v/: osepha Hale NL i i itary { a—— By ELMO SCOTT WATSON SK ten Americans “Why do we cele- brate Thanksgiving on the last Thurs- day in November?" and nine of them probably will answer “Why, that's because the Pligrim Fathers who es- tablished. it celebrated it then” And that, like so many of our “popular beliefs,” is only a half-truth, at best, It's true that the Pligrim Fathers were principally responsible for Thanksgiving day be Ag a red-letter day on our calendars. tut it's also true that we owe the establishment of Thanksgiving day as a national holiday on a cer tain date (certain to the extent that It alwoys occurs on the last Thursday in November) main- ly to two persons, a man and a woman, to Abra- ham Lincoln and Sarah Josepha Hale. But before discn 12 their part in the matter of establishing this popular national hoi lay, let's check up a bit on the history of the de velopment of Thanksgl The story of the first New England Thanksgiving. from which eur present-day celebration Is a direet descendant, is familiar to all Americans—how that frst winter of the Pilgrims In America had been a terrible one of cold and sickness which had left only 55 of the little company of 101 alive when the spring of 1621 came around. how all through the summer they watched with the greatest anxiety the progress of the crops they had sown. and how when antumn came there was a ‘houn Jtifal harvest, Then, according to Mourt’s “Relation. or Jour. nal of the Plantation at Plymouth”: “Our har vest being gotten In, our Gouvenour sent foure men on fowling, that so we might after a more speciall manner rejouce together, after we had gathered the fruit of our labours: they foure In one day killed as much fowle, as with a little helpe besides, served the Company almost a week, at which time amongst other Recreations, we exercised our Armes, many of the Indians com- Ing amongst us, and amongst the rest their greatest King Massasoyt, with some ninetie men, whom for three dayes we entertained and feasted, and they went out and killed five Deere, which they brought to the Plantation and bestowed on our Gouvernour, and upon the Cap- taine, and others.” The popular view is that this “first Thanks giving” was the heginning of a series of such celebrations every year. But the faet Is that the following year, 1022, no such observance oe curred. In 1622 a day of thanksgiving was held but not In the autumn and not In connection with the harvest. It was observed on July 30 and had to do with the safe arrival of a ship load of provisions from England. From then on for decades Thanksgiving was observed In most irregular fashion. Some years were skipped; some years had more than one celebration—sometimes for the arrival! of ships, more often for victory over the Indians. as in the instance of quelling the Pequots in 1637 and the defeat of King Phillp in 1676. It was not until 1089 that the Massachusetts general court issued the first recorded formal Thanksgiving proc lamation, During the Revolutionary war the people and the army observed an annual Thanksgiving day by proclamation of the Continental congress, but after peace was declared It was discontinued until 1780, In that year a new element came into the observance of Thanksgiving and one which has survived in the present celebration. That was the Presidential proclamation of a Thanksgiving day for the whole nation and It was George ‘Washington, the first President, who Issued such a proclamation setting aside Thursday, Novem. ber 26, 1780, as the day. It so happened that Thursday, November 20, 1780, was the Inst Thursday in November that year and that fact was to have an Important bearing on the later history of Thanksgiving day, as we shall see farther on in this article. But although Washington was the first to issue a [Presidential proclamation for a national Thanksgiving day, he did not establish a prece. dent which was followed consistently. During his second administration, he again issued a Thanksgiving proclamation. On January 1, 1705, “Home for Thanksgiving” in Philadelphia, which was then the national capital, he called upon his fellow Americans to “set apart and observe Thursday, the nineteenth day of February next, as a day of publie thanks. giving and prayer, and on that day to meet together and render thelr sincere and hearty thanks to the Great Ruler of Nations for” a long list of blessings which the country was then enjoying. The example set by Washington was followed by his successor, John Adams, who proclaimed two Thanksgiving days during his administration ~-gne on Wednesday, May 0, 1798, and the other on Thursday, April 25, 1700. This custom. how- ever, was allowed to lapse during the two terms of Thomas Jefferson, but it was revived by James Madison who issued four such proclamations dur ing his administration. The first one of these set aside the third Thursday in August of 1812, the second named the second Thursday in Sep ber, 1813, as the day: the third desiznnted Thurs day, January 12, 1814, and the fourth and last set aside the second Thursday in April, 1815. Thus It will be seen that although Thanksziv- ing days by Presidential proclamation in the main pleked upon Thursday as the day of the week for such an observance, the month varied greatly and there was po connection between these Thanksgiving days and the annual ohsery. ance established by the Pilgrims. No other Presidents after Madison seemed to have had occasion for proclaiming a Thanksgiving day and it remained for Abraham Lincoln to resume the custom and to link up the proclaimed Thanks. giving day with the Pligrim stom by establish. ing the last Thursday in Noi. mber as a national feast day and a day for giving thanks jut before adding another star to the crown of the Great Emancipator, heed now the ancient French admonition, “Cherchez Ia Femme!” It is here that Sarah Josepha Hale comes into the Thanksgiving picture. For It was Mra Hale, a na- tive of Newport N. H., known wherever English is spoken as the author of “Mary Had a Little Lamb,” editor of the famous magazine, Godey's Lady's Book, and a ploneer In educational and civic problems of her day’ who. hy canvassing the governors of states and territories and re eonciling sectional differences, and hy appeals ing constantly to successive Presidents, brought about the establishment of Thanksgiving day as a national holiday on the last Thursday In November, Barah Josepha Hale was a far-sighted woman in many respects. She was the first to advocate women teachers in public schools. She demand ed for housekeeping the dignity of a profession, and put the term “domestic science” into the language. She started the first day nursery, and was the first to stress the necessity of physical training for her sex, as well as the first to advo. cate public playgrounds. She founded the first society for the advancement of women's wages, hetter working conditions for women and the re duction of child labor, As early as 1827 she began advocating a na. tion-wide observance of Thanksgiving day. “We have too few holidays,” she wrote at that time. “Thanksgiving, like the Fourth of July, should he considered a national festival snd observed by all eur people , , . as an exponent of our republican institutions.” But it was not until 1848 that she began her eampaign through the editorial columns of Godey's Lady's Book to hold such a nation-wide celebration on a certain date and every year fram that time on she waged her eam Early In the spring she would write letters to the governors of all the states and territories, and to influential persons sverywhere, asking their assistance in making the last Thursday in November, which had been Washington's cholee, a universal holiday. In the hope of bringing pressure to bear upon the governors, she next opened correspondence with literally thousands of private persons of influence, with senators and congressmen and the clergy. In her effort for the establishment of state Thanksgivings she was aimost Immediately suc cessful. By 1840, the third year of her eam. paign, most states and territories were keeping individual festivals, but no attempt wax made to coincide the dates—Malne might celebrate X From a Currier 8 Jves int and frequently did—In September, Virginia tn October and Pennsylvania in November, A conglomeration of state holidays, however, was not by any manner of means Sarah Hale's goal, She dreamed of the states joined in a great national observance, and to this end sb soon began appealing to whoever happened be the President In office. Using Washington'¥ single act as a precedent and example, she privately wrote ag again to Filimore, Pleree and Bue n to no avail, It was fan age when women uteide the home were geen and not heard was the only successful herself at the time woman in the country. Feminine me ng ir ublie alTairs was not only frowned on but Mra Hale was quite aware of this antazo ers to Presi. nistie attitude, In of her lott lection at Buffalo, sh eeeed his exe not to be he was being addressed by oman! not have been prejudiced, but at least he did nothing about it Neither did Plerce, his successor, nor Buchanan, who preceded Lin colin Falling with the Presidents, she fell back on her editoris thus carrying her appeal again directly to the people. As early as 1852 she had suceeeded In whipn into line for the last 3 Each year all through the seething His she proclaimed In Godey's Ladyg’s Book that that day wonld he Thanksgiving day. and in the main the country kept it with her. The most gigantic eivil strife In the history of the world was pending, and political and sect! In 1859, while the storm was brewing, she was more vigorous than ever with her thankegiving pian, In hope that it might help to avert dls union, *If every state.” she wrote In sn editorial in Godey's, "would join in union Thankeziving on the twenty-fourth of this month, wonld it not be a renewed pledge of love and loyalty to the Constitution of the United States which guar antees peace, prosperity, progress and perpetnity to our great Republic?” So In 1870 an almost uni. versal Thanksgiving day was kept, not in re sponse to a Presidential proclamation but be cause 8 woman asked it In 1861, with the smoke of hattle darkening the land, Mra. Hale begged for a “Thankegiv. ing Day of Peace.” but there was no peace. In 1802 she again failed, but In 1583 she won—after 17 years, It came about in this way. In the September number of Godey's she wrote: “Would It not be better that the proclamation that appoints Thurs. day the twenty-sixth of November (15867) as the day of Thanksgiving for the people of the United States of Ameriea should, in the first instance, emanate from the President of the Reo public—to be applied by the governors of each and every state, in acquiescence with the Chief Executive advisor? On the twenty-ninth of September she received from Seward, Lincoln's secretary of state. an answer to her letter to the President, stating that it was receiving official attention. Four days Inter, Abraham Lincoln issued the first na. tional Thanksgiving day proclamation sines Washington's day. In it he sald "And en , . the last Thursday in November Is hereby set apart as a day of thanksgiving and praise” That set the precedent and Lincoln followed it np the next year, 1804, by naming the same date (the 5 and territories mber, nal bitterness was rife, last Thursday) In his second and last regular Thanksgiving day proclamation. Since that time other Presidents have never deviated from the custom, nor have governors of the states, As for Sarah Josepha Hale, “the Mother of Thanksgiving.” so long as she remained editor of Godey's Lady's Book (she resigned In De cember, 1877), she stood guard over her cherished holiday. Had it not been for her, In the years of elvil strife and reconstruction the set by Lincoln might very well have been put aside, but by the time she laid down her editorial firmly established. Thanksgiving day had taken ol ace In the hearts of all the people and on Jane, went to call on a dear friend, Mrs 8.. and her new born dsustior She was met at the door by little William, full of news about the new gister. “Well, what have you : ed her?” asked Jane, WHY DAD'S NOSE IS RED Two forelgn-looking girls, evident. ly domestics, were discussing their employers. “The missus is fine,” sald one, “but her husband is very, cross.” “He is?" “Yeah. But | get even with him. Every time he scolds we, | put starch in his handkerchiefs.” Boston Tran | script. Cheaper Cheating Fisherman—Boy, will you sell me i that big string of fish? Evans-—Nope, but I'l take your picture holding it for 50 cents, LEADING QUESTION overspread his happy fs2s and al most In tears he replied : News, Ingenious Norah There wus The mistross # crash in the kitchen found the maid and on the floor “Oh, mother# exclaimed the child “Just see the lovely ! 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Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers