Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday (yes, even more than Christmas). Over the years, I’ve pulled together stories about how the holiday was celebrated during some of the most tumultuous moments in the nation’s history.
Here are some of the top Thanksgiving history stories from the blog over the years. Enjoy – and let us know of any future holiday history you’d like us to explore in the comments below.
On November 24, 1864, the residents of Schuylkill County had much to celebrate and to be thankful for. On the second national celebration of Thanksgiving, the United States Army had begun a string of remarkable victories and the Confederacy seemed on the brink of defeat. The Civil War, it seemed, was entering its final stage.
Thanksgiving 1861 and a Pennsylvania Civil War Soldier’s Missing Turkey
Uncover how the soldiers of the 96th Pennsylvania coped with holiday expectations amid wartime challenges and the struggles of one of the unit’s members to find a missing turkey sent to him from his hometown before the holiday.
Schuylkill County’s first Thanksgiving | November 1845
On November 27, 1845, Pottsville, Pennsylvania celebrated its first Thanksgiving, a day introduced in the Keystone State by Governor Francis Shunk. The town’s churches filled with those giving thanks for a prosperous year, a tradition that later grew into a national holiday during the Civil War.
A Thanksgiving sermon in the aftermath of the 1902 Coal Strike
On Thanksgiving Day 1902, Reverend John Hensyl stood before an audience in Shenandoah’s Presbyterian Church at Oak and White streets. Before him sat a large audience from numerous Protestant churches in the Schuylkill County mining community prepared to hear a Thanksgiving message.
A Thanksgiving Night bar-room murder in a Schuylkill County patch town | November 1868
On Thanksgiving night in 1868, a bar-room altercation in the mining village of West Delaware Mines, Pennsylvania, turned deadly.
After an argument over a drink, Edward Pursel fatally shot Civil War veteran John Duffy.
More Thanksgiving Stories from Jake Wynn – Public Historian
Celebrating Thanksgiving Day in Lykens, PA | 1871
Winslow Homer depicts class divide at Thanksgiving holiday | 1860
Thanksgiving in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania | November 1943
Coal mines operated on Thanksgiving Day as World War II raged | November 1943
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