Monadnock Moment No. 174

Era 4: Expansion and Reform - 1800 to 1860

Thanks to Sarah

Although we associate Thanksgiving Day with the Pilgrims, it has been an official holiday only since the 1860's. Sarah Josepha Hale of Newport, New Hampshire played a major role in making this day one of our most important national holidays.

Sarah was born in Newport, then part of Cheshire County, in 1788. She grew up there, attended local schools, and studied her brother's college textbooks to learn Latin, philosophy and advanced mathematics. In 1813 she married David Hale, brother of Keene's well known historian, Salma Hale. Nine years later David died, leaving Sarah to support a family of five children. She taught school and began to write. Realizing the importance of education, she sent her daughters to study at Catherine Fiske's Seminary in Keene.

After publishing a successful novel in 1827, Sarah was invited to become editor of a ladies magazine which later became Godey's Ladies Book. As the first woman editor of a national magazine, Sarah used her influence to aid various charities and improve the status of women in this country. One of her most famous causes, however, was the Thanksgiving holiday. In the mid 1840s Sarah suggested that there should be a national holiday of Thanksgiving to honor our forefathers and recognize the bounty of our nation. No one was against Thanksgiving, but the states wanted to name their own day. As a result, the date of the holiday differed from year to year and state to state. For nearly twenty years Sarah wrote editorials and letters to governors and to the president calling for an official holiday. Finally, in 1863, President Abraham Lincoln declared the last Thursday in November a national Thanksgiving Day holiday. At seventy-five year old, Sarah Josepha Hale of Newport had won her long battle, and is remembered today as the "Mother of Thanksgiving."