Thanksgiving Facts and Stories from Pennsylvania

“And thou shalt observe the feast of the first fruits of wheat harvest…”

Exodus 34:22

As noted in this Old Testament verse, giving thanks has been around for a long time.

Following the first Thanksgiving observed between the Wampanoag people and the English colonists in the fall of 1621 in Massachusetts, giving thanks to the Lord was not something celebrated on a regular basis in this country.

The first proclamation for the National Day of Thanksgiving was actually signed in York, Pennsylvania in 1777. The Continental Congress, routed from the city of Philadelphia by the British, had set up governance in that city.

Statesmen Samuel Adams, Daniel Roberdeau and Richard Henry Lee are credited with writing the proclamation urging the Continental Congress to recognize a day if thanksgiving and praise after the Continental Army were victorious over the British in the Battle of Saratoga, New York.  the Continental Congress.

Congress approved, and Dec. 18, 1777, was set aside as the day of observance. However, it would be many years, when the nation, embroiled in another war, established a national Thanksgiving Day.

In Pennsylvania, David Rittenhouse Porter, living in Huntingdon County when elected as Governor in 1838, declared a statewide Thanksgiving in 1843. It was not observed the following year, but in 1845, Governor Francis Shunk established November 27^th as a day of Thanksgiving, and it has been observed in the state since then.

Many Pennsylvania Germans have observed the gathering of the harvest since coming to this country. Robert Wood of the Goschenhoppen Folk writes, “It’s safe to say that in years gone by every Lutheran and Reformed church in Pennsylvania as well as most Mennonite meeting houses celebrated the gathering in of the harvest with a special “Harvest Home” service. To this day most of these congregations hold a Sunday service commemorating the harvest. This event in the liturgical year seems to be mainly practiced by Germanic Protestants.”

Researchers say on September 24, 1734, shortly after they arrived in Pennsylvania, the Schwenkenfelders celebrated their first Gedaechtnisz Tag, the September Thanksgiving.

For several decades, Sarah Josepha Hale, a native New Englander, familiar with the story of the first Thanksgiving remembrances, launched a crusade to make Thanksgiving an annual observance.

She lobbied state and federal politicians, wrote editorials and newspaper articles, and wrote letters to several presidents asking for a national day of thanks on the last Thursday in November She believed the proclamation would ease growing tensions beneath the North and South related to the issue of slavery.

Her lobbying efforts finally struck a chord with Abraham Lincoln. On October 03, 1863, he signed a proclamation, making November 26^th a National Day of Thanksgiving and Prayer. He noted:

“No human counsel hath devised, nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.

But not everyone commended the President for his proclamation. Note these comments from the Juniata Democrat in Pennsylvania:

“The Belshazzar of America, Abraham Lincoln, has set apart the last Thursday of November, (being the 26th,) as a day if thanksgiving and prayer. He robs the people of freedom and protection and revels with the sacred things in the Temple of Liberty. And the tyrant makes war upon the democrats of the North, and then asks them to return thanks for these "bounties," and the evils he has brought upon the nation. Our prayer shall be "Good Lord! deliver us speedily from the arbitrary rule of a tyrant, official wickedness and corruption, and abolition rule and ruin. Hasten their overthrow, and let tbe white-winged dove of Peace sweep away from this unhappy land of ours, the din of war, and this awful carnival of blood !” The Selinsgrove Times (Selinsgrove Pennsylvania) October 30, 1863, Page 03, from the Juniata Democrat

As far back as the 1840’s, Lewisburg merchants wanted to observe a quiet Thanksgiving.

Request - Next Thursday is Thanksgiving Day. And our merchants desire us to say that they will take it as a favor, if their customers would make their purchases on the day previous--so that they may eat their turkeys and go to church in peace. Lewisburg Chronicle (Lewisburg, Pennsylvania) November 13, 1847, Page 03

In Montour County, one resident remembered the days when the holiday was not observed.

No Thanksgiving in 1842 - We didn’t know anything about Thanksgiving around here in those days, except as we read of the observance of the day in New England." So said Elijah C. Voris of Ferry Street recently when he was asked to tell something about Thanksgiving in Danville fifty years or more ago. After making that statement he gave an interesting account of Danville as it was in 1842, when he came here, talking in substance as follows: "Christmas and the Fourth of July were the only holidays we observed then although 'general training' was counted quite a holiday. The Danville News (Danville, Pennsylvania) November 30, 1900, Page 01

In this 1910 newspaper ad, a Montour County business touting the attributes of its “Fresh Farm Water” humorously reminded readers of the Thanksgiving celebration.

Thanksgiving Day will soon be here,

It fills the turk with dread.

For he will shortly lose his life,

And also lose his head.

The poor old turk is taken out

And put upon a block.

Then swiftly falls the cruel axe.

Off goes his head kersock.

And when he's plucked and placed within

The oven hot and steaming,

The little folks just stand and look

With countenances beaming.

Then, bye and bye,

When round the board The family all is seated.

With a generous piece of turkey

Is each hungry diner treated.

And they drink Mans Farm Spring Water

And. they, pumpkin pies, do eat

For without Mans Farm Spring Water

No Thanksgiving is complete.

Danville News (Danville, Pennsylvania) November 24, 1910, Page 03