Did you know that the author of a poem about a little girl and her lamb was also a major influencer and advocate for Thanksgiving as a national holiday? Her name was Sarah Josepha Hale (1788-1879).

During her lifetime, Sarah was an author, poet and editor for the Ladies’ Magazine (1828-1836) in Boston. Her collection Poems for Our Children which included Mary Had a Little Lamb was published in 1830.

Mrs. Hale’s campaign to institute Thanksgiving as a national holiday began in 1846 and continued for seventeen years through letters to presidents Zachary Taylor, Millard Filmore, Franklin Pierce, James Buchanan and Abraham Lincoln. In the early to mid 1800's, Thanksgiving was roughly a regional holiday. Mr. Lincoln was persuaded and supported legislation to establish it as a national holiday to be celebrated on the last Thursday in November in 1863. The new holiday was viewed to be unifier for our country after the Civil War.

Because of her relentless stand, Sarah earned the moniker “Mother of Thanksgiving”. She also influenced the modern Thanksgiving dinner menu. In her novel Northwood: Or, a Tale of New England, she devoted a chapter to describing foods for a Thanksgiving meal—“roasted turkey, gravy, savory stuffing, chicken pie, pumpkin pie, pickles, cakes, and preserves—and to drink ginger beer, currant wine and cider.” ¹ Sound familiar?

Some of these foods are on our table as well as sauerkraut. The German immigrant population in our city grew during the 1880's and 1890's. My mother told me that her parents lived next door to a German family in the early 1920's so it is very possible that a cultural food exchange took place solidifying the dish as a 100 year old Thanksgiving tradition.

What unique or regional foods are on your Thanksgiving Dinner menu? Share them with us. They might be on our tables next year.

Source: Sarah Josepha Hale.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Josepha_Hale.Page last edited on 21 October 2025(UTC).