A search for Jim Dandy at the Library of Congress free newspaper site, Chronicling America, reveals several earlier appearances in U.S. newspapers. But only a few years before your 1887 example.
The earliest found is in The Daily Cairo Bulletin, February 7, 1884, page 3, where it refers to The Buckeye State (I presume this was a riverboat, but maybe it was a railroad company) as a “Jim Dandy” (in quotes).
There are a half dozen other examples there in 1884, and perhaps 50 by 1887.
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Jack A. Dandee:
March 27th, 2015 at 2:19 pm
A search for Jim Dandy at the Library of Congress free newspaper site, Chronicling America, reveals several earlier appearances in U.S. newspapers. But only a few years before your 1887 example.
The earliest found is in The Daily Cairo Bulletin, February 7, 1884, page 3, where it refers to The Buckeye State (I presume this was a riverboat, but maybe it was a railroad company) as a “Jim Dandy” (in quotes).
There are a half dozen other examples there in 1884, and perhaps 50 by 1887.