Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1880-11-24
THE DAY WE CELEBRATE.
Thanksgiving Day, its History and Growth

From the earliest ages and anon. all ma
tions the ingathering of the fruits of the
earth has been observed as 4 season Of
gladness. Especially has this been the
case with those nations and in those periods
Of the world i'll which have existed definite
views as to an Unseen Providence and the
obligations due from man to the Ruler Of
the universe, and the modes of celebrating
the occasion have been such as seemed
most decent to signify the sense of graft
tude for past bountics and the dependence
for their continuance. The special nation
al interpositions in times Of war, and in
fact all instances Of relief from great i'm
pending calamities-frOm pestilence and
grievOus calamities of every kind-have
often been made, in like manner, occasions
Of Thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving Day." which has now
become in this country q national festival,
has grown into its national character from
Il humble origin in the earliest history Of
tho American people. Its first observance
was peculiar. The cOlonists who had
landed at Plymouth in 1920, and those
who had joined them in the next ten years,
had scattered themselves along the shores
of New England, and among the places
where they had planted themselves was
the spot afterwards named Salem. On the
Sth day of April, 1880. John Winthrop,
the father OF Boston, left the shores of
old England with an cmigrant company
of seven hundred souls for home in the
wilderness of the New World. The ship
in which he sailed was named in honor of
Lady Arabella johnson, who, with her
husband, was Of the company. 1t was of
three hundred tons burden, and there were
in all some eleven ships in the enterprise.
On the Sth of June, says Winthrop in his
Journal, there came 4 wild pigeon into
the ship, !. harbingcr of land" and on June
II they landed, amid welcomes, ut their
destined port, now the city Of Salem, find
ing their friends in great dcstitutiOn, some
eighty of the colonists having died in the
previous winter, and those surviving were
"wcak and sick with fcvcrs and scurvy
and could not build city" Many lay in
tents along the Charles river, and in
their su!ierinss had scattered whers they
could, some at CharlcstOwn,. some ut Med
ford, and others at WatertOwn, Roxbury,
Lynn, Dorchester, and few at "the
Neck" now Boston. 1t was OH the 18th
of fSeptember Oh this year, 1850, that the
colonists mustered strength and courage
to begin to cut down the trees and to make
the first foundations of what is now the
great Now England city, and, as the his
torian Of the time expresses it, wanting
everyth:ng-tools, materials, and carts, as
well rs carpenters especially-thcy thus
began to build houses and found their
city,
Winter approached, and with it the in
crease of their suiterings, and SO many
had died after the arrival of the new
colOnists, and SO gloomy were the pros
poets, that over q hundred went back with
the ships to England. They had con-
tracted with Captain Pierce before the
ships left that he should "return from
England with all speed with a shipload
of provisions but this trip was not then
made with the expedition of the present
day. After his departure the food grew
short, the cold severe. and the mortality
very great. "Fasts were held and prayers
sent up to the Lord" says Dudley in let
ter to the Countess Of Lincoln, the mother
Of Lady Arabslla, "but He would not yet
be placated." and at this time their chief
subsistence, according to YOuns's Chroni-
cles Of Massachusetts, consisted Of "clams
and muscis, and grOund-nuts and acorns,
and these got with much difficulty in the
winter time" Mr.. Yager, u surgeon, "a,
right godly man." died September 50,
1850; Mr.. Higsinson, one of the minis
ters of Salem died the Lady Arabela,
the high-born and fair, "the beautiful
flower driven by the wild winds from her
sheltered garden to this desolate Shore
the fragrance of whose memory, cmbalmed
in tender inspirations of poetry, is
still preserved, died, and "Iast fell
also her husband. himself one oil the
undertakcrs and ono Of their foremost
men," From the time of their departure
from old England, in April, 1880, down to
December OF the same year, about two
hundred of the Winthrop colonists had
died. In the midst of these overwhelming
Affections they had watched and prayed
for the returning ship, but it had not come.
They had tasted in body, and with starva-
tion upon them had appointed 4 solemn
fast in spirit; and. rs tradition has it,
while Governor Winthrop was in the act
Of dividing his last peck Of meal with Il
starving man, on the 5th of February,
lifting up his eyes he detected "thc white
wings OF Il ship Oh the line Of the ocean,
which brought light and life to the way
farers." While thus making ready for
their solemn fast, Captain Pierce arriving
with his shipload of supplies, the occasion
was changed from Woe to gladness. and in
stead of a fast Oh the 22d of February, 1851,
the whole colony celebrated the first
Thanksgiving Day" OH record. Between
this date and 1856, n period of more than
half a century, the colonial records show
that no less than twenty-nine Thanks
givings, most Of them for general causes of
gratitude, were celebrated in the colonies.
The colony Of New York, under pro-
clamation Of Governor Kieft, held a public
Thanksgiving in February, 1644, on the
occasion of a victory over the Indians of
and in 1G45 another on the
ola peace with these people,
They also celebrated by authority q
October /, 17GO, for the
OF Canada from the French
which was ccnsummated by the capture of
Quebec and Montreal, and the subsequent
of hostilities of September 8,
17GO. The first attempt on the part of
any colony, outside of New England, to
institute the custom Of an annual thanks
giving, was by John Jay, who, at the be- |
ginning Of his administration as gov
srnor Of Now York, issued a procla-
nation recommending such an obser-
vance. His political opponents, appeal
ing to religious prejudices, de-
ieated his purpose. Governor De Witt |
Clinton, however, during his administra-
ion, renewed the attempt, and since that !
period the custom has always prevailed in
hat state. There was a very curious
from an early day in the
owns Of Southampton and Easthampton,
IN Long Island. Montauk Point. some
!, 900 acres Of pasturage, owned in CON-