What’s the origin of the phrase “Lord willing and the creek don’t rise”? It has to do with travel and farming and nothing whatsoever to do with Native Americans. Back when wagons rode on low gravel roads, you couldn’t pass if the creek level was high. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Lord Willing and the Creek Don’t Rise”
Hi. You have A Way with Words.
Caller:
Hi. This is Matt.
Hi, Matt. Where are you calling from?
Caller:
Tallahassee, Florida.
Tallahassee.
Welcome to the program, Matt. How can we help you?
Glad to have you.
Caller:
So my… I grew up in the South and, all, all my grandparents did too, and my dad’s dad in particular has a number of phrases, some of which even they’re repeating. One… One that came up in conversation recently was, God willing and the creek don’t rise.
Mm-hmm.
Caller:
And to me, you know, when somebody says, “Will you be there on Wednesday?” And you have every intention of being there, but acknowledging that there are things out of your control, one might say, “God willing and the creek don’t rise.”
Mm-hmm.
Caller:
Well, I mentioned that to the woman who grows our vegetables, and she had a completely different, idea, I guess, of where the phrase originally came from than I did.
Well, let’s hear your competing theories.
Yeah, what does she have to say?
Caller:
Okay. Well, mine is really simple. I just think it means, the, the creek as in the body of moving water, so if the road floods out, I can’t get there. But otherwise, I will.
Mm-hmm.
Caller:
But she was thinking that it was a reference to the Creek tribe in the time that, Europeans were, whether you want to call it settling or stealing—
Mm-hmm.
Caller:
… This part of the country, a reference to whether the Creek tribe doesn’t rise up and prevent us from traveling or doing whatever it is. And that had never crossed my mind, so now I’m really curious.
I’ve heard that theory before, the latter theory about the Native American tribe, sometimes called the Creek. I don’t think there’s any credence to it. I don’t think it’s accurate at all.
Caller:
I didn’t either.
And as a matter of fact— … If you look in the historical record, I’ll, I’ll, I’ll be darned if I can find anybody actually using it that way, where it’s very clear that they’re referring to Native Americans at all.
Caller:
Okay.
The earliest thing we find—
Caller:
Yeah.
… Is from 1851 and it’s coming from the mouth of a fictional character, a woman who is fairly well uneducated, and she speaks in a kind of dialect way that was common for the period. And I, I, I have to mention that she’s portrayed as uneducated because the thing that throws some people is the “don’t”.
Yeah.
Because “don’t” should be preceded by a plural subject. And so that’s why—
Caller:
Sure.
… “Creek don’t” might make more sense, because the creek could be more than one, Creek Indian, right? But in fact, what we’re finding here is it’s just a fairly typical use of the wrong tense by a fairly uneducated speaker, the same way that we will—
Caller:
Mm-hmm.
… Often say “ain’t” in a jocular way—
Mm-hmm.
… Or in a joking way.
Caller:
Sure.
So this quote from 1851, this woman says, “Feller citizens! I’m not accustomed to public speakin’ before such highfalutin’ audiences, yet here I stand before you, a speckled hermit, wrapped in the risen sun counterpane. I’m a popularity and intending, Providence permitten, and the creek do not rise to go it blind.” So she’s standing on a stump… Or standing in front of a crowd, just kind of stating her case and trying to get people over to her side.
Yeah.
And so, you know, she’s speaking in this hyper-formal way, this hyper-corrected way that an uneducated speaker—
Caller:
Sure.
… Might because they think that that’s how educated speakers actually speak.
Yeah.
Caller:
Mm-hmm.
And it doesn’t sound like she’s referring to a rebellion of the locals, does it?
No.
Caller:
No, not so much.
And then, and then the other thing, Matt, that we have to talk about here, and you hit upon it in, in the way you described this, it is all about travel. Because we are talking about a period when paved roads were nil. You maybe got lucky and you had a plank road, but for the most part, we’re talking about mud and gravel, or just plain old dirt, or nothing, just a field to roll through, right? And where you could travel depended completely upon the season of the year, because if the creek comes up, if you’ve got any sense at all, you are not going… And regardless of what you’ve seen in Western movies, you are not going to put your wagon in that creek if that creek is up, because you, you stand to lose your cow, your, your horses, your wagon and everybody on it. You’re just not gonna put—
Caller:
Right.
… Your property and your people at risk. You’re just not gonna do it. And so the creek rising or not rising, it’s kind of like checking the weather. You go down to the creek in the morning and see what it’s doing, and that can set the whole rest of your day—
Hmm.
… In motion.
So Matt—
Caller:
Wow.
… It sounds like your instincts were absolutely right on, that this other story about the Creek Indians, came up, afterward, as a, as a way to explain it.
Caller:
Well, thank you both so much for figuring that out. That, that had really been, kind of in the back of my head for a while now.
All right.
Well, we’re glad you shared it.
Take care.
Caller:
All right. Keep up the good work.
All right. You too.
Caller:
Thanks for helping.
Bye-bye. Well, what’s your question about language? What’s been niggling you? What is the burr under your saddle? Give us a call about your language problems and we’ll try to solve them. 877-929-9673 or send us an email to words@waywordradio.org.
