Thanksgiving Day Marks American Spunk : We’ve a Host of Feisty Ancestors to Thank for Peaceful Tradition : THANKSGIVING: American

Thanksgiving . . . is the one day that is purely American.

--O. Henry

Now gather ‘round, children, for a different story about Thanksgiving, this one involving a militant suffragette editor who campaigned much of her life to bring about a regular, nationwide Thanksgiving Day.

Sarah Josepha Hale succeeded at a task where, for 250 years, others failed.

She had tenacity and strength of character, attributes amply demonstrated when, as a young widow with five children to support, she chose to make a living as a writer.

Refused to Accept Defeat

Unlike many who tried earlier and talked much but failed to take concrete action about Thanksgiving, Hale refused to accept defeat. In the midst of writing poems (including the nursery rhyme “Mary Had a Little Lamb”), novels, editorials and editing a major magazine of the 19th Century, she took time to badger Presidents and governors on the subject of setting aside a regular, nationwide Thanksgiving Day.

But we are getting ahead of the story.

First, for those who are only now planning the festive table, a quick synopsis of the background:

Thanksgiving was merely a sometime occasion for nearly 250 years. The celebration, as is widely known, had its origin in an extraordinary adventure.

When the Mayflower arrived from England in December, 1620, dropping anchor at a place called Plymouth, along the coast of the future New England, the ship carried more than 100 immigrants. During that first disastrous winter, the cruel combination of cold, hunger and disease took a heavy toll; only 51 survived.

But in the spring the survivors planted and cultivated fields of corn and barley. In the fall, when they gathered a rich harvest, Plymouth Colony Gov. William Bradford proclaimed a day of Thanksgiving. In the middle of October, 1621, one colonist reported, Bradford “sent four men fowling so they might in a special manner rejoice together after they had gathered the fruit of their labor.”

The hunters brought back a “great store of wild Turkies,” and to this were added lobsters, clams, bass, corn, green vegetables and dried fruits.

But it was merely a one-shot affair, and in the colonies during the next 155 years there was neither a regular nor unified Thanksgiving celebration; there were only local, isolated harvest festivals.

The War of Independence, during which the 13 colonies joined in a common effort for the first time, brought on the first Thanksgiving Day observed simultaneously throughout the colonies.

Action by Continental Congress

The occasion--victory over the British at Saratoga in October, 1777--was deemed so important that the Continental Congress set Dec. 18 as a day of “Thanksgiving and praise,” and it was celebrated with prayers and feasts. But again this was a one-time happening.

A dozen years later, to celebrate victory in the Revolutionary War and the successful drafting of a Constitution, President George Washington proclaimed Nov. 26, 1789, a day of national thanksgiving. This, too, failed to become a recurring event.

The time was right for the arrival of Sarah Josepha Hale. Having chosen to support her five children by writing, she turned to the challenge with enormous energy. Women writers were almost unknown in the early 19th Century, but Hale was fearless.

She wrote a book of poems for children. She wrote novels, and during a lifetime spanning 91 years she had 50 books to her credit.

One early novel led to a job as editor of Ladies’ Magazine. The publication later merged with Godey’s Lady’s Book, and under Hale’s direction it became a major periodical with a circulation of 150,000.

When Godey’s featured plans for houses, builders across the country duplicated the designs. When Godey’s displayed new styles in hats and clothes, designers and stores hurried to provide copies to clamoring customers.

Editor Hale’s interests ranged far beyond fashion and housing. She campaigned editorially on behalf of women’s colleges, free public playgrounds, day nurseries, old sailors’ homes and missionary funds for “heathen lands.”

But no cause became more important to her than a national Thanksgiving Day on a permanent annual basis.

She launched the first challenge in an 1827 editorial, writing: “We have too few holidays. Thanksgiving like the Fourth of July should be a national festival observed by all our people . . . as an exponent of our republican institutions.”

Her persistent agitation proved nothing less than remarkable.

During the next 36 years she mounted a steady campaign, peppering successive presidents and governors with personal letters. In the magazine she delivered an annual one-two-three punch: she published tempting Thanksgiving menus, gave prominent play to stories and poetry with Thanksgiving themes, and she wrote editorial after editorial to support an annual Thanksgiving Day.

When the Civil War thundered in the background, Hale seized the opportunity to make the most of the timing.

“Would it not be a great advantage, socially, nationally, religiously, to have the day of our American Thanksgiving positively settled?” she editorialized in October, 1863. “Putting aside the sectional feelings and local incidents that might be urged by any single State or isolated territory that desired to choose its own time, would it not be more noble, more truly American, to become national in unity when we offer to God our tribute of joy and gratitude for the blessings of the year?”

At the same time she dispatched a personal letter to Secretary of State William Seward. He showed it to President Abraham Lincoln, who felt the concept of national unity was precisely right. Four days later the President issued a proclamation setting the last Thursday in November, 1863, as a national Thanksgiving Day.

That quiet, peaceful tradition was observed for nearly 70 years.

But a storm of confusion burst forth in mid-August, 1939, late in the Depression Era, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt decided to advance the day of Thanksgiving from the last to the third Thursday of November.

F.D.R.’s idea was to stimulate business by creating a longer shopping time before Christmas. But F.D.R. knew that he was trifling with tradition, and possibly because he anticipated protests, he chose to make the announcement from a safe distance--he was vacationing in Campobello, Nova Scotia. His apprehension was correct.

Rebellious cries echoed across the land, not least from calendar-makers, from traditional-minded politicians, from turkey-growers, from the American Legion and from outraged sports fans.

Football schedules were kicked out of sight. With major games booked for a Nov. 30 Thanksgiving, teams were abruptly faced with the prospect of holding those contests not on a holiday but on a suddenly ordinary Thursday afternoon in near-empty stadiums.

At UCLA a spokesman gloomed: “We’re scheduled to play Oregon State Nov. 25 and can’t change the date because we’re playing that tough Santa Clara team Nov. 18. Our Nov. 30, or Thanksgiving, date with Washington State can’t be moved up, so guess we’ll have to play the game on a non-holiday weekday in our back yard and send the President a bill for our loss.”

The National Poultry, Butter and Egg Assn. sent a wire to the White House protesting that “Many (turkey) growers breed to mature and finish their crop for this holiday. Your contemplated change will be injurious to producers and disrupt marketing plans of processors and distributors.”

The American Legion complained that an earlier Thanksgiving would encroach upon the observance of Armistice Day, Nov. 11 (now known as Veterans Day).

A Pennsylvania attorney wired F.D.R.: “Why don’t you change Christmas to your birthday?”

Pollster George Gallup sampled public opinion and found that 38% approved of F.D.R.’s proposal while 62% disapproved.

The Associated Press, after polling the nation’s governors, reported that 22 states including California would celebrate Thanksgiving Nov. 23, while 23 others would observe Nov. 30. The governors of Colorado and Texas decided to proclaim two Thanksgivings.

In Iowa, where the governor chose to stay with Nov. 30, the Clayton County Board of Supervisors adopted a resolution to observe Thanksgiving on Nov. 16, “so as not to conflict with the dates set by the President of the United States and the governor of Iowa.”

In Wisconsin, the La Crosse County Board declared “We are not pikers” and decreed eight Thanksgiving days, from Nov. 23 through Nov. 30, with turkey and all the fixings daily.

In New England, most states were reluctant to make any change. New Hampshire’s Republican Sen. Styles Bridges said F.D.R.’s proposal was “a complete surprise because there had been no intimation of it in Mrs. Roosevelt’s column.” Further, Bridges said, F.D.R. might as well “abolish winter.”

F.D.R. tried it two more times--in 1940 he designated Thanksgiving Day on Nov. 21, and in 1941 he picked Nov. 20. But he also recognized defeat and, declaring that three times was enough for what had been “merely an experiment,” he proclaimed a return in 1942 to the “traditional” fourth Thursday in November.

That proclamation would have pleased Sarah Josepha Hale.

However, as you gather ‘round the table, children, you probably take it for granted that the nation is set, now and forever, on its calendar for future Thanksgivings.

But before you make any reckless bets on that score, keep this proposition in mind: A day that is “purely American” is, by its nature, a creature born of singularly independent and notoriously unpredictable personalities.