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The colloquial U.S. phrase all over hell and half of Georgia, and its variants, designate an extremely large area.
The second half of this phrase varies, in particular according to the speaker’s locality—as exemplified by the following from the column Cason Point, by Colleen Cason, published in the Ventura County Star (Ventura, California, USA) of Sunday 1st May 2005 [page B1, column 5]:
Jabro started Get on the Bus in Los Angeles five years ago.
Get on the Bus takes children to see their moms in jail on Mother’s Day weekend. Kids of incarcerated parents often live with grandparents who are too broke or too old to drive them hundreds of miles to prisons scattered all over hell and half of California.
These are, in chronological order, the earliest occurrences of the phrase all over hell and half of Georgia and variants that I have found:
1-: From T. V. Johnson v. The State. No. 6212. Decided June 1, published in The Texas Court of Appeals Reports. Cases argued and adjudged in the Court of Appeals of the State of Texas during the latter part of the Austin term, 1889, [&c.] (Austin (Texas): Published by the State of Texas, 1890) [Austin, 1889: page 22]—however, here, the phrase is hurrah for hell and half of Georgia, and of obscure meaning (cf. also, below, quotation 5):
Soon after witness got to defendant’s house he heard voices hallooing near deceased’s house. The parties soon came to a point near defendant’s house, when one of them exclaimed, “Whoop! hurrah for hell and half of Georgia! The kuklux have rose, and God damn a man who wont [sic] take up for his country!”
2-: From one of the unconnected paragraphs making up The Hornet: Editorial Clippings From the “Hottest Democratic Paper in America”, published in the Fairview Review (Fairview, Kentucky, USA) of Friday 30th September 1904 [page 2, column 1]—however, here, the phrase hell and half of Georgia seems to designate a state of chaos—cf. also the phrase hell’s delight:
If Republicanism should be brought in again this fall it will be a worse four years of “hell and half of Georgia” than ever.
3-: From The Evening Post (New York City, New York, USA) of Saturday 18th January 1913 [Saturday Supplement: page 1, column 3]:
NOT FULL TARGET SIZE
A Local Application of the Law of SurvivalWe rode out from Middlesboro forty miles over the Kentucky mountains in the direction of the coal outcroppings on the tract of property which lay over “yon ridge.” Tom Jernigan, the guide, had boasted that he “could lead a body to every snake’s hole in all over hell and half of Georgia.”
4-: From the Springfield Daily Republican (Springfield, Massachusetts, USA) of Saturday 17th May 1913 [page 3, column 7]—apparently reprinted from The Evening Post (New York City, New York, USA), but, unfortunately, I have not found the original article in NYS Historic Newspapers:
WHY HE STAYED IN GEORGIA.
[From the New York Evening Post.]In certain parts of the South “all over hell and half of Georgia” signifies the limits of the known earth. Also, there are many who believe the myth that the Pleiades point the way home for the traveler—they lie always in the heavens directly over the haven where he would be. Both of these were reasons why Uncle Tobe Braddish stayed in North Carolina, which, according to his own story, he hated. “Yes, sir,” remarked Tobe, “there come a time years ago when I wanted to leave this place and go back to Tennessee. And soon’s the seven sisters come up, I went straight after them same as a bee martin to his hole. But along to’ards midnight they doubled back on me, and by the time I’d finished followin’ them at sun-up I was right back in this settlement agin. Every night for a year I traveled all over hell and half of Georgia after them stars, and never got nowhere but here. And I reckin I’ll stay. Have you got a plug of chaw tobaccer?
5-: From one of the unconnected paragraphs making up Raglan’s Reasonings: Avilla’s Philosopher Gives More of His Views on Various Subjects, published in The Western Star (Coldwater, Kansas, USA) of Friday 18th February 1916 [page 9 (Supplement), column 2]—however, here, the phrase is hurrah for hell and half of Georgia (cf. also, above, quotation 1):
“Hurrah for hell and half of Georgia” is not, as most folks think, a profane expression, but is just a terse way of mentioning Georgia’s unique position in Uncle Sam’s bundle of states.
6-: From the column Stray Bits, by William Schaefers, published in The Catholic Advance (Wichita, Kansas, USA) pf Saturday 15th August 1925 [page 3, column 3]:
I am to leave for a trip south, across the famous Dixie Line, into the land of the black pickaninnies. […]
[…] On my return home I hope that I shall have a brighter answer to give than had Rip Daniels, who, when on his return from a hot, hurried, unprepared, and unintelligent trip south, said when asked where he had been: “I’ve been all over hell and part of Texas.”
7-: From an account of the Texas firemen’s convention held in Denton, Texas, by W. D. Van Blarcom, published in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram (Fort Worth, Texas, USA) of Tuesday 12th June 1928 [page 19, column 2]:
Before this convention is over there will be enough fire fighting apparatus in Denton to put out “hell and half of Georgia.” […] Under a tent across the street from the city hall are about half a dozen of the most modern fire fighting apparatus. They are here for exhibition purposes and are constantly surrounded by scores of interested.