McLEAN COUNTY HISTORY & GENEALOGY NEWS
By Euleen Rickard
Thanksgiving Day is here. For weeks food sections of newspapers and chefs on television cooking shows have given new and fancy ways to prepare the Thanksgiving meal. The grocery stores have advertised many brands of turkeys, some “range grown, fed the finest grains and allowed to roam free,” said to be “a more tender, juicy bird with superior meat yield.”
Wild turkeys can be seen roaming free in McLean County, so free that they come into the yards of residents and a few are seen ambling down roads, slowly moving out of the way when cars pass by. Hunting season is in and some of them may be on tables this Thanksgiving Day.
In talking of long ago Thanksgivings with friends, none remembered wild turkeys roaming the county until recent years; hunters brought home quail, rabbit and squirrel but never wild turkeys. Our reminiscing led to the subject of the food of the first Thanksgiving. Did the pilgrims have turkey on that day? In a little research we learned that it is not known if they had turkey, it is certain that they had venison, pumpkin and a type of bread made from corn. And they had fish, lobster, boiled pumpkin and dried fruits. .
The Mayflower’s destination was northern Virginia but the ship was off course and landed on December 11, 1620 at Plimoth (Plymouth) Massachusetts where they stayed. The winter was devastating and forty-six, almost half, died before the following fall. The Pilgrims landed in the middle of Wampamoag Indian territory and they would not have made it through the first winter without the help of the natives.
The Wampamoag Indians with their Chief Massasoit were kind and friendly with the Pilgrims. They were hunters and gatherers and grew corn, beans and other things and taught the Pilgrims many things that helped them survive. The 1621 harvest was bountiful and the colonists had a three-day celebration.
There was a drought in 1622 so there was no celebration. In 1623 following a prayer service a steady rain fell and Governor Bradford declared another day of giving thanks. Thanksgiving celebrations were off and on until George Washington proclaimed a National Day of Thanksgiving in 1789. When Jefferson became president he did not like the idea of the National Day of Thanksgiving but Sarah Hosepha Hale, a magazine editor, became a crusader for the cause. She wrote many articles and after 40 years of writing editorials and letters to governors and presidents in 1863 President Lincoln proclaimed the last Thursday in November as Thanksgiving as we know it today.
I was privileged to be in Plymouth seeing its many historical sites on a beautiful Thanksgiving Day in 1973. There are many sites reminiscent of the Pilgrims, Indians and the first Thanksgiving Day. Plymouth Rock identified as “The rock upon which the forefathers first stepped” has been moved several times and was split in half during one of those times. It is now housed in a portico. Cole Hill is the burial place of those who died that first winter and at the top of the hill stands a statue of Chief Massasoit with the inscription “Protector and Preserver of the Pilgrims.” In 1950 the Mayflower II was built in England and in 1957 it sailed to Plymouth where it now rests in the harbor. The Pilgrim Hall Museum is the oldest, continuously operating museum in the United States. It opened in 1824 and houses artifacts from the original Pilgrims and the Wampanoag Indian Tribe who befriended them.
This year as we observe Thanksgiving let us remember the Pilgrims of the first winter in Plymouth and those that suffered through the drought and had very little to eat. One pilgrim wrote of the year of the drought… ”The place where we live is a wilderness wood, Where grass is much wanting that’s fruitful and good; Instead of pottage and puddings and custards and pies, Our pumpkins and parsnips are common supplies; We have pumpkin at morning and pumpkin at noon, If it was not for pumpkin we should be undoon.”