Connecticut is awash in nicknames.
Nutmeg State, Constitution State … the Provisions State?
Yes, the Provisions State.
Meanwhile, we have a Charter Oak (not a species of tree), we’re the pizza state and, good grief, we are “The Land of Steady Habits” too.
Steady habits seems a tad on the boring side to us, but instead of encouraging anyone to break a habit, we decided to look up what it means.
Thank goodness for the Connecticut State Library. The library reports, citing research as good researchers do, that “A Dictionary of Americanisms on Historical Principles” defines “Land of Steady Habits” as “Connecticut, applied in allusion to the strict morals of its inhabitants.”
The library notes that information came from the book edited by Mitford M. Mathews and printed by University of Chicago Press, in 1951. That book, by the way, is still for sale in various places, and it’s not inexpensive.
Unfortunately, it’s not really clear what is meant by “strict morals of its inhabitants” and we don’t like to throw stones but would bet it has something to do with the Puritans who, um, arrived in Connecticut in the 17th century version of settling on land already occupied. (That’s fair, just a few years after the Connecticut Colony was formed, it declared war on the Pequots.)
State looks at its history, including a proposal to condemn at 1638 treaty
But back to the nicknames.
Mentioning us as the “pizza state” makes us hungry, mostly because it reminds of Wooster Street in New Haven, but the truth is that there is very fine pizza to be found across Connecticut. It’s often politicians who like to point out all this great pizza, maybe because they know how much we love to eat?
Speaking of eating, we are also the Nutmeg State, after that spice (we love it in pies and coffee drinks) that’s actually native to Indonesia.
The nutmeg name seem to have a rather mixed history here.
Again, thank you Connecticut State Library, which reports, among other things, that the name refers to Connecticut “because its early inhabitants had the reputation of being so ingenious and shrewd that they were able to make and sell wooden nutmegs. Sam Slick (Judge Halliburton) seems to be the originator of this story. Some claim that wooden nutmegs were actually sold, but they do not give either the time or the place.”
The library credits George Earlie Shankle, “State Names, Flags, Seals, Songs, Birds, Flowers, and Other Symbols” for this, noting it was published in New York by H.W. Wilson Company in 1941.
This wooden nutmeg ruse also was reported by other sources, and may have grown from the actual size and shape of nutmegs, which are apparently very “wooden” and people may not have known then what to do with them.
It’s not easy to grow nutmeg in Connecticut’s climate (at least not yet) but if you decide to give a try, “The Spruce” has some advice.
Speaking of providing things, the nickname about provisions is apparently because Connecticut supplied a lot to the Continental forces during the American Revolution.
“Another early moniker originated during the Revolutionary War when Connecticut provided generous ‘provisions’ in the form of men, food, cannons, and other supplies to the Continental army, which had multiple ammunition outposts around the colony,” connecticuthistory.org reports.
Interesting, but probably unrelated, Connecticut to this day remains a strong presence in the defense industry, as home to submarine manufacturer Electric Boat, Sikorsky Aircraft, Pratt & Whitney and others.
U.S. Navy awards CT’s Electric Boat another $12 billion for salaries, two submarines
The Connecticut library reports “perhaps the best indication of Connecticut’s pre-eminent position as a supply state is found in Washington’s very frequent appeals to Trumbull for help in provisions.” It cites Albert E. Van Dusen, “Connecticut,” published in New York by Random House in 1961.
Now, back to the Constitution State.
According to the library, this is a much more recent moniker, as it was not designated by the General Assembly until 1959.
But it also notes, “as early as the 19th Century, John Fiske, a popular historian from Connecticut made the claim that the Fundamental Orders of 1638 and 1639 were the first written constitution in history. Some contemporary historians dispute Fiske’s analysis. However, Simeon E. Baldwin, a former Chief Justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court, defended Fiske’s view of the Fundamental Orders in Osborn’s History of Connecticut in Monographic Form by stating that ‘never had a company of men deliberately met to frame a social compact for immediate use, constituting a new and independent commonwealth, with definite officers, executive and legislative, and prescribed rules and modes of government, until the first planters of Connecticut came together for their great work on January 14th, 1638-39.” It cites the Connecticut State Register and Manual, 1998 version, on page 832.
All that said, we also have to acknowledge that we came across a nickname we had probably not seen before, even while understanding the general theme it names: The Blue Law State.
This is easy to figure out without much research as anyone who has lived in Connecticut for long has heard about the Blue Laws, many of which have gratefully left the land of steady habits at this point.
You can blame New Haven for some of the Blue Laws, which mostly prohibited fun stuff, but also did things like preventing most hunting on Sundays, a law still in place. One Blue Law, no alcohol sales on Sunday (a distinctly Puritan type law), has been repealed. New Haven used to be home to lots of Puritans, by the way. Now it’s mostly famous for pizza, but Yale is also there, and it’s called the Elm City even though a blight killed the elm trees.
A final note about that Charter Oak: It seems the “Charter” was important because it granted “Connecticut rights to govern itself,” according to the state judicial site. It was granted in 1662 by King Charles II.
The judicial site also notes, citing “legend” that when the king wanted to rescind it, it was “hidden in the trunk of a nearby large white oak tree.”
Here’s another take on steady habits.
We know this may not have paid enough homage to Connecticut history, and failed to mention a bunch of other nicknames for cities in the state and if you think of any we egregiously missed, let us know at letters@courant.com.
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