Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-11-22
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is that up until about 1880 It was the
Irost widely circulated monthly in the
world It gained that eminence ana
held it under Mrs. Hale's editorship. an
editorship that lasted for forty consecu-
tive years.
Editorial on Project.
With this unprecedented reading
audience at her command. her first
move in her campaign for the national
izing of Thanksgiving day was TO write
an editorial on the project and print it
in her magazine. From then on, 1916
to 1863, "Godeys Lady's Book" was the
perennial exponent of this patriotic
idea. Thus Mrs. Hale's public cam
paign for Thanksgiving lasted II years
"a long time TO remain hopeful and
undiscouraged
And the historical odds were against
her Though chronicler@ have made
/. much Of the Pilgrims observance Of
1921. it is not so generally known that
in the following year, 1922, no such
observance occurred. In 1923 a day Of
Thanksgiving was kept, but not in the
Autumn and not in connection with
the harvest. though it did have TO do
with the safe arrival of a shipload of
provisions from England. Then came
two long gaps. Thanksgiving as a har-
vest and home festival was not again
celebrated until 1868 in the Plymouth
Colony, after which it was ignored until
1890, when an autumnal holiday was
declared The following year Plymouth
Colony was merged with Massachusetts
Colony and so an entity passed out Of
the American scene.
In Massachusetts, the first thanks
giving ceremonies took place at Boston
on July 8, 1880, not, of course, in COM
nemoration of the harvest. In Octo-
Der. 1881, Massachusetts, again cele-
brated, this time for the safe arrival
of Mrs. Winthrop, the Governors wife
and her children The next October a
day was kept in honor of the "bounti-
full yield"
From then on for decades Thanks
giving was observed in most irregular
fashion. Some years were skipped;
some years had more than one celebrR-
tion-sometimes for the arrival Of
ships, more often for victory over the
Indians, as in the instance of quelling
the Pequots in 1887 and the defeat OF
King Philip in 1916. 1t was not until
1859 that the Massachusetts, General
Court issued the irst recorded formal
Thanksgiving proclamation.
And this is about the sum total Of
available early facts concerning
Thanksgiving save that out of dog
cared old books of quaint type, quainter
spelling and cuaintest wording, from
faded records whose paper is so fragile
it must be protected by glass, from an
tique diaries and stray letters-a bit
here and scrap there-it has been
possible to piece together a fairly de-
tailed account of the first Thanksgiv-
ing held in New York, then New Am
Eterdam.
New FORKS First Observance.
As no single narrator seems to have
possessed all the facts. the following
story, perhaps, has never before been
told.
To begin with-and this is generally
recorded-NeW York's first ThankSgiv-
ing day was kept in gratitude for the
safe return of the Dutch after an I'M
usually fierce battle with the Indians
on Stricklands Plains, between Green
wich ard Stamford, Conn. This was
in 1914.
When the victorious soldiers re-
turned, the three or four men who had
remained at home to protect the women
and children maybe the Tongue jour-
ME to the Great Swamp" where they
4, shot "manye fine TurkieS." Wild tur-
1 key apparently was plentiful all along
the Atlantic Coast and was a favorite
feast from our national beginnings. As
], New York in 1914 barely extended be-
!, yond the Bowling Green, and the Great
. Swamp, also known as BeckmanS
Swamp, was situated on the East
. River in the present neighborhood OF
Forty-fifth to Forty eighth streets; II
took two days to procure the turkeys.
The hunters made the Tongue jour
. nie" up the island one day, shot the
turkeys at night after they had gone
10 roost and started home the follow
ing morning with the birds Slung on
foWliug pieces carried on two mems
shoulders. Josseiyn, writing in his
New England RaretieS" in 1872,
speaks of turkeys weighing so pounds,
while other writers OF the period refer
to 80 and 40 pound birds as OF average
weight.
And it is especially fitting that lob
sterS also seem to have been served al
New York's first Thanksgiving feast
I They were caught in New York Bay
and, marvellous to say, are recorded as
y being and feet long Though there
are a number of persons who write ol
E,these immense creatures through tine
q years-aS late in fact. as 1892, the date
4 of Ends Letters from America -one
is inclined to the belief that mere i
:. discovered the original American fiSf1
story! .,
But there can be little doubt that II
was at this first Manhattan Thanks
giving that the still prevalent custom
of juvenile begging originated. Ihal
this was a practice on saints days II
> Holland is probable. Certain 1t Is tna'
in 1914, after their elders had with
drawn from the board to congratulatt
each other again on the StrlcKiano'
Plains victory, New Amsterdam
'childer did goe from door to door
begging for goodies.
Lighting Of Houses.
That THANKSGIVING night all TIT
houses were "wen lit with candlewooo,
of which the diarist Higginson said:
They are such candles as I'M
Indians commonly use tne " 90
of the pine tree, cloven in two Hill
slices. something thin, which are 81
fun of the moisture Of turpentine tina
they burne as cleere as torch.
New York, the blaze of whose Grea
White Way with its millions OF electro
lamps puts out the moon ana stars
lighted with pine knots =,
Thereafter New York. like Plymouth
and Massachusetts, kept Thanksgiving
at intervals. The first observance 10
a good harvest occurred in 1859. Blu
as the colony grew and the settlement
spread I'D the Hudson, no attempt wa
made to hold regular or simultaneou
holiday. Many communities ant
parishes Observed the festival, but eacl
at q time OF its own choosing.
Only once in that span of PAP year
between the first Thanksgiving at Ply
mouth and the presidential proclama
ton of 1863 did the country as Who'll
celebrate THANKSGIVING as we now know
it. President Washington issued
proclamation for Thursday. the 26tl
day of November. 1884 circumstanc
from which Mrs. Hale took her ide
that the last Thursday Of each No
, vember should be the day appointed
incidentally, in this year 1913
thanksgiving again falls on the 26tf