Evening star., 1951-11-22
That First Thanksgiving Day in 1921
By John M. Kouffmonn

IT HE morning gun doomed from the
i hill that overlooked Plymouth vii
lage and sent a puff of smoke scudding
before the crisp fall sea wind. Sunlight.
glinting over the whitecaps of Plymouth
Bay, was just beginning to touch the
fiery naples and gilded birches that
ringed the rude Indian cornflelds where
the Pilgrims had gathered their first
harvest.
The slow match still in his hand.
Capt. Myles Standish turned to survey
the tiny hamlet Of SO souls that awak-
ened below the hilltop battery on that
first Thanksgiving dawn in 1921. AL
ready the older women were busy build
ing outdoor fires as children began
tumbling from the 11-beam, daub and
waffle houses. Gov. Bradford stepped
out among the bands of early sun
and shadow cast by the steep thatched
roofs and Standish walked down to
Join him. In moment Elder Brew
ster appeared in his long gown, carry
ing the huge Bible, and the entire
community fell in behind him in pro-
cession to the meeting house for the
customary morning devotionS.
The Puritans were stern folk who left
little leeway for recreation and who had
broken determinedly with the festive
traditions of England. But William
Bradford was wise. The year had been
filled with fear and with death and
with unending hard work, but Provi-
dence had brought good harvest at its
close. Although in later months men
were to stagger at work for lack OF
food. there was plenty for the time.
and there was sore need for joyous
celebration. Accordingly he scheduled
a three-day harvest festival without the
usual large measure Of religious OBJ
seryance that would eliminate fun and
games. Every one needed to relax in
holiday that was more nearly an OLD
English harvest home feast than the
devout day of Thanksgiving so often
decreed by Puritans for other occasions.
A gay task it was but a, prodlglous
one. OF the 20 women who came on
the Mayf1ower the year before only four
matrons and eight older girls were le1t
alive. Four of the colony's best marks
men whom Gov. Bradford had sent out
for game had returned with a weeks
supply of wild turkeys. geese. ducks,
partridge and perhaps wild pigeon that
in later years were to make the tradi-
tional Thanksgiving pigeon pie OF New
England. All had to be prepared. and
those II women had the prospect OF
more than 100 hungry men to feed. Not
only were there the long-rationed
Pilgrims, but news had come that
friendly Chief Massasoit of the Wam-
banoags was going to crash the party
with 80 followers.
But under the efficient eye of Mistress
Brewster, motherly marshal OF the feast.
the women worked wonders. AS the
elders wife issued orders at the fire.
sides, scolding Ellen Ellington goaded
the boys who were setting up the long
trencher tables, while Mistress Susanna
White Winslow and Elizabeth Hopkins
dressed fish and fowl and ground meal
for the cakes and pasties. Humility
Cooper and Desire Minter rounded up
the colony's meager supply of wooden
bowls. peWterware and knives, while the
younger girls-handsome Priscilla Null
Inns, Mary Chiffon, Elizabeth Tilley and
Constanta Hopkins, prepared beechnut
stuffing. herbs and vegetables and kept
small thumbs from poking into the pro-
visions.
In addition to the wildfowl, there
were five deer which the Indians had
contributed to the feast. From the sea
came cod and mackerel. Holsters, crabs,
clans and oysters as well as plenty of
fat eels from the river. To add to such
ships stores as beef and biscuit was the
harvest itself: Corn. oats barley and
peas for hoe cakes and ash cakes and
corn meal puddings. There were dried
berries as we'll and perhaps cranberries
from local bogs; vegetables raised in the
Plymouth gardens and tangy wine from
wild grapes that replaced the Pilgrims
exhausted beer supply. Only lacking
was sugar for sweet tarts and pies, but
the Indians may well have brought an
even better goodie: popcorn balls made
with honey to delight children and
groWnupS alike.
And as venison and turkeys turned
on the spits and stews dubbed in the
kettles, Capt Standish's military COM
pany awed the Indians with martial
drill and discharges of musketry Back
and forth they marched and wheeled,
breastplates clanking and bugles blow
ing. Massasoit was delighted and tried
a bugle himself. 1t made a splendid
noise
Then the younger men, both red and
white, Wed in racing. leaping and marks
manship with bow and musket. The
smaller girls, when they could steal away
from Mistress Brewster's stern eye and
Mistress Billington's angry call. ran off
to play beside the brook and to search
for the delicious wintergreen and snow
berries that nestled in the moss Little
Damaris Hopkins picked nosegay of
bright red bunchberries, while Remem-
ber Allerton gathered armfuls of wine
colored moose wood leaves.
Of the boys. Bartholomew Allerton
had learned to sound the drums and
was continuing the military drill by
himself with stiff formality. Giles Hop
kins, John Crakston and John and Fran
els Ellington were engrossed in game
of stool ball. while Wrestling Brewster