On October 28, 1868, here in the Nation’s Capital, President Andrew Johnson proclaimed, “I therefore recommend that Thursday, the 26th day of November next, be set apart and observed by all the people of the United States as a day for public praise, thanksgiving, and prayer.”
William McKinley followed suit several years later and set forth the following proclamation: “Now, therefore, I, William McKinley, President of the United States, do hereby appoint and set apart Thursday, the 29th of November next, to be observed by all the people of the United States, at home or abroad, as a day of thanksgiving.” He recommended “the people gather in their places and give thanks for their faith, seed-time and harvest, for the valor and humanity of our armies and navies.” In his proclamation President McKinley also noted “the tragic visitation [hurricane] which overwhelmed the city of Galveston, Texas on September 9th, 1900 [mere weeks before his proclamation] which made evident the sentiments of sympathy and charity by which we are one united people.”
With this year’s devastating hurricanes Milton and Helene, and with Veterans Day just a few days behind us, and Thanksgiving Day just ahead, President McKinley’s proclamation and sentiments seem just as applicable in 2024 as they were in 1900. The Home, according to tradition and its mission to provide shelter and community for senior women in need, has likely held a Thanksgiving Dinner since November 25th,1869.
As an organization serving women in the District of Columbia, we certainly do not want to give all the credit for the registration of Thanksgiving Day as a holiday to President McKinley, nor to his fellow male executive branch leader, Franklin D. Roosevelt, who signed the bill making Thanksgiving Day a federal holiday. While we are grateful for their generosity of spirit, if you plumb the depths of history just a bit, there is widespread agreement by historians that more than a few women advocated for the day, and for the turkey as a mainstay of the celebratory feast.
First and foremost among these women was Sarah Josepha Hale, the 74-year-old editor of Godey’s Lady’s Book, the most widely circulated magazine in the period prior to the Civil War. With over 70,000 subscribers behind her, Mrs. Hale launched a letter-writing campaign to President Lincoln on September 28, 1863, urging him to have “the day of our annual Thanksgiving made a National and fixed Union Festival.” Mrs. Hale, sometimes called “The Godmother of Thanksgiving,” had already written an 1827 novel, Northwood, in which she dedicated an entire chapter to a New England Thanksgiving, with a resplendent roasted turkey set at the head of the table.
While Mrs. Hale’s hopes of staving off the Civil War by uniting the country around a giant turkey and sumptuous side dishes were not realized, she did instill in Americans a great love affair with Thanksgiving that continues to this day, one that still includes the inflation-busting bird to feed the whole family and guests (aka, the turkey.)
While historians have long maligned the idea of the original Pilgrims’ Thanksgiving feast as having included a turkey, we know that the native Wampanoag people did indeed serve up some sort of delicious fowl to the starving Pilgrims, thereby initiating Americans’ most famous fall tradition. Benjamin Franklin called the Meleagris gallopavo Linnaeus (wild turkey) a very respectable bird of great courage and “sumptuous indeed,” and none other than Charles Dickens in his 1843 A Christmas Carol, featured “the prize turkey” replacing, much to Tiny Tim’s delight, a meager goose in Scrooge’s change-of-heart meal with the Cratchits.
With this long history of thanks and giving, both at the Home and across the nation, to inspire us, The Aged Woman’s Home of Georgetown will be participating in a sixth GivingTuesday on Tuesday, December 3rd, 2024. We hope you will continue to support our mission and tradition of helping women in need in our Nation’s Capital.
