Preserve pre·serve - n, the act to keep something alive or in existence.

Infectious laughter combined with old stories may possibly be the one tradition we most look forward to sharing this Thanksgiving. The American feast disguises itself as the holiday highlight when in fact, time spent reminiscing steals the limelight! Once a year, nostalgia reminds us how much we truly matter! Stories travel down curvier roads. Memories retrieved from a steeper past. Conversations of days gone by escalate until our sentimental urges overtake us; yielding a unison belly laugh! The ability to go back in life and feel the joy twice is tremendous! Preserving funny moments; one of life’s simple pleasures. We all have those stories. Maybe the family photo sat crooked in the living room for 30 years! Perhaps a surprise greeting from the family dog patiently waiting on the housetop for your return arrival! What memories are you preserving for future generations?

Energizing a spirit! Granting wings to preserve a lasting significance!

The Thanksgiving spirit is currently preserved and recognized, but it wasn’t alway that way. In the beginning Thanksgiving was just a day only a few states celebrated and it wasn’t recognized as a national holiday. In the latter part of the 1700’s the Continental Congress, George Washington and John Adams organized a few national days, but no true public declaration of Thanksgiving was enacted.

Preserving a Nation - One Dinner at a time.

During this same time in 1788, Captain Gordon Buell and Martha Whittlesay Buell gave birth to a baby girl named Sarah Josepha Hale. Gordon a Revolutionary War officer and Martha an advocate of education both believed in equal education for their daughter. At a time when homeschooling girls was uncommon, Sarah’s mother took it upon herself to be Sarah’s very first teacher. She passed on to her daughter a passionate love for reading books.

Sarah wrote,

”I owe my early predilection for literary pursuits to the teaching and example of my mother. She had enjoyed uncommon advantages of education for a female of her times – possessed a mind clear as rock-water, and a most happy talent of communicating knowledge.”

Sarah’s brother, Horatio, excelled and was allowed to attend Dartmouth College. Colleges were not open to women; blocking Sarah from higher education. Statistically only half of American women could read. Mainstream America felt women lacked the intelligence and moral statue to be educated. Horatio understood this injustice. He was more than willing to share all his lessons and textbooks with Sarah. He spent summers at home tutoring her in subjects of latin, philosophy, geography, literature and much more. Through a combined effort by her family she gained the equivalent of a college education.

The Power of the Pen!

Blissfully married for 9 short years, she loses her husband unexpectedly to pneumonia. Now left in financial turmoil with 4 children and 1 on the way, Sarah embarks on a literary career. She had always been an avid poet; writing poetry all along her adolescence. She collected all her poems and published them titled The Genius of Oblivion.

Later she would follow that up with one of the most famous poems in the English language, “Mary Had A Little Lamb”. Her first novel was published in the U.S. under the title Northwood: Life North and South. This novel was the first publication of an American novel written by a woman. The book was a trendsetter and opened the door to a very important job as Editorship for Ladies' Magazine of Boston. The first magazine edited for women by a woman. Essentially the nation's first women's magazine!

Preservation of unity always guided Sarah. Throughout early writings she used her platform to assemble an honoring of Thanksgiving. She declared, “Thanksgiving, like the Fourth of July, should be considered a national festival and observed by ALL our people.” Hale felt strongly the idea of slavery would continue to split the nation apart and she strongly believed a national holiday would help preserve unity. At a time of increasing division between the North and South, preserving this idea of nationality was an impressive moral quest.

Twice a year, in the Spring and Autumn, Hale would use her monthly “Editor’s Table” column to promote the need for a national Thanksgiving holiday. She insisted that everyone should celebrate it on the exact same day, the last Thursday in November, so that “the telegraph of human happiness would move every heart to gladness simultaneously.” She encouraged her magazine readers to stand behind her. Year after year she wrote thousands of handwritten letters to politicians, prominent preachers and the social elite advocating her cause. This would include presidents Taylor, Fillmore, Pierce and Buchanan.

The Renaissance Lady persuades the American President.

On September 28, 1963 another letter was sent to Abraham Lincoln from Hale urging him to issue, in her own words, the “day of annual Thanksgiving made a National and fixed Union Festival.” A continuation of a letter campaign that had been active for decades. Her letter went on to say, “It now needs National recognition and authoritative fixation, only, to become permanently, an American custom and institution.” In the middle of a raging Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln issued a “Proclamation of Thanksgiving”. On October 3, 1863, expressing gratitude for a pivotal Union Army victory at Gettysburg, President Abraham Lincoln announced that the nation will celebrate an official Thanksgiving holiday on November 26, 1863.

74 years to the day after President George Washington issued his first presidential Thanksgiving proclamation, the 74 year old Sarah Josepha Hale finally preserves solidarity. To this day she has forged a period in time in which we all sit together, to listen, to agree or to disagree; finding solutions through open dialogue. A moment to share in deep conversation or uncontrolled laughter! Companionship, the glue to our civilization. Her tireless efforts to simply preserve generosity, unity and tradition places her in a position of high esteem in national culture.

We are all deeply flawed. She realized, it is not until you are face to face with others, can one’s flaws be reflected back onto oneself. Underscoring the implications of our own behavior. In moments of connection we feel the joy of harmony. We no longer feel alone. Preserving harmony requires action. Action to play together nicely.

---

Work Cited:

Laskow, Sarah. “Read the Original Pitch for Thanksgiving, from the Editress Who Created the Holiday.” Atlas Obscura, Atlas Obscura, 23 Nov. 2016, https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/read-the-original-pitch-for-thanksgiving-from-the-editress-who-created-the-holiday.

Old Farmer's Almanac, Staff. “Sarah Josepha Hale: The Godmother of Thanksgiving.” Old Farmer's Almanac, 28 Oct. 2021, https://www.almanac.com/sarah-josepha-hale-godmother-thanksgiving#.

Rupp, Rebecca. “Cheers: Celebration Drinking Is an Ancient Tradition.” Culture, National Geographic, 3 May 2021, https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/drinking-alcohol-culture.

Staff. “Sarah Hale's Campaign for a National Thanksgiving Holiday.” Slices of Blue Sky, 15 Nov. 2020, https://slicesofbluesky.com/sarah-hale-thanksgiving/.