Year: 1868

The President of the United States
and the Governor of Wisconsin have
appointed this day, November 26, as a
day of Public Thanksgiving. Are all
who read this article truly thankful? We
think they have reason to be, far more
so perhaps than they imagine. This is a
land of plenty, of health and prosperity.
A kind Providence showers down upon
us in rich abundance the choicest bless
ings the heart can desire. Yes, we should
truly be a THANKFUL people.


Let US go back into the past 25O years
or more, and see what state of things
existed then in this country we now love
so well. A little band of men, who
sought a greater freedom than they could
know in the old world, had, few years
previous, landed in the wilds of New
England, and made home among the
natives of the forests who were scarcely
less wild than the beasts which nightly
swarmed about them. Little knew they,
while Drawing the dangers to which they
were daily exposed. enduring the suffer
lngs of disease, or the agonies of death,
the mighty grandeur which the land they
had chosen was in the future to attain.
All unexplored lay the vast wilderness Of
country west of them, and where to-day,
kind readers, you haye happy homes,
then only the yells Of the red man and
the bowling of wild animals disturbed the
primeval solitude. But that handful of
men were undaunted by anything that
human beings usually fear. They had
left their native land to found nation
where men could worship God as their
own hearts might dictate, and with q
serene faith in the Almighty, and trust
ing that he in some way. which their feeble
sight could not discern, would bless their
efforts and raise upa home for the oppres'd
of all nations, they struggled on, clinging
to life when it required more bravery to
live than it did to die. And just here





About the year 1880, in the month of
June, John Winthrop sailed into Massa-
chusetts Bay with fleet of eleven ships
and more than eight hundred emigrants
and landed where colony had some eight
or ten years previous commenced settle
ment. There had been great suffering
h,r l., Il


disease. Nor did the condition of the
settlers Improve much with the addition
to their numbers We quote: The
dwellings, and perhaps the clothing, .of
the settlers were insufficient for the eli
mate. TIL. w...t:l O. 1881 was one of
unusual severity, even for New England,
and some were actually frozen to death.
Famine followed on disease. Not few
were compelled to exist on shell-fsh,
ground nuts and acorns. The governor
himself, at one time, had his last corn in
the oren. A day of Fasting and Prayer
for the colony was appointed for February
s, 1882 but Oh the 5th ship arrived
from England, we'll laden with provisions.
The day of fasting was changed to day
of THANKsGIvING-the first Of the kind
erer kept IN the present Territory of the
United States"


Thus it is seen under what circumstan-
ces the holiday which we now cherish so
highly, was first inaugurated in this coun-
try. And as we look back to those days
in which noble men sacrificed their COM
fort. their health, aye, even their lives
for our good, how our hearts should swell
with grateful emotions that We enjoy SO
much that is pleasant and good, and suf
fer SO few of the disagreeable things
which the Pilgrim Fathers experienced.
We have great nation it was founded
by noble men; it has beet kept in exist
ence by noble men, and let it now be the
aim of every American citizen to see
that the race of noble men still survive
Thus shall our Land become truly good
as we'll as great, and shall be beacon
light guiding the whole world into q state
of happiness where there shall be perpet-
,,,l tn .NI-SrrxytHo