{"id":18059,"date":"2025-11-27T11:31:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-27T16:31:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pioneergirl.com\/blog\/?p=18059"},"modified":"2026-04-21T12:22:04","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T16:22:04","slug":"thanksgiving","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.pioneergirl.com\/blog\/archives\/18059","title":{"rendered":"Thanksgiving"},"content":{"rendered":"

A public celebration of divine goodness; also, a day set apart for religious services, specially to acknowledge the goodness of God, either in any remarkable deliverance from calamities or danger, or in the ordinary dispensation of His bounties. \u2014 Webster, 1882<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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Thanksgiving day passed very quietly in this locality, nothing worth of note transpired during the day except the excitement caused by the bringing in of a large drove of cattle consisting of one hundred and fifteen head, to be shipped to the Chicago market. In the evening the young folks assembled at Masters Hall for a few hours recreation and returned quietly to their homes at a reasonable hour. – The Redwood Gazette, December 5, 1878.<\/em><\/p>\n

Businesses will be closed from 10 to 1 on Thanksgiving day. This will give everybody an opportunity to attend church and digest a rousing big dinner. Services at 11. \u2013 Iroquois Herald, November 23, 1883.<\/em><\/p>\n

     
\n\"\"<\/a>M<\/span>ay each Thanksgiving day be as joyful as Thanksgiving in 1931 was for the Wilders. That Thanksgiving, Laura & Almanzo, Rose, and others celebrated together, and Rose wrote in her journal that she was really thankful, for Marian Fiery had wired that Harpers had accepted her mother’s juvenile for publication. I wonder what we’d all be reading, enjoying, and obsessing over all these decades later if Little House in the Big Woods<\/em> hadn’t been published!<\/p>\n

Laura and Mary Ingalls may have read the following account of the history of Thanksgiving while living in Walnut Grove. It was published in the Redwood Falls Gazette<\/em> in 1878:<\/p>\n

Thanksgiving day<\/strong> was instituted by the Pilgrims at Plymouth as a day of fasting, thanksgiving, and prayer, in memory of the bountiful crops gathered at their first harvest in 1621. Occasional days of thanksgiving were held from then until 1680, when it became an annual custom in Massachusetts, and they were frequent in other colonies, often at different seasons and for various purposes, as for the safe arrival of ships after dangerous voyages, or for victories over the Indians. Thanksgiving day was a national institution throughout the revolutionary war; but there was no national appointment after the general thanksgiving for peace in 1784, until President Washington recommended one in 1789, for the adoption of the Constitution. There were other official appointments for national thanksgiving, in 1795 for the suppression of an insurrection, and in 1815 for the successful termination of the second war with Great Britain. It early became one of the most prominent holidays throughout England; in other sections it was frequently observed locally, and by some religious bodies. The Governor of New York has annually recommended a day of thanksgiving since 1817. Proclamations for the observance of the day were made by the Governor of Virginia in 1858. President Lincoln issued proclamations for recommending days of special thanksgiving for victories in 1862-1863, and in 1863-1864 for the annual observance of the day by the nation; since which time the President has issued such a proclamation annually, supplemented by one from the Governors of many of the states. Year by year the day is becoming a truly national festival, and especially where New England blood and sentiment have made themselves manifest. It is a day, too, which should become national in every sense, as no other nation, as a nation, has greater reason to be thankful to the Giver of all good, for liberty and progress, than ours. [\u2014The Redwood Gazette, November 28, 1878.]<\/p>\n

President Abraham Lincoln issued Thanksgiving Proclamations in the spring of 1862 and the spring of 1863; both proclamations gave thanks for victories in battle. Lincoln’s Thanksgiving Proclamation in the autumn of 1863 – the second Thanksgiving Proclamation in that year – gave thanks for the general blessings of the year. The second 1863 Thanksgiving Proclamation, the first in the unbroken string of annual Thanksgiving proclamations, is regarded as the true beginning of the national Thanksgiving holiday. While President Lincoln declared the last Thursday in November as “a day of Thanksgiving,” the day was changed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1939 to occur a week earlier to help facilitate the early start of the Christmas shopping season. There was a general outroar at the change, mostly because of the need to then change traditional sporting events to a week earlier as well. In 1941, Congress officially set the fourth Thursday in November as Thanksgiving Day– and a federal holiday.<\/p>\n

The following is the presidential proclamation for Thanksgiving Day in 1867, the year Laura Ingalls was born:<\/p>\n

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\"\"     BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, A PROCLAMATION:<\/strong><\/p>\n

     In conformity with a recent custom that may now be regarded as established on national consent and approval, I, Andrew Johnson, President of the United States, do hereby recommend to my fellow citizens that Thursday, the 28th day of November next, be set apart and observed throughout the Republic as a day of national thanksgiving and praise to the Almighty Ruler off Nations, with whom are dominion and fear, who maketh peace in His high places.<\/p>\n

     Resting and refraining from secular labors on that day, let us reverently and devoutly give thanks to our Heavenly Father for the mercies and blessings with which He has crowned the now closing year. Especially let us remember that He has covered our land through all its extent with greatly needed and very abundant harvests; that He has caused industry to prosper, not only in our fields, but also in our workshops, in our mines, and in our forests. He has permitted us to multiply ships upon our lakes and rivers and upon the high seas, and at the same time to extend our iron roads to far into the secluded places of the continent as to guarantee speedy overland intercourse between the two oceans. He has inclined our hearts to turn away from domestic contentions and commotions consequent upon a distracting and desolating civil war, and to walk more and more in the ancient ways of loyalty, conciliation, and brotherly love. He has blessed the peaceful efforts with which we have established new and important commercial treaties with foreign nations, while we have at the same time strengthened our national defenses and greatly enlarged our national borders.<\/p>\n

     While thus rendering the unanimous and heartfelt tribute of national praise and thanksgiving which is so justly due to Almighty God, let us not fail to implore Him that the same divine protection and care which we have hitherto so undeservedly and yet so constantly enjoyed may be continued to our country and our people throughout all their generations forever.<\/p>\n

     In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.<\/p>\n

     Done at the city of Washington, this 26th day of October, A.D. 1867, and of the Independence of the United States of America the ninety-second.  —ANDREW JOHNSON.<\/div><\/div>\n

     
\nLaura Ingalls Wilder doesn’t mention Thanksgiving in every Little House book, and even when she does, it’s usually to show the passing of the seasons or that Christmas was near; the Ingallses or Wilders weren’t actually celebrating the day itself. While Ma stews a goose and places three grains of parched corn beside each plate in On the Banks of Plum Creek<\/em> (see Chapter 12, “The Christmas Horses”), in Farmer Boy<\/em> (see Chapter 3, “Winter Night”), Almanzo thinks about the poor Pilgrims having nothing to eat until the Indians give them a bag of popped popcorn on the first Thanksgiving Day. Meanwhile, he’s busy contemplating that no two kernels of popcorn are alike as he enjoys his own bowl of it enjoyed in front of a winter fire. In Little House on the Prairie<\/em> (see chapter 16, “Fire in the Chimney”), Pa excitedly tells the family that he’s found a place where a flock of turkeys roost — their Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners — but only the Christmas turkey is mentioned after that. <\/p>\n

In The First Four Years<\/em>, Wilder writes that the Boasts and Ingallses always tried to celebrate Thanksgiving together: The holidays were near and something must be done about them. The Boast and the Ingalls families had spent them together whenever they could. Thanksgiving dinner at the Boasts’, Christmas dinner at the Ingallses’ home. Now with Laura and Manly, there was a new family, and it was agreed to add another gathering to those two holidays. New Year’s should be celebrated at the Wilders’.<\/em> The Boasts hadn’t arrived at Silver Lake camp for Thanksgiving in 1879 and the Surveyors’ house hadn’t yet been offered to the Ingallses, so it’s unknown if Thanksgiving was celebrated that year. In the late 1950s, the De Smet News<\/em> wondered if there was any Thanksgiving celebrated in the first year of De Smet’s history, noting that it followed the October blizzard and from what the editor understood, there had been no public service that year. <\/p>\n

While closed businesses and mid-morning church services continued to be the order of the day for Thanksgiving during the De Smet Little House years, Thanksgiving evening became a time of joviality. In 1884, a “grand Thanksgiving ball” was held at the skating rink, with the best of music furnished. On Thanksgiving evening in 1948, years after Laura had published the last of her Little House books, you could sit and digest your rousing big dinner while listening to Rose Wilder Lane’s Free Land<\/em>, presented over the airwaves as a radio play. <\/p>\n

     
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From my old blog dated November 23, 2005:<\/p>\n

Mary Goes to College.<\/strong> On this day in history, 1881, Mary Ingalls was enrolled at the Blind Asylum in Vinton, Iowa. November 23, 1881 \u2013 as in 2005 \u2013 was the day before Thanksgiving.<\/p>\n

You have to wonder if Charles and Caroline Ingalls enjoyed Thanksgiving dinner with Mary before returning to De Smet, or if they were traveling on that day. Were they even present during the enrollment process? Did Mary’s siblings back in De Smet enjoy dinner with the Ross family, or perhaps with Mr. and Mrs. Boast?<\/p>\n

I always wondered why Mary started school in late November. The Blind Asylum had four terms per year \u2013 just like the De Smet school did \u2013 but the fall term typically started before November. Making sure that Mary was settled before winter travel made getting to and from Iowa a problem might have been one reason she started when she did. Getting the finances in order may have been another.<\/p>\n

In early October 1881, Kingsbury County School Superintendent Amos Whiting notified the County Commissioners that Mary Ingalls was entitled to “the benefits of the Territorial Blind Asylum.” The notice was forwarded to the Governor with a certificate from the Commissioners confirming that Mary was indeed entitled to tuition and room and board. This, of course, referred to an agreement made between Iowa and Dakota Territory, because there was no blind asylum as yet in Dakota. There was, however, one in Minnesota. It is not known if they accepted some of the students from Dakota Territory as well. The father of the director of the blind asylum in Minnesota actually homesteaded in Kingsbury County, quite near the town of De Smet. I have a feeling I\u2019ve mentioned this before, but James Jabez Dow took up work with the blind and by 1875 he had devoted his life to it. His first daughter was named Mary Amelia.<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/p>\n

     
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\nThanksgiving<\/strong> (FB 3; LHP 16; BPC 9, 12; LTP 19; FFY); see also<\/em> dumplings<\/a>, New England Supper<\/a>; “Thanksgiving Time”<\/a> from the Missouri Ruralist (1916)
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