Mother of Thanksgiving: Sarah Josepha Hale

 

From Wikipedia -Mother of Thanksgiving: Sarah Josepha Hale may be the individual most responsible for making Thanksgiving a national holiday in the United States; it had previously been celebrated mostly in New England.[31] Each state scheduled its own holiday, some as early as October and others as late as January; it was largely unknown in the American South. Her advocacy for the national holiday began in 1846 and lasted 17 years before it was successful.[32] In support of the proposed national holiday, Hale wrote presidents Zachary Taylor, Millard Fillmore, Franklin Pierce, James Buchanan, and Abraham Lincoln. 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.[33] The new national holiday was considered a unifying day after the stress of the Civil War.[34] Before Thanksgiving's addition, the only national holidays celebrated in the United States were Washington's Birthday and Independence Day.[35] Hale's efforts earned her the nickname "Mother of Thanksgiving".[36] Smithsonian Institution National Museum of American History curator of food history, Paula J. Johnson, claims that Hale was "key in bringing together and popularizing the Thanksgiving holiday with the menu featuring turkey and stuffing".[37]

In her novel Northwood: Or, a Tale of New England, Hale devotes an entire chapter to describing the many dishes of Thanksgiving—roasted turkey, gravy and savory stuffing, chicken pie, pumpkin pie, pickles, cakes and preserves—and to drink ginger beer, currant wine and cider.[38]