A New Yorker by the name of Sarah Josepha Hale is due most of the credit for Arkansas' first Thanksgiving celebration.
In 1846, Hale, editor of popular and influential magazine Godey's Lady's Book, sent letters to various federal officials and all governors, asking them to join her effort to extend Thanksgiving beyond New England. Although most officials did not respond, Arkansas Gov. John S. Drew reacted by proclaiming Dec. 9, 1847, as the first Thanksgiving in Arkansas.
The nation did not adopt Thanksgiving until the Civil War, when both President Abraham Lincoln and Confederate president Jeff Davis proclaimed national celebrations. Historians often cite Hale's letter to Lincoln as the cause of his proclamation; it is unknown if Hale wrote Davis also.
Sarah Hale, a poet (her best-known work is the nursery rhyme "Mary Had a Little Lamb"), was also a major supporter of Halloween, using her magazine to alert readers to its history and urging families to embrace what she saw as a fun celebration. This means that two of America's top three holidays were midwifed by the same woman.
Governor Drew might have been influenced by sentiment expressed by Arkansas newspaper editors. As early as 1842, the Arkansas Gazette was noting that the governors of New Hampshire and Massachusetts had proclaimed days of thanksgiving. "We think," the editor wrote in October 1842, "that a general thanksgiving day in Arkansas would have a salutary effect in softening the asperities of [political] parties, and in strengthening the morals of the people."
Several Arkansas newspapers reprinted Governor Drew's proclamation and otherwise promoted the first commemoration in 1847. The Arkansas Intelligencer, published at Van Buren, especially boosted the holiday. The newspaper speculated that "... we may all feel the better for having retired for a day," which promised "to strengthen our affection for each other."
From the very first Thanksgiving in Arkansas, a surprising number of businesses closed for the holiday. The Van Buren editor reported that "the stores and other business houses" would be closed. Within three years of this first Thanksgiving, the state Legislature would vote to close.
As the first holiday neared, the Intelligencer reported that "the good housewives of our community are making ample preparations to keep Thanksgiving Day in true Yankee style." Those women had "bought up and are still purchasing all the pumpkins, turkies, and geese that come to market." Arkansans eagerly accepted the old New England tradition of making the Thanksgiving dinner a central part of the celebration.
As the years passed, affluent Arkansans began taking their families to restaurants for special Thanksgiving meals. Pratt's Hotel in Little Rock advertised its special menu for the 1888 Thanksgiving dinner, and a huge menu it was. Among the "hors d'oeuvers" were "small timbals of fowl, a la Parisienne." Green turtle soup as well as "fondu of Parmesian cheese" were among the pre-dinner treats.
While the menu listed "turkey with chestnut dressing and cranberry sauce," that offering gets lost among a host of entrees such as tenderloin beef "larded with mushrooms," boiled red snapper, ribs of premium beef, a "young stuffed pig," a "leg of Southdown mutton a l'Anglaise," and game foods such as venison with currant jelly and mallard duck with "game sauce." Sweetbreads, a deceiving name for certain animal organs, were offered "braised a la Chatelaine."
Diners at the hotel could choose from a list of 31 desserts, ranging from already traditional pumpkin pie to macaroons. Peaches were among several fruits served with English cream or ice cream.
Surprisingly, the Pratt Hotel menu did not include oysters, one of the most popular ingredients in turkey stuffing. The Gleason Hotel restaurant offered a more modest menu, but included turkey dressed with oysters. In 1883, the Batesville newspaper reported that J.F. Wall & Co. "will have on hand fresh oysters twice a week, every Tuesday and Friday," a testament to the impact railroads had by safely delivering perishable foods.
Public officials often prepared Thanksgiving dinners for prisoners and other public wards. In November 1885, the U.S. marshal in Fort Smith made provisions for all 100 jailed people awaiting trial in the court of U.S. Federal Judge Isaac Parker. Jack Agery, a Black political operative and Little Rock city jailer in November 1874, fed his prisoners a simple holiday dinner of freshly butchered pork, along with beans and potatoes.
The fact that a Black man could serve as the city jailer was due to Reconstruction, a time when many white Arkansans were disfranchised for their support of the Confederacy. In November 1867, the Arkansas Gazette urged its readers to participate in Thanksgiving though "we are in chains."
The following year the editor said he was thankful "that things are no worse." In 1870 the Herald, published in Fort Smith, noted that President Grant had proclaimed a Thanksgiving day, noting "we suppose he includes the disfranchised as those too who should be thankful."
From the first celebration in 1847, many Arkansans attended religious services on Thanksgiving. All the major churches in Little Rock commemorated the new holiday. In Van Buren, religious services were held in the "forenoon."
Perhaps the most poignant report of a Thanksgiving religious service occurred during the Civil War when Texas Confederate troops were stationed in a pine forest near Little Rock in the fall of 1862. The rebel soldiers gathered among the pine trees, their torches "lighting up the beautiful forest around" for a religious service to which even the teamsters and servants were invited.
Tom Dillard is a historian and retired archivist living near Glen Rose in rural Hot Spring County. Email him at Arktopia.td@gmail.com.