Every November, millions of American families gather on the fourth Thursday. Few know that the holiday owes its national place on the calendar largely to one determined woman with a pen, and to a letter she mailed to the White House in the middle of the Civil War.
Her name was Sarah Josepha Hale. Her story is a lesson in persistence, and in giving thanks even when times are hard.
A widow with a pen
Hale was born in New Hampshire in 1788. Her parents believed girls deserved the same education as boys. When her husband, David Hale, died young, she was left to raise five children. She turned to writing to support her family.
Today she is best remembered as the author of the nursery rhyme “Mary Had a Little Lamb,” according to the Library of Congress. But her greatest influence came as an editor. From 1837 until 1877, she led Godey’s Lady’s Book, one of the most popular magazines for women in America. She used it to champion women’s education.
A holiday that belonged to only part of the country
In the early 1800s, Thanksgiving was not a fixed national holiday. It was observed mostly in the Northeast, and governors set the date state by state. Hale believed one shared day of thanks could help bind the country together.
So she began to write. The National Park Service notes that she was writing essays in favor of the holiday as early as 1827, and that she launched a letter-writing campaign in 1846. Year after year, she published editorials and wrote to governors and to one president after another. For about 17 years of that letter campaign, the answer was effectively no.
The letter of September 28, 1863
By 1863, the nation was torn apart by the Civil War. That July, the Battle of Gettysburg alone caused more than 50,000 casualties.
On September 28, 1863, Hale, then in her mid-70s, wrote to President Abraham Lincoln. The letter survives in the Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress. She told him there was growing interest across the land in keeping Thanksgiving on the same day in every state, and she asked him to make it official so that, in her words, “the permanency and unity of our Great American Festival of Thanksgiving would be forever secured.”
This time, the answer was yes.
A proclamation in a hard season
Just five days later, on October 3, 1863, Lincoln issued a proclamation calling on Americans to observe the last Thursday of November as “a day of Thanksgiving and Praise.” The National Park Service notes that Secretary of State William Seward wrote the text, which Lincoln issued.
What stands out is its tone. The proclamation did not pretend the war was not happening. It acknowledged the blessings the nation still had, calling them “the gracious gifts of the Most High God,” and asked that they be recognized “as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People.” It also asked Americans to remember in prayer “all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers” in the war.
The Library of Congress notes that the Confederate states did not consider themselves bound by the proclamation. Still, from that year on, presidents kept proclaiming a national Thanksgiving each year.
What happened next
The date did not stay perfectly settled. According to the National Archives, in 1939 President Franklin D. Roosevelt moved Thanksgiving a week earlier to lengthen the Christmas shopping season during the economic recovery, which caused confusion. Congress then passed a joint resolution setting the holiday on the fourth Thursday of November, and Roosevelt signed it on December 26, 1941. That is the date we keep today.
Lessons for our families
Hale’s story holds some gifts for us.
- Persistence. She did not give up after the first, fifth or tenth unanswered letter. Some good things take years. Keep writing, keep asking, keep praying.
- Gratitude in the storm. The national holiday was born during one of the darkest chapters in American history. Thankfulness is not only for easy seasons.
- Use the gifts you have. Hale could not vote, but she had a pen and used it well.
- Try it at home. This Thanksgiving, invite each person at your table to name one hard thing from this year and one blessing that came through it anyway.
Jesus once told a story about a widow who kept coming back to a judge until she received justice. Luke introduces it this way:
“And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint;”
Luke 18:1 (KJV)
Sarah Josepha Hale did not faint. Because she kept going, families across America share a day of thanks. Through every storm, we rise together, and we give thanks together too.
What is one cause or prayer you have kept at for years? Share in the comments below.
Sources: Library of Congress, “The Woman Who Helped Put Thanksgiving on the Calendar” (Nov 25, 2024); Library of Congress Magazine, “The Woman Who Helped Make Thanksgiving” (Nov 13, 2024); Library of Congress, Abraham Lincoln Papers, Sarah J. Hale to Abraham Lincoln (Sep 28, 1863); National Park Service, Lincoln Home NHS, “Lincoln and Thanksgiving”; Plimoth Patuxet Museums, “Sarah Josepha Hale”; American Battlefield Trust, “Abraham Lincoln’s Proclamation of Thanksgiving”; National Archives, “Congress Establishes Thanksgiving”; KJV Luke 18:1.
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