Sarah Buell Hale-4th Cousin- Progenator of Thanksgiving

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Sarah Buell Hale
4th Cousin

A thanksgiving Story

I would like to introduce everyone to another of our relatives from our moms side of our Family Teee. She hails from New England and was born in 1788.
Meet our 4th cousin, Sarah Josepha (Buell) Hale.

Sarah Josepha Hale, the Little Lady From NH Who Started Thanksgiving....

A Snippet of Sarah’s Life

Growing up in Newport, N.H., Sarah Josepha Hale hardly seemed likely to move a president, build a monument or influence a generation of women (and men) across America.
Born into modest circumstances, she rose to the editorship of a popular women’s magazine.
From her perch, she popularized the Christmas tree, the white wedding dress and the Thanksgiving dinner of turkey, stuffing and pumpkin pie.
Sarah Josepha Hale wielded a powerful influence on domestic fashion and taste as a 19th-century cross between Martha Stewart and Oprah Winfrey.


She was born Oct. 24, 1788 on a farm outside Newport, N.H., to Captain Gordon Buell and Martha Whittlesay Buell.
Her parents believed in education for girls, and home-schooled Sarah.
Her father suffered from wounds inflicted during the American Revolution, which made farming difficult.
In 1811, he bought a tavern on Main Street in Newport and called it The Rising Sun.
Meanwhile, Sarah grew up and taught school.

She married David Hale, a lawyer, at the Rising Sun on the day before her 25th birthday.
The couple had five children:David (1815), Horatio (1817), Frances (1819), Sarah (1820) and William (1822).
David died nine years later.
Sarah Josepha Hale wore black to mourn him for the rest of her life.

The year after her husband died, she published a book of poems with financial help from his Freemason Lodge.
Four years later in 1827 she subsequently published a novel that dealt with slavery, Northwood: Life North and South.

Thanksgiving Tradition Started by Sarah

Back then, there were only two national holidays: Washington’s Birthday and Independence Day. Only New Englanders celebrated Thanksgiving, and each of the six states scheduled its own date to celebrate from October through January.

The success of Northwood:

Northwood: Life North & South

Her book “Life North and South” got Sarah Josepha Hale the job as editor of Godey’s Lady’s Book, the biggest women’s magazine before the Civil War.

She wrote editorials in her magazine urging Thanksgiving be celebrated as a national holiday.
Her advocacy for the national holiday began in 1846 and lasted 17 years before it was successful.
In support of the proposed national holiday, Hale wrote letters to five Presidents of the United States: Zachary Taylor, Millard Fillmore, Franklin Pierce, James Buchanan, and Abraham Lincoln.

Sarah's letter to President Lincoln urging Thanksgiving as a National Holiday

Her initial letters failed to persuade, but the letter she wrote to Lincoln convinced him to support legislation establishing a national holiday of Thanksgiving in 1863.
The new national holiday was considered a unifying day after the stress of the American Civil War

Finally President Abraham Lincoln acquiesced in 1863, thinking the holiday would help unify the nation after the Civil War.
Sarah Josepha Hale was 74 years old.

But how to celebrate the new national holiday?
Sarah Josepha Hale had the answer in one chapter of Northwood: Life North and South. It included a detailed description of a New England Thanksgiving dinner, which became a template for the rest of the country.

The Feast:
She described a long table covered in a white damask tablecloth. Every child had a seat at the table; 'the more the better, it being considered an honor for a man to sit down to his Thanksgiving dinner surrounded by a large family.'

Roasted turkey, stuffed and basted, took center stage at the head of the table.

She then described an enormous amount of food: leg of pork, loin of mutton, sirloin of beef, vegetables, gravy, a goose, ducklings, pickles, preserves, a chicken pie – and the ‘celebrated’ pumpkin pie, an ‘indispensable part of a good and true Yankee Thanksgiving.'

Every place had a wine glass and two tumblers, with a slice of wheat bread on top of an inverted tumbler.

For desert they had plum pudding, custards, pie, cake, sweetmeats and fruits.

To drink, they had currant wine, cider and ginger beer – all domestically produced mild spirits.
In deference to an English visitor, the family had coffee after the meal. Sarah Josepha Hale wrote approvingly of the innovation.

Sarah Josepha Hale subsequently lived for another 15 years after her great accomplishment.

Her many other accomplishments include the poem Mary Had a Little Lamb, which was the first speech ever recorded onThomas Edison's newly invented  phonograph in 1877 and dozens of books.
She helped with the founding of Vassar College, the restoration of Mount Vernon and the completion of the Bunker Hill Monument.

The Richards Free Library in Newport bestows the annual Sarah Josepha Hale Award on a New England writer.
 Notable winners of the Hale Award include Robert Frost in 1956, Ogden Nash in 1964, Elizabeth Yates in 1970, Arthur Miller in 1990, and Julia Alvarez in 2017.
The first honoree was Robert Frost in 1956; poet Sharon Olds won it in 2016.
Most recently, the 2017 award went to Julia Alvarez.

Hale retired from editorial duties in 1877 at the age of 89.
 Hale died at her home, 1413 Locust Street in Philadelphia, on April 30, 1879.
A blue historical marker exists at 922 Spruce St. She is buried in a simple grave in the Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!!

My Family Connection to Sarah

John Repinski

is the son of:

Marlene Dietz Repinski

is the daughter of:

Raymond Dietz

is the son of:

Henry Dietz

is the son of:

Eleanor Brown Dietz

is the daughter of:

Mary Smith Brown

is the daughter of:

Martin Smith

is the son of:

Ann Wilcox Smith

is the daughter of:

Ann Stevens Wilcox

is the daughter of:

James Stevens

is the son of:

James Stevens

is the brother of:

Mary Stevens Chapman

is the mother of:

Abigal Chapman Whittlesay

is the mother of:

Joseph Whittlesay

is the father of:

Marta Whittlesay Buell

is the mother of;

Sarah Buell Hale

is he daughter of Mary and the 4th cousin of John

Sources for this post:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Josepha_Hale