Sarah Josepha Hale and Thankful Griffin

Sarah Josepha Buell Hale was born October 24, 1788. Her father, Gordon Buell, was a tavern owner and farmer. The family circumstance was such that in a era where most boys only went to the 8th grade the Buell boys went off to college a privilege very rarely afforded to females in the early 1800’s. But despite these circumstances Sarah was destined to become a major literary figure in America. Encouraged by her mother, Martha Whittlesey, and tutored by her brother Horatio, who was attending Dartmouth, she began a lifetime of self-education. Sarah married a young lawyer, David Hale, and started to raise a family. David was destined to die at a relatively young age. Sarah began to write poems and short stories finding support from the Masons in getting her material published. Her growing reputation as an author attracted the attention of a Boston ladies magazine who recruited her to become their editor. The attention she gained from this position brought her to the attention of the owners of Godey’s Ladies Book based in Philadelphia. Godey’s was the leading ladies magazine of the day. She remained “Editress” , her term, for the next 40 years. Under her leadership Godey’s assumed a major role in American society. Wikipedia notes, “During this time, she became one of the most influential arbitrators of American taste. In its day, Godey’s, with no significant competition, had an influence unimaginable for any single publication in the 21st century.” Sarah used her position to champion many causes and charities. She was a committed abolitionist. She was a leading mentor to the newly emerging female authors who struggled to find their voice. She was a leading exponent of education for women playing a leading role in the founding of Vassar. In her argument for women’s education she wrote “not that they may usurp the situation, or encroach on the prerogatives of man; but that each individual may lend her air to the intellectual and moral character of those within her sphere”. It’s an interesting exercise to contemplate the nature of the society she was living in that would prompt such a statement. She was also the leading champion of the movement to proclaim Thanksgiving as a national holiday. This subject is the focus of the remainder of this article. Sarah was the daughter of Gordon Buell who was born in Killingworth, on February 21, 1752, the son of Nathan Buell and Thankful Griffin. Gordon’s inheritance from the large Buell estate was a large piece of property in Newport, New Hampshire where Sarah was born. With Gordon’s father having died at a young age his mother Thankful assumed the role of family matriarch. In his will Thankful’s father in law, Deacon Daniel Buell, broke from tradition and granted her, a women, a level of control seldom granted to women in that era. Thankful, again breaking with tradition which dictated that a woman needed to have a husband under whose name property was to be granted, never remarried instead assuming the role of head of the family. In an era when the death of a woman was recorded simple as “the wife of ” her death is recorded as “The widow Thankful Buell”. It leads you to wonder what influence a strong willed grandmother had on a granddaughter. As such it was to her home on Roast Meat Hill, a short distance form her brother Samuel ‘s home, that the young Sarah Josepha Buell came for Thanksgiving celebrations. Why do we think Sarah came to her grandmother’s house? Families in that era were very close. Her grandmother lived until 1816. Given what we know of the times it seems inconceivable that she would not spent some of the holidays listening to the Griffin stories from her grandmother. In addition we have a surviving letter from one of her Griffin cousin contemporaries. Written by Eliza Stevens to her parents, Daniel Stevens and Mercy Griffin, living in Killingworth. “We are coming up to spend Thanksgiving with you. You need not cook anything for us for we shall bring all we want and more.” This letter is part of a collection from this one family in which a prevailing theme is a call to come and visit or we are coming to visit. As part of her ongoing effort to promote the establishment of a national Thanksgiving Day Sarah wrote the following letter.-------- From Sarah J. Hale to Abraham Lincoln, Monday September 28, 1863 Philadelphia, Sept. 28th 1863. Sir.— Permit me, as Editress of the “Lady’s Book, to request a few minutes of your precious time, while laying before you a subject of deep interest to myself and—as I trust—even to the President of our Republic, of some importance. This subject is to have the day of our annual Thanksgiving made a National and fixed Union Festival. You may observe that, for some years past, there has been an increasing interest felt in our land to have the Thanksgiving held on the same day, in all the States; it now needs national recognition and authoritative fixation, only, to become permanent, an American custom and institution. Enclosed are three papers being, printed these are easily read, which make the idea and its progress clear and show also the popularity of the plan. For the last fifteen years I have set forth this idea in the “Lady’s Book”. And placed the papers before Governors of all the States and territories—also I have sent these to our Ministers abroad, and our Missionaries to the heathens—and commanders in the Navy. From the recipients I have received, uniform the most kind approval. Two of these letters, one from Governor (now general) Banks and one from Governor Morgan are enclosed; both gentlemen as you will see, have nobly aided to bring out the desired Thanksgiving Union. But I find there are obstacies not possible to be overcome without legislative aid--that each State should, by statue, make it obligatory on the Governor to appoint the last Thursday of November, annually, as Thanksgiving Day;--or, as this way would require years to be realized. It has occurred to me that a proclamation from the President of the United States would be the best, surest and most fitting method of National appointment. I have written to my friend, Hon. Wm. H. Seward, and requested him to confer with President Lincoln on this subject. As the President of the United States has the power of appointments for the District of Columbia and the Territories; also for the Army and Navy and all American citizens abroad who claim protection from the U.S. Flag—could he not, with right as well as duty, issue his proclamation for a Day of National Thanksgiving for all the above classes or Persons? And would it not be fitting and patriotic for him to appeal to the Governors of all the States, inviting and commending these to unite in issuing proclamations for the last Thursday In November for the people of each State? Thus the great Union Festival of America would be established. Now the purpose of this letter is to entreat President Lincoln to put forth his Proclamation, appointing the last Thursday in November as the Nation Thanksgiving for all those classes of people who are under the national Government particularly, and commending this Union Thanksgiving to each State Executive: thus, by the noble example and action of the President of the United States, the permanency and unity of our Great American Festival of Thanksgiving would be forever secured. An immediate proclamation would be necessary, so as to reach all the states in season for State appointments, also to anticipate the early appointments by Governors. Excuse the liberty I have taken. With Profound Respect--------Shelby Foote, the preeminent Civil War historian,wrote concerning Thanksgiving, "By coincidence, in a proclamation issued eight weeks earlier at the suggestion of a LADY EDITOR, Lincoln had called upon his fellow citizens "to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of thanksgiving"".-------- On October 3, 1863 Abraham Lincoln issued the Thanksgiving Proclamation.-------- The year that is drawing toward its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added which are of so extraordinary a nature that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever-watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign states to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, the harmony has prevailed everywhere, except in the theater of military conflict, while that theater has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defense have not arrested the plow, the shuttle, or the ship; the ax has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well as the iron and coal as of our precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly that heretofore. Population has steadily increased notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege, and the battlefield, and the county, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom. 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. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphan, mourners, or suffers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the imposition of the Almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it, as soon as may be consistent with the divine purpose, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility, and union. In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed. Done at the city of Washington, this 3d day of October, A.D. 1863, and of the independence of the United States the eighty-eighth.-------- As Sarah and her inner circle toasted the President’s actions I can imagine her saying, I can still remember Thanksgiving at my grandmother Thankful’s.