1845: “Hard Scrabble, Fairplay, Nip-and-Tuck, and Patch”, by Pete Tiff, published in the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1904, (p. 131) Oculus.
“The following are names of towns and ‘Diggings’ in the mining country, collected while I was there. A friend of mine who keeps a ‘Metre and Rhyming Mill,’ threw them at random into the hopper, and there came out this grist—a sonnet:”
Hard Scrabble, Fairplay, Nip-and-Tuck, and Patch,
With Catholic, Whig, and Democrat to match;
There’s Shirt-Tail, Shake-rag, and Hoof Noggle steep;
And Strawberry, Trespass, and Tail-hole deep;
There’s Beetown, Hardtimes, and old Rattle-snake;
And Black-leg, Shingle Ridge, Baled, and Stake;
And Devil’s Light-house, Pinhook, and Dry Bone;
And Swindler’s Ridge, with hazles o’ergrown.
There’s Buzzard’s Roost, Injunction, and Two Brothers;
Snake Hollow, Black Jack diggings, Horse and others:—
As Small Pox, Buncomb, and Peddler’s Creek,
And Lower Coon, Stump Grove, and Red Dog bleak;
Menominie and Rat-tail Ridge may measure out this sonnet,
With Bull Branch and Upper Coon;—now put your curses on it.”