlaw gallops into town, and Liberty finds herself in unexpected peril. When Jake rides after her, he faces a test of faith. Jake and Liberty must each overcome their own false beliefs. Only then can they experience the truth of God’s redeeming love.

Set during a troubled time in America, the Montana Treasure series explores faith, courage, and love in the Wild West. Read this heartwarming story to affirm your faith in love. 

 

Violins, theaters, jails, and ponies? (Wild West Sayings We Use Today)

What do violins, theaters, jails, and ponies have in common? All pertain to the latest list of Wild West sayings we use today. If you enjoy words and their meanings, take a quick break and explore the history of words. Stick around, and below the post, you'll find the latest news from my world of books and writing.

Wild West Sayings We Use Today, Part 24

Play Second Fiddle

Someone who takes a subservient role to another person is said to play second fiddle.

Historical Reference: This figurative term emerged from the relative importance of violins, more humbly known as fiddles, in an orchestra. Playing second fiddle is viewed as less worthy, and even demeaning. This idiom dates from the early 1800s.

B. H. Malkin used it in his 1809 translation of Gil Blas, a French novel by Alain-René Lesage: “I am quite at your service to play second fiddle in all your laudable enterprises.”

Example: I’d rather not play second fiddle to the prom queen in the parade.

Playing to the Gallery

We speak of someone who shows off for an audience (with perhaps questionable sincerity) as ‘playing to the gallery.’

Historical Reference: The highest seating area in a theater was historically known as ‘the gallery.’ Seats in the gallery sold for a lower price than closer ones did. As a result, less-refined spectators laid claim to them. ‘Playing to the gallery’ arose as a slang term by the late-19th century. Rudyard Kipling used the phrase in his first novel, The Light That Failed (1891): “The instant we begin to think about success and the effect of our work—to play with one eye on the gallery—we lose power and touch and everything else.”

Example: Senator Brandmeier’s campaign promises appeal to popular tastes, but he’s only playing to the gallery to ensure his reelection.

Pokey

Yes, we’re talking about jail. You knew it had to come up in a post about the Wild West, right?

Historical Reference: Pokey is a quaint term for ‘jail’ that appeared by 1919 as an Americanization of the English ‘pogey.’ And what exactly is a pogey, you might well ask. That would be a British poorhouse. The origins of ‘pogey’ are something of a mystery. However, a case can be made for linking ‘pogey’ to the adjective, ‘poky.’

Nowadays, poky might refer to something slow, like a horse. Back in the 19th century, the word described something that quite literally poked out. Hence arose the ‘poke bonnet,’ a hat with a formidable brim. ‘Poky’ also took on the meaning of ‘cramped or confined.’ This is where jail cells come in….

We may never know for certain how we came to use ‘pokey’ to mean ‘jail,’ but it’s a fun word to say.

Example: After getting into a fight, he spent the night in the pokey.

Pony Up

This colorful slang term means ‘lay down your money and pay up.’ Okay, I know what you’re thinking. What do diminutive horses have to do with it? We’ll get to that—well, sort of.

Historical Reference: One school of thought attributes ‘pony up’ to America. Another places the blame on England. You may have guessed by now that the origins of the term are uncertain. Some believe its roots reach all the way back to the sixteenth century as a corruption of ‘legem pone.’ This phrase from Psalm 119 in the Latin Bible was sung on March 25th. That, my friends, happened to be the English quarter day, a date that marked the first payday of the year. Debts were resolved then, too.

Legem pone became associated with debt repayment and came to mean 'payment of money; cash down'. In that sense, the term saw print in Hundreth Good Pointes Husbandry by Thomas Tusser (1570). “Use Legem pone to pay at thy day…”

This intriguing bit of history seems to confirm a British origin for ‘pony up.’ The only fly in the ointment is that the phrase is used almost exclusively in the United States.

Connecticutt’s "The Rural Magazine" (May 1819 edition) contains possibly the earliest written use of 'pony up.' “The afternoon, before the evening, the favoured gentlemen are walking rapidly into the merchant-tailors shops, and very slowly out, unless they ponied up the Spanish.” In this example, ‘Spanish’ is slang for money, but that’s another story.

In the end, you’ll have to decide for yourself which pony runs best—an American or English one. I know which one has my vote.

Questions for You

• I’m curious whether you knew that a fiddle is also called a violin. I had to look it up, myself.
• What mental image does ‘the pokey’ dredge up for you? I confess to picturing an inmate watching a slow-moving clock or making marks on the wall, counting down the time until his release.
• Which seems most likely to you—an American or British origin for pony up?

What’s New with Janalyn Voigt

Long-distance walking is a particular love of mine. Lately, I’m renewing my acquaintance with the joys and, yes, pains of this activity. Deadlines have kept me at my desk for long hours too often in the past months. There’s a price for becoming active again, but I’ll willingly pay it.

This past week, I wrapped up my review of the audiobook for Cheyenne Sunrise, the second novel in the Montana Gold series. Once the narrator makes the corrections my publisher forwards to her, it falls to me to approve them. After that, I’ll learn the publication date for the audiobook. I’ll let you know, once I know. Sharing this story with readers in a whole, new way is a rewarding experience.

If you’d like to know more about my life as a writer and about the books I write, hop on over to the Janalyn Voigt website. While you’re there, be sure to sign up for the mostly-monthly Creative Worlds e-letter.

Latest Release

A preacher’s daughter shouldn’t encourage a troublemaker, no matter what her wayward heart desires.

Liberty has always believed she should marry a man of God, but Jake doesn’t qualify. The promises they’d made at age twelve can’t change that. If only Jake would stop pursuing her, she might keep from falling in love with him. Jake fears he’ll lose Liberty to Beau, the new man in town. He doesn’t trust the smooth-talker—and certainly not with Liberty. Jake and Liberty must each overcome their own false beliefs. Only then can they experience the truth of God’s redeeming love. Read The Promise Tree.

You can step into the Montana Treasure series without having read the Montana Gold books. However, if you prefer to submerge yourself in a fictional world for a while, start with Hills of Nevermore, book 1. The four Montana Gold books are available in print and ebook. As mentioned, audiobook versions have also begun releasing!

Want to know more about the author? Read the official bio:

Janalyn Voigt's unique blend of adventure, romance, suspense, and whimsy creates breathtaking fictional worlds for readers. Janalyn is represented by Wordserve Literary Agency. Her memberships include American Christian Fiction Writers and Northwest Christian Writers Association. When she's not writing, Janalyn loves to discover worlds of adventure in the great outdoors with her family.

Browse books by Janalyn Voigt

What do Shakespeare and a Flunking Student Have to Do With It? (Wild West Sayings We Use Today)

 What do a fussy person, obsessive love, Shakespeare, and a flunking student have in common? All pertain to the brand new batch of Wild West sayings we use today, below. Ready to have more fun with words? Grab a cup of tea, coffee, or hot chocolate. Let’s take a little journey into the peculiar history of words, shall we?

 Wild West Sayings We Use Today, Part 23

Persnickety

This delightful word describes a nitpicky person who obsesses over trivial details. It emerged in 1889 as a derivative of ‘pernickety,’ which itself appeared in the early 1800s.  

Historical Reference: Many opinions of the origin of persnickety exist—so many that it becomes clear no one knows for certain. It may have come from the Scottish ‘pernicky,’ a word that is also of unknown origin. Alternatively, persnickety was coined by a child who invented a fun way to say ‘particular.’ But then again, the ‘nick’ part of the word may have come from ‘knick-knack’ and the ‘per’ syllable could have something to do with a Latin prefix meaning ‘thoroughly.’ Trying to figure it out would bogle the mind of any nitpicky person.

Example: He’s so persnickety that it borders on snobbery. 

 

Pining

“To be consumed with longing; to languish with intense desire, to hunger after something; to long eagerly.” That’s how the Oxford English Dictionary defines the word ‘pining.’ It originally described someone in the grip of a romantic obsession. It also designated intense mourning for a lost love. Oh, the Romance! Nowadays, we speak of pining for ice cream.

Historical Reference: ‘Pine’ comes from ‘poena,’ which is Latin for ‘punishment.’ This is the same root word from which ‘pain’ and ‘penalty’ derived. The sense of ‘wasting away from grief or longing’ is documented from early in the 14^th century.

Example: “I’ve been pining to see you again.” 

In the Pink

A person brimming with health and in excellent condition is said to be ‘in the pink.’ This phrase also applies to inanimate objects—a house, for example. In that context, it refers to ‘the peak of perfection.’ The idiom was used for centuries since the 16th century. At that time, it described the best of anything.

Historical Reference: The first recorded use of ‘pink’ to mean ‘the best’ occurred in “Romeo and Juliet” by William Shakespeare in 1597: "I am the pinke of curtesie."

Example: “If you exercise and eat right, you’ll be in the pink before you know it.”

Pitch a Fit

Here, if you needed one, is another way to say ‘throw a temper tantrum.” We are talking two-year-old stuff here, as in you-took-away-my-candy hysterics.

Historical Reference: This idiom’s origin is uncertain. ‘Have a fit,’ the earliest form, appeared by the 1600s. ’Fit’ may have a connection to epileptic seizures. By the early 1900s, ‘throw a fit’ made an entrance. ‘Pitch’ began substituting for ‘throw’ later in the century. 

Example: My roommate pitched a fit after he flunked his test.

Many Wild West sayings still used today have unknown origins. While that’s a little frustrating, it allows us to use our imaginations. Let’s have some fun! Take your best guess on one or more of the idioms in the comments. 

What's New with Janalyn Voigt

A fine spring day is shining outside my office window, tempting me to pull on my hiking boots and take to the trails. Spending time in nature always restores me. It's as if the breath of His Spirit ruffles the grasses, sighs through the trees, and revives my spirit. I hope you will make time, before the softness of Spring is gone, to rejoice in the beauty of God's Creation. 

The launch of the Promise Tree (Montana Treasure, book 1) is going well. Check out the blog tour from JustRead publicity: https://justreadtours.com. Visit some of the stops to read excerpts, reviews and interviews with the author (me). Don't forget to enter for a chance to win a $20 Amazon gift card.

The Promise Tree

A preacher’s daughter shouldn’t encourage a troublemaker, no matter what her wayward heart desires. 

Liberty has always believed she should marry a man of God, but Jake doesn’t qualify. The promises they’d made at age twelve can’t change that. If only Jake would stop pursuing her, she might keep from falling in love with him. Jake fears he’ll lose Liberty to Beau, the new man in town. He doesn’t trust the smooth-talker—and certainly not with Liberty. Jake and Liberty must each overcome their own false beliefs. Only then can they experience the truth of God’s redeeming love. Read The Promise Tree.

You can step into the Montana Treasure series without having read the Montana Gold books. However, if you prefer to submerge yourself in a fictional world for a while, start with Hills of Nevermore, book 1. The four Montana Gold books are available in print and ebook. As mentioned, audiobook versions have also begun releasing!

Want to know more about the author? Read the official bio:

Janalyn Voigt's unique blend of adventure, romance, suspense, and whimsy creates breathtaking fictional worlds for readers. Janalyn is represented by Wordserve Literary Agency. Her memberships include American Christian Fiction Writers and Northwest Christian Writers Association. When she's not writing, Janalyn loves to discover worlds of adventure in the great outdoors with her family.

Browse books by Janalyn Voigt

A Mad Marquis, Typography, and a Fox Hunt? (Wild West Sayings We Use Today)

We're back for another round of fun facts with words. If you're new, I'm novelist Janalyn Voigt, your guide on this journey into the mystery of words from the Wild West that we still use today. Fasten your seatbelts and put your chair in its full, upright position. Ready, set...

Wild West Sayings We Use Today, Part 22

I ask you, what do defense, typesetting, and a fox hunt have in common? Give up? All pertain to words that passed through the Wild West era and continue to make the rounds today. I found this month’s slate particularly interesting, and I suspect you will too. Enjoy!

On the Fence

A person straddling a fence, undecided which way to jump, is as apt to describe an uncommitted person today as it did nearly a hundred years ago. ‘On the fence’ came into use in 1828. Fence derives from the Middle English word 'fens,' short for 'defens,' (later spelled ‘defense’). Fences define and protect ownership. The correlation seems obvious. Refusing to own an opinion can offer certain advantages. It buys additional time to assess a situation, postpones a decision until more facts emerge, and possibly allows no decision to be made at all.

Historical Reference: "A man sitting on the top of a fence, can jump down on either side with equal facility." Dictionary of Americanisms by John Russell Bartlett (1848).

Example: “Dad is on the fence about whether to go to the opera with Mom.”

Out of Sorts

People in the Wild West spoke of being ‘out of sorts,’ when they felt slightly off physically and/or emotionally. We do the same today. I find it comforting that there’s a term to validate my not being quite myself sometimes. Apparently sage minds have agreed—for centuries.

Some believe that the term originated in the 17th-century from typographers calling sets of letters ‘sorts.’ Can you imagine a set of those getting scrambled or a letter going missing? It must have been frustrating! Even so, the first citation for ‘out of sorts’ appeared more than a century earlier and doesn’t reference typesetting. The term was recorded in The Proverbs, Epigrams, and Miscellanies of John Heywood (1562).

Since printing itself dates from around 1440, perhaps one day researchers will uncover a connection with the idiom and resolve the question.

Historical Reference: "The letters that lye in every box of the case are separately called sorts in printers and founders language; thus a is a sort, b is a sort, c is a sort, etc.” Mechanick Exercises, or the Doctrine of Handy-Works by Joseph Moxon (1683).

Example: “I’m feeling out of sorts today, so I’d better stay home.”

Paint the Town Red

No one knows for certain the origin of this phrase for an unbridled night of mischievous fun. That doesn’t stop people from claiming they know how it arose. Some of the theories are as wild as a rowdy night out. Oscar Wilde claimed the phrase came from a popular missive you may recognize: "We are they who painted the world scarlet with sins,” The Inferno by Dante Alighieri (14th-Century).

Some people believe the phrase came about because a drunkard’s nose turns red. Comparisons have been drawn to bonfires on a hillside, flames fueling a steamship’s boilers, and fireworks exploding on Independence Day. Others link the term to carousing Wild West cowboys firing their guns into the air and threatening to paint the town with blood. That might sound far-fetched, but I discovered while researching the Montana Gold series that this sort of behavior actually occurred. Folks complained about it in their diaries and in letters to loved ones "back East." In Virginia City, Montana, one unfortunate fellow who got on his neighbors' nerves wound up swinging from the end of a rope.  

Folks in the town of Melton Mowbray in Leicestershire, England, insist that ‘painting the town red’ came about due to a rather regrettable local event. In 1837, a fox hunt led by Henry Beresford, the third Marquees of Waterford (later dubbed the Mad Marquee) concluded with a raucous celebration. The town sustained vandalism, and policemen who dared to intervene were assaulted. Houses surrounding the square received an unfortunate coat of red paint. Historical evidence points to the validity of this event, but there’s no proof the Melton Mowbray incident inspired anyone else to want to ‘paint the town red.’ An association with the phrase remains unproven. Actually, most dictionaries attribute it to America, and it did crop up a lot in the West.

Historical Reference: “The boys painted the town red with firecrackers.” The Chicago Advance newspaper (1897); source: Oxford English Dictionary.

Example: “Put on your dancing shoes, and let’s paint the town red!”

Did any of the origins (or origin theories) of these words surprise you? For my part, I didn’t anticipate that painting the town red would have anything to do with cowboys in the Wild West. Psst....I've decided it would be fun to write something new about myself each month in the space below, so read on. I'd love it if you'd comment in kind.

What's New with Janalyn Voigt

I'll admit to struggling to reestablish my routine after the turn of the year. Perhaps you can relate. It helped to divide my time into four categories: sleep, household duties, writing tasks, and personal activities. I touch on each area every day but concentrate on one main focus.

Audiobook narrator, Jess Combs, is making good progress on Cheyenne Sunrise, book two in the Montana Gold series. She records several chapters, and I listen for anything I'd like her to change. My publisher reviews my requests and decides which of them to submit to the narrator. She makes the changes, and I check her work. I like that it's a careful process resulting from the meeting of several minds. Jess is quite talented, and I appreciate that she wants to read my books. I'll keep you posted on Cheyenne Sunrise, the audiobook. Meanwhile, Hills of Nevermore, book 1 is already available in audio.

New Release! 

The Promise Tree, the first novel in the brand new Montana Treasure series is set to release May 5th. If you enjoyed the Montana Gold series, you won't want to miss Montana Treasure. Based on true events in history, the books will explore the lives and loves of the Irish-American children born in the Montana Gold series. It's available in print and ebook formats at a substantial discount. If you are like me and enjoy the feel and smell of a physical book, you appreciate print preorder discounts. Here's a bit about the story. 

 

A preacher’s daughter shouldn’t encourage a troublemaker, no matter what her wayward heart desires. Liberty has always believed she should marry a man of God, but Jake doesn’t qualify. The promises they’d made at age twelve can’t change that. If only Jake would stop pursuing her, she might keep from falling in love with him. Jake fears he’ll lose Liberty to Beau, the new man in town. He doesn’t trust the smooth-talker—and certainly not with Liberty. Jake and Liberty must each overcome their own false beliefs. Only then can they experience the truth of God’s redeeming love. Preorder your copy of The Promise Tree.

You can step into the Montana Treasure series without having read the Montana Gold books. However, if you prefer to submerge yourself in a fictional world for a while, start with Hills of Nevermore, book 1. The four Montana Gold books are available in print and ebook. As mentioned, audiobook versions have also begun releasing!

Want to know more about the author? Here's my official bio: 

Janalyn Voigt's unique blend of adventure, romance, suspense, and whimsy creates breathtaking fictional worlds for readers. Janalyn is represented by Wordserve Literary Agency. Her memberships include American Christian Fiction Writers and Northwest Christian Writers Association. When she's not writing, Janalyn loves to discover worlds of adventure in the great outdoors with her family.

Browse books by Janalyn Voigt

Of Horses and Poetry (Wild West Words We Use Today)

Muddy footprints, Moses’s wanderings in the wilderness, political ambition, and a colt kicking up its heels—what do these things have in common? All have to do with the latest list of words that passed through the Wild West to us today. Saddle up, and let’s ride into our newest adventure with the meaning, origin, and history of words.

Of Horses and Poetry
Wild West Words We Use Today, Part 20

This article is brought to you by Janalyn Voigt

Make Tracks

Someone who leaves in a hurry is said to make tracks. This expression originated in America during the nineteenth century. It’s not hard to connect it with footprints, hoofprints, or wagon ruts in mud or dust of the Wild West.

Historical Reference: Make tracks appeared in the “Sam Slick” papers (1796-1865) by Nova Scotian politician, judge, and author Thomas Chandler Haliburton.

Example: If we want to arrive home before sundown, we’d better make tracks.

Mosey

To walk at an ambling pace is to mosey. Mosey might contain the inference of sneaking away.

Historical Reference: The origin of this slang term, which can be traced from 1826 in America, is uncertain. Theories abound. It might have something to do with Moses’ wanderings in the wilderness. Perhaps it comes from the word ‘moss.’ Some even suggest that ‘mosey’ derived from the Spanish ‘vamos’ (to go) and meant to hurry along. The most likely explanation, in my view, is that mosey derived from a British dialectical term ‘mose about’ (wander witlessly). Whatever the truth of its origins, ‘mosey’ belongs to the Wild West. This quaint word is still used today in an informal, folksy context.

Example: Let's mosey on down to the mailbox.

Namby-pamby

Ambrose Phillips

Something or someone perceived as sickly-sweet, childish, affected, and insipid is described as namby-pamby. Despite the hundreds of years that have passed since this term emerged, there is no ambiguity about its origin. It is traceable to a single individual.

Historical Reference: In 1714, Ambrose Phillips served as tutor to the grandchildren of George I. In an apparent bid to gain status, Phillips authored sycophantic poems in praise of his charges. Phillips’ poetry relied on reduplications (nonsensical rhyming phrases such as eensy-weensy).

This was a bit too much for other poets of the day to swallow. Henry Carey, John Gay, Alexander Pope, and Jonathan Swift fashioned the nickname, Namby Pamby, for Phillips, using his first name. A mocking poem entitled “Namby Pamby,” credited to Carey saw print in 1725. What a sad footnote! I don’t know about you, but I would rather not go down in history for pandering sappy writing.

Example: Claiming you skipped the zoom meeting because of a bad haircut is a namby-pamby excuse.

Feel Your Oats/Feel One’s Oats

We return to America in the early 1800s for the next term. To feel your oats is to be emboldened, empowered, cocky, and ready for anything. This expression brings to mind a young horse frisking about the pasture, energetic after eating oats.

Historical Reference: This phrase showed up in “Extracts from Diary and Correspondence” by Amos Lawrence in 1833: “We both ‘feel our oats’ and our youth.”

Example: After you feel your oats, there’s no going back to prim and proper decorum.

Which of this month’s words used in the Wild West and today is your favorite? Were there any unfamiliar terms? Can you think of any other probably reduplications? As ever, thanks for reading!

About Janalyn Voigt

Janalyn Voigt fell in love with literature at an early age when her father read chapters from classics as bedtime stories. When Janalyn grew older, she put herself to sleep with tales "written" in her head. Today Janalyn is a storyteller who writes in several genres. Romance, mystery, adventure, history, and whimsy appear in all her novels in proportions dictated by their genre. Janalyn Voigt is represented by Wordserve Literary.

Learn more about Janalyn, read the first chapters of her books, subscribe to her e-letter, and join her reader clubs at http://janalynvoigt.com.

Discover Montana Gold

Based on actual historical events during a time of unrest in America, the Montana gold series explores faith, love, and courage in the wild west. Note: Hills of Nevermore is now available as an audiobook with the rest of the series to follow.