Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1889-11-24
THANKSGIVING DAY.
Interesting FacB About Its Origin and
History.
SLOW OF GENERAL ADOPTION,
Being Originally Strictly New England
Custom.
THE DAY ALMOST UPON Us.

more universally or more Joy0usly cele-
brated than that of Thanksgiving Day,
which has been appointed for this year on
next Thursday. For week past prepa
ratiOns have been going on in innumerable
households having for their object,
the proper observance of this
National Feast Day, and the grocers
have had big runs in raisins,
currants, citron and other raw material
susceptible of being worked up into mincs-
meat, while orders for the inevitable turkey,
the succulent and reasonable oyster, and
other indispensables have piled up thick
and fast.
Everybody knows in general way, that
Thanksgiving is OF New England origin,
and thence generally spread over the whole
country, but few are aware Of the very in
terestiBg history connected with the day.
We are indebted for it to the Pilgrim
Fathers, who may be said to have cele-
brated it for the first time upon the compile.
ton OF their first harvest at Plymouth in
1921, when Governor Bradford sent out
four fowleTs in search of game that they
might after more special manner rejoice
ogether.' But fasti were much more
common among those hardy Puritans than
feasts, and though they occasionally OBJ
served a general Thanksgiving day for
specially prOpitiuous occurrence, such as
some action favorable TO them on the part
of the mother country Or the arrival of a
shiplOad of provision, they devoted much
more time to deploring their miseries than
they did to rejoicing over their blessings.
1t ID said that their adoption of the Gus
tom Of annually appointing Thanksgiv-
ing day was due to sensible old
farmer-whOse name tradition has I'M
fortunately failed to preserve-who rose
up when it was proposed in the assembly
to proclaim another fast, and plainly told
them that he believed God was weary of
their complaints in view of the fact that
He was causing the earth to reward their
labors, that He had filed the seas and
rivers with fish, had made the Dir sweet
and the climate healthful, and was per-
mittipg them the full enjoyment of civil
and religious liberty. The speaker,
therefore, proposed that instead of fast a
day OF thanksgiving and feasting should
thereafter be annually proclaimed, which
sensible suggestion was unanimously
adopted. Whether or not this is a true
account Of the origin of the practice, it is a
thoroughly established fact that by the
year 1850 it had become a fixed custom
for the Governors of the colonies of Ply
mouth and Massachusetts Bay to appoint
q Thanksgiving Day late in the autumn of
every year, q usage that coon extended to
all the other New England colonies.
The adoption of this custom outside of
New England was very slow. How slow
will be readily understood from the fact
that as recently as 1855 il was considered
a remarkable event in Virginia when Gov
ernor johnson recommended the observ-
ancs of a Thanksgiving Day and that Gov
ernor Wise refused 10 appoint one in 1857,
on the ground that he had no authority to
interfere in religious matters. Thanks
giving Day was not regularly appointed
by the Governors of New York until 1877.
During the revolutionary war Congress
annually recommended general Thanks
giving Day. Washington proclaimed one
in 1888 on the adoption of the COnstitu
ton, and another in 1895 for the sup
preston of the whisky insurrection in
Western Pennsylvania, while Madison
proclaimed one for peace with England in
1915. After Madison, Abraham Lincoln
was the first President to proclaim q
Thanksgiving Day, and he did it in 1862
and 1863 for war victories. In 1864 he
proclaimed q Thanksgiving Day in No
vember for general blessings, and his ex-
ample of that year has since been annual
ly followed by every ore of his successors
and by nearly every Stale Governor down
to the present time.
But popular as Thanksgiving Day now is
throughout the length and breadth of this
land, it is in New England that it still
continues to be what it has been for more
than Two centuries--tSe greatest and most
eagerly anticipated holiday Of the entire
year. The old Puritans and their descend
ants, who so long frowned severely upon
Christmss-W which, indeed, many OF the
latter still continue to do, refusing to it
any recognition WhateveI-fOund an excl
lent substitute for its cheerful hilarity, peace
and good will in Thanksgiving Day. For
at least a week before tle important Oc-
cssion all was activity in an old-fashioned,
rural New England household. A bushel
or more of the best wheat was sent to the
mill to be converted into flour. Great
rounds Of beef were chopped into mince
meat. Cart loads OF yellow pumpkins,
with an abundance of milk, spices, ginger,
molasses and sugar were made up into
pumpkin pies. An abundance Of turkeys,
chickens and geese were killed and made
ready for roasting A pair Of immenee
plum buildings were baked in the largest
sized esrthern pots with Indian buildings
and custard pnddings to match, while
there was baking of pound cake, plum
cake and sponge cake from morning till
night.
From it's very beginning divine worship
was an important feature Of the day OBJ
servance. and that term divine worship"
meant something very different in rural
New England IN old Colonial dsys, and
even for some forty or fifty years after
wards from what it means now. A great
majority of the members OF the religious
of that time lived at con
siderable distance from the meeting house,
and had to be up bright and early on
morning to prepare for
their long drive through "a nipping and
an eager air." for the weather in New
England is often bitterly cold by the mid
lie OF November and it was no uncom-
mon thing TO ride to Thanksgiving meet
pg" in sleigh. /
On Thanksgiving and on al other feast
md fast days, az well as on the Sabbath,
here were held two seIvices-mOruiDg and
of some three hours dura'
ion, and for places of rest and refreshmsnt
Turing the noon intermissiOn between
hem, there were erected in the immediate
vicinity of the meeting house, for the &C
,ommodstion of distant worshippers, small
buildings called Sabbath day houses.
NJ hill