{"id":20327,"date":"2017-11-20T09:45:41","date_gmt":"2017-11-20T16:45:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/?p=20327"},"modified":"2017-11-20T09:45:41","modified_gmt":"2017-11-20T16:45:41","slug":"remembering-past-squabbles-over-thanksgiving-dates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/2017\/11\/remembering-past-squabbles-over-thanksgiving-dates\/","title":{"rendered":"Remembering past squabbles over Thanksgiving dates"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Happy Thanksgiving!<\/p>\n

Let’s hope we\u2019ll all set aside our politics this Thursday and give thanks for all that is good about us \u2014 America and Montana.<\/p>\n

We live in a special place \u2014 this country and this state of ours. Compared with so many other locations around the world where people face war, famine and dozens of other perils, ours is a pretty wonderful life.<\/p>\n

Now and again we forget that. There have been moments in our history when we haven\u2019t seen any reason to be thankful, and others when we even squabbled over what date to observe Thanksgiving!<\/p>\n

In 1893, the editor of the\u00a0Philipsburg Mail, upon receiving President Grover Cleveland\u2019s Thanksgiving Day proclamation fumed, \u201cThanksgiving! What on earth have the people to be thankful for to the United States government the past year?<\/p>\n

\u201cEmperor Cleveland\u2019s policies \u2026 have brought ruin and starvation upon a large part of our population, and an empty stomach is a poor thing to back up a thankful prayer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then there was the time President Franklin Delano Roosevelt broke with tradition (dating back to Lincoln) and inexplicably declared Nov. 23 as Thanksgiving Day, rather than the last Thursday of the month.<\/p>\n

Governors in half the states refused, setting Thanksgiving on the 30th instead.<\/p>\n

Montana did go along with the Roosevelt date, but Red Lodge Mayor J.C.F. Siegfriedt <\/a>(wanting to remain neutral on the issue)\u00a0 “proclaimed two Thanksgiving holidays: Thursday, November 23 for the Democrats and Thursday, November 30th for the Republicans.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thanksgiving occasionally has been celebrated on the wrong day \u2014 by mistake.<\/p>\n

\"CapreAir_Variable\"<\/a><\/div><\/div>The\u00a0Yellowstone Journal\u00a0reported that in 1876 four companies of troops made camp for the winter near Glendive and \u201c(Thanksgiving) dinner was ate with great relish.\u201d A few days later, the monthly mail arrived with news the holiday was set for the following Thursday. The troops asked for a second, real Thanksgiving. The request was denied.<\/p>\n

Sometimes the holiday went by with little notice. In 1864 D. W. Tilton, the editor of the\u00a0Montana Post\u00a0in Virginia City, spent the day alone, musing, \u201cThanksgiving day passed over very quietly \u2014 no big dinner nor dance \u2026 no invitations to come and have a square meal or a square drink,\u201d although he did acknowledge the receipt of a \u201cgallon or so of egg-nog and a huge pound cake\u201d from a couple of local bar-keeps.<\/p>\n

In 1872, Helena celebrated with \u201creligious services \u2026 turkeys, mince pies \u2026 sleigh rides \u2026 and other items of observance, indulgence and pastime,\u201d reported the Daily Herald.<\/p>\n

By 1882, in the Missoula area, there were so many grand balls scheduled on Thanksgiving night some had to be pushed back to later dates. The organizers at the Arthur House\u00a0promised \u201cevery pain will be taken to make this the grand ball of the season, and every possible attention shown to guests.\u201d A similar gala in Stevensville was postponed \u201con account of similar festivities in Missoula and Corvallis.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another highlight of the Thanksgiving holiday in early day Montana was the \u201cturkey shoot.\u201d<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Bozeman Chronicle\u00a0reported so many people turned out in 1886 for a \u201ctwo bits a shot\u201d event that the promoter \u201cdid not come out very much ahead.\u201d The organizer said, \u201cEvery time a gun went off, a chicken\u2019s head went off, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

There aren\u2019t many grand balls anymore; few turkey shoots, either.\u00a0But Montanans (then and now) have much reason to be thankful.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll leave you with some thoughts from the editor of Fort Benton\u2019s\u00a0River Press, 1<\/em>883:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe present year has witnessed the completion within our borders of the great transcontinental highway, which binds us with ribs of steel to the sister territories and states.<\/p>\n

\u201cFields have yielded bountifully \u2026 (livestock numbers) have increased without ravages of disease to diminish them. The ensuing interests of our young, thriving communities have been in the main successful. No epidemic has spread among our increasing population.<\/p>\n

\u201cTaking our general prosperity as a criterion, if any section of the country has just cause for returning thanks for feasting and self-congratulations then Montana should have a joyous holiday on the Thanksgiving day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jim Harmon is a longtime Missoula broadcaster who writes a weekly history column for Missoula Current<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Happy Thanksgiving! Let’s hope we\u2019ll all set aside our politics this Thursday and give thanks for all that is good about us \u2014 America and Montana.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":173,"featured_media":20328,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,16],"tags":[751,386,1696],"class_list":["post-20327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-diversions","category-montana","tag-glendive","tag-red-lodge","tag-thanksgiving","prominence-category-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/173"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20327"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20327\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20329,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20327\/revisions\/20329"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}