The 'Yo, Dude' of its Day

If you look up the phrase “What Cheer” on Google, the first and third items that pop up are links to information about the What Cheer? Brigade, the multi-piece, multi-style street music brass band from Providence. Second is a reference to a website strategy, design and application development company based in Omaha, Neb. Fourth is a Wikipedia entry on What Cheer, Iowa, a city in Keokuk County strangely named after the Providence motto. (The city’s signature event is the What Cheer Flea Market, billed as the largest flea market in the Midwest.) Other “What Cheer” references that make the first Google page include What Cheer Driving, a chauffer company based in Cranston, and What Cheer Antiques, a Providence store.

That’s a lot of What Cheering for a relatively archaic English greeting, but it looks as if the catchphrase might come back into vogue. On Saturday, Oct. 13, the R.I. Historical Society will host the first “What Cheer Day” promoting aspects of Ocean State history at all four of its sites.

Ever since the Narragansetts are said to have hailed Roger Williams with “What cheer, netop?” (a 17th-century version of “What’s going on, friend?”), the phrase “What Cheer” has been quintessentially Rhode Island: you can find it on street signs and storefronts, and it’s even the motto of the city of Providence.

Some of the ways local historians will be What Cheering: By attending roundtables on the RIHS 2012 theme “Rhode Island at War” at the Aldrich House; by learning about Rhode Island’s Civil War hospital at Portsmouth Grove at the RIHS Library; by knitting a pair of Civil War-era mittens in a “knit-a-long” while simultaneously shifting eras and wars in interaction with Revolutionary War re-enactors drilling and cooking in uniform on the lawn of the John Brown House Museum; or by attending a gala at the Museum of Work & Culture to celebrate the region’s industrial legacy during an evening titled “Made in Woonsocket.”

But back to Iowa. Here’s the Wikipedia entry on how the city got its name:

When the future What Cheer was founded in 1865, it was named Petersburg for Peter Britton, the settlement’s founder. This name was rejected by the Post Office, forcing a change of name. Joseph Andrews, a major and veteran of the American Civil War suggested the name What Cheer, and the town was officially renamed on December 1, 1879.
Sources differ as to why the name What Cheer was chosen. The phrase what cheer with you is an ancient English greeting dating back at least to the 15th century. One theory of the name is that a Scottish miner exclaimed What cheer! on discovering a coal seam near town. A more elaborate theory suggests that Joseph Andrews chose the name because of one of the founding myths of his native town of Providence, Rhode Island. According to the story, when Roger Williams arrived at the site that would become Providence in 1636, he was greeted by Narragansett Native Americans with “What Cheer, Netop.” Netop was the Narragansett word for friend, and the Narragansetts had picked up the what cheer greeting from English settlers. It is possible that the connection between What Cheer, Iowa and What Cheer, the shibboleth of Rhode Island, was merely coincidental – the entries for these subjects are adjacent but not connected in the 1908 edition of the Encyclopedia Americana.

Begging the question, then why aren’t there any Iowa towns named Word or Wassup?

How will you celebrate the first “What Cheer” Day in Rhode Island?