Hale’s Holiday
By Edie Stoltz Zolkower

Think about how you’ll celebrate Thanksgiving this year. Will you share a turkey dinner with friends and family? Maybe you’ll watch a football game or parade on T.V. No matter what your holiday tradition, one thing’s for sure: Everyone who lives in America will celebrate Thanksgiving on the same day. Though this may not seem strange to you, at one time in history it wasn’t so typical.

Before Abraham Lincoln became President, people in different states observed Thanksgiving on different days. That’s because a national day of Thanksgiving wasn’t declared until Lincoln took office. So who should we thank for making Thanksgiving a national holiday? Sarah Josepha Hale, that’s who!

Because of her tireless 40-year letter-writing campaign to presidents, state governors, Navy commanders, newspapers, and magazines, every state in America now celebrates Thanksgiving on the same day each year. Considering she wrote these letters with a quill pen—not on a computer—that’s a pretty big accomplishment.

Who was Sarah Hale?

While Sarah was growing up on a farm in New Hampshire, some states celebrated on one day, while others celebrated on another. Even worse, some states totally ignored the holiday! She believed it should be observed on one official day.

Since Sarah felt strongly that Thanksgiving should be given more importance, she wrote to President Zachary Taylor, asking him to declare a national day of Thanksgiving. Unfortunately, he rejected her first request. But that didn’t stop Sarah from trying again.

When the next President, Millard Fillmore was in office, she wrote to him with the same request. Again, the answer was “No.” Still, Sarah didn’t give up. She wrote to the next two presidents, Franklin Pierce and James Buchanan, only to receive the same answer. It wasn’t until Abraham Lincoln was president that Sarah finally got the answer she’d been looking for. In 1863, President Lincoln agreed that there should be one national day of Thanksgiving, on the fourth Thursday of November. Sarah’s hard work had finally paid off!

Renaissance woman

Sarah’s persistence helped her do more than talk turkey. In fact, Sarah was also well-known for several other endeavors.

For instance, she was the first woman in America to become a magazine editor. The magazine was called “Lady’s Book” and became one of the most successful magazines of its time. And she was also famous for writing one of the popular nursery rhymes in history, “Mary Had a Little Lamb.” Sarah got the idea for this song when she was a teacher and a lamb actually followed one of her students to school.

Not b-a-a-a-d work from a talented writer. Plus, without Sarah’s determination, we might not enjoy America’s favorite feast. Now that’s something to be thankful for.