The Uncooperative Lehigh River

     As the sun was setting on Bethlehem, on August 9, 1814, a crudely built ship, called an ark, was floating by on the Lehigh River. Its cargo would bring Bethlehem into the industrial age. The ark contained twenty-four tons of “black diamonds” or anthracite coal from the Room Run Mine. The ark was sixty-five feet in length and fourteen feet in width and built with hemlock wood. It began its journey at the landings at Lausanne with a crew of six men. Within a quarter mile the ark collided with a slate ledge that caused a gash its side. The crew ripped off their clothing and successfully plugged the hole. The ark stayed afloat all the way to its destination of Philadelphia, five days later.

     The Lenni Lenape were the first to discover the coal and spoke of it to the early settlers. Philip Ginter may have heard these rumors so when he stumbled upon some black rocks, in 1791, while hunting on the summit of the Sharp Mountain, he took them home for further examination. Ginter had migrated to the Mahoning region in the 1770s. He was a miller, farmer and landowner of 300 acres. It is believed that Ginter took a piece of this coal to the local blacksmith, Joe Neyer, who was able to ignite the rock, confirming it was coal. Next, Ginter gave samples of the coal to Colonel Jacob Weis who was living in the area of Weissport, formally New Gnaddenhuetten or Fort Allen.

     Weiss had served as the assistant deputy quartermaster-general at Easton (1780-1783.) Upon retirement in 1783, Weis purchased 700 acres, which included the former Fort Allen, from the Moravian Brethrens and moved his family to that location. He started a lumber business and farm. Weis took the coal to Philadelphia to seek the advice of his cousin, Michael Hillegas, United States Treasurer during the Revolutionary War, Charles Cist, a printer and his brother-in-law, John Nicholson, the Comptroller General of Pennsylvania. Cist was able to verify that the stone was anthracite coal.  With this discovery they decided to form the Lehigh Coal Mine Company in 1792. Weiss offered Ginter assistance in securing a land warrant in exchange for pointing out the spot where he found the coal.

     At first the company’s plan seemed easily accomplished. They needed to find coal deposits, purchase the property containing the deposits, improve the Lehigh River so transportation of the coal by boat would be unimpeded and develop a market for the coal. Every part of this plan proved difficult. Weiss took charge of purchasing 10,000 acres of coal rich land. As he attempted to buy land, counter claims would surface. Weiss eventually sorted out ownership with the company purchasing the land between Mauch Chunk and Tamaqua, along the Lehigh River. The idea of mining coal from shallow pits was abandoned for digging mineshafts at the Room Run Mine near Nesquehoning. This mine was closer to the river therefore reducing the cost of transporting it. Several attempts to clear the Lehigh River for transportation of the coal failed. In 1798, a separate company was organized to deal specifically with this task, the Lehigh Navigation Company.

     The War of 1812 raised the cost of coal and limited its availability through the British blockade of Chesapeake and Delaware bays. This inspired a new attempt of transporting coal from the Lehigh Coal Mine Company down the Lehigh River to the Philadelphia market. The Lehigh Coal Mine Company began leasing their mines to other enterprising men hoping to increase the value of their mines. Some of the original investors, Hillegas, Cist and Nicholson, had passed away. The next generation (Jacob Weiss, Isaac Abel Chapman, Jacob Cist, Charles Miner, and John Robinson) took their chances with the mining and selling of anthracite. Arks were produced at Jacob Weiss’ sawmill at Lausanne. They were sixty-five feet long by fourteen to sixteen feet wide. Each ark could carry from twenty to thirty tons of coal. A pilot who navigated with a pole controlled the ark.

     Josiah White and Erskine Hazard purchased a cartload of the coal that was piled on the ark that passed through Bethlehem in 1814. They wanted to investigate its usefulness for heating the furnace at their mill, the Fairmount Nail and Wire Works, at the Falls of the Schuylkill (northwest of Philadelphia). They experimented with lighting the coal for several hours but soon gave up. They shut the furnace door and left the mill, greatly discouraged. One of the mill workers realized that he had left his jacket. He returned to the mill thirty minutes later to find the furnace to be red hot. The closed furnace door increased the flow of oxygen and facilitated the combustion. White and Hazard saw the great potential of anthracite. Their involvement in the anthracite mining industry solved many of the problems encountered by the Lehigh Coal Mine Company.

All Married Female Teachers Lose Jobs

1941 photo of married teachers from Liberty High School.

     The deadline of July 15, 1940, set by the Bethlehem School Board, came and went with no response from the district’s 33 married women teachers. Over a year before, at the June 29, 1939 school board meeting, the board voted 8 to 1 to request the resignations of all the married female teachers of the district. George B. Curtis, head of the board’s administration committee, made the motion. Only one board member, Dr. Frederick F. Bruch, a local dentist, opposed it. William J. Morgan, a Bethlehem Steel employee, was board president. Clifford F. Frey, school district business manager, reported to the board that he had not received one resignation by the dead-line.

     After the 33 women teachers received written notice to resign, they banded together to refuse the ouster. They hired an attorney and informed the school board that they could not be removed simply because they were married. They felt that board’s order was unconstitutional.  The women teachers warned that if the board followed through on their removal they would fight it until it reached the highest court in the state.

     The inspiration behind the board’s decision was to save money. The women teachers would be replaced by "applicants at a beginning salary rate." This, Curtis said, "would result in a saving of $24,700 the first year and eventually would reduce "the tax burden generally."

     Northampton County Superintendent of Schools, George A. Grim noted that the Great Depression had a terrible impact on Northampton County schools, especially in Bethlehem. Bethlehem had the lowest allocation of text books per students in the county. Between 1929 and 1939, there only was only a one percent increase in new students.

    The Bethlehem School Board of the 1930s and early 1940s was a fiscally conservative and autocratic board. A commission was formed in 1937 to study the problems of the district. It was headed by William E. Arnold of the University of Pennsylvania. The committee’s conclusions were presented in a 328 page book. The committee observed that the board gave very little authority to the superintendent of Bethlehem schools, W. H. Weiss. They commented that there was far too much fighting amongst board members and that the curriculum was badly in need of updating. This was an evaluation of the same board that decided for economic reasons to replace all the married women teachers. In 1945, a Citizen’s Committee was formed which successfully instated four new board members, including the first woman, Irma MacLellan.

     Before the Civil War, Northampton County schools employed mostly male teachers. Northampton County Superintendent Abraham Kind reported in 1865 that at least 70 of his male teachers had joined the army. Kind encouraged the employment of women teachers and remarked “Their success and usefulness was equal to that of the best male teachers.”

     In the late 1930s, several bills were introduced to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives to give school boards the right to fire female teachers on the basis of marital status. None were successfully passed. The teacher tenure law passed in 1937 did not mention marital status as a condition of tenure. The law stated that a teacher must serve a three year probationary period before being awarded tenure or a permanent position. The Bethlehem School Board thought that the Pennsylvania School code gave them the power to order the resignations. The code stated, “The school board in every school district in the state may adopt and enforce such reasonable rules and regulations as it may deem necessary and proper regarding the management of its school affairs, and the conduct and deportment of all superintendents, teachers and other appointees or employees during the time they are engaged in their duties to the district.”

     The Bethlehem board’s decision of a marriage ban was reported in newspapers across the state. The board members did not make themselves available for interviews from reporters regarding their controversial ruling. We can assume the board did not follow through on their edict as the subsequent district yearbooks prominently displayed pictures of married female teachers. The priorities of Bethlehem soon were more concerned with national preparedness programs in the early 1940s. Again, a war drained the community of working men, resulting in a teacher shortage. This eased up the prejudices regarding married female teachers. Nationally the employment of married women rose from 26 percent in 1930 to 47 percent in 1940. After the 1940s, marriage bars for female teachers were unheard of.

Great White Hurricane of 1888

     The residents of Bethlehem woke up on March 12, 1888 to find the “Great White Hurricane” at their doors. They may have seen more snow in previous storms, but the combination of the 20-foot snowdrifts, the 50 miles per hour winds and zero degree temperature made for one of the worst blizzards in U.S. history. Bethlehem was completely cut off from her neighbors. The telegraph, telephone and electrical wires were down and could not be repaired because of the dangerous winds. A repairman attempted to climb a forty-foot telegraph pole, on Market Street, only to be blown off the pole as he reached the top. Fortunately he was able to grab a hold of a pin, embedded in the pole, and was soon rescued by his fellow workers. The downed wires meant no communication in or out of town and no electric lights.  Hugh snow drifts closed railroad tracks and roads. Transportation by trolleys, wagons and horses was also not possible due to weather conditions. One could not walk more than a few feet because of the snowdrifts, stinging cold winds and fear of frostbite. The wind shook the houses of Bethlehem for two days. The streets were deserted and all business stopped. Trains that usually brought mail, newspapers, or passengers did not arrive in Bethlehem. Travelers planning to leave town had to stay put. The Eagle Hotel was filled with travelers waiting to leave. Trains were stuck and isolated on tracks in the surrounding country. Conductors learned the hard way that attempts to force the trains through the drifts resulted in derailments. Most farmers could not make it into town to sell their milk and produce. Customers in a panic to buy up supplies met the one or two who did make into town.

     C.H. Linderman’s experience was typical of those who were traveling by train during the storm. Linderman, accompanied by his daughter, was traveling by train to Bethlehem from Reading. Their train only made it as far as Lyon’s Station where it remained snow bound for 17 hours. Lindermen and the rest of the passengers on the train were without food or heat, while they waited to be rescued. The train swayed back and forth as the winds swirled around it. The passengers could do nothing but watch the snow pile up higher than the train windows.

     It wasn’t until five days later that train tracks and the main roads were finally opened. The only method of removing snow was by manpower with picks and shovels. The Lehigh and Lackawanna Railroad and the Pennsylvania and Reading Railroad hired hundreds of men to dig out its snow bound trains. Even as trains were beginning to run to and from Bethlehem, many roads were still closed. Center Street, north of Geopp and Monocacy Street, north of Fairview, were impassable. A mile long, ten-foot drift closed Freemansburg Road. Fourteen-foot drifts were reported on Easton, Bath, Nazareth, and Catasauqua Roads. During the storm, firemen worried about fires igniting from the downed electrical wires. If a fire occurred they were helpless to put it out as neither man nor horse could tolerate the weather. Also the water supply was frozen. It was very fortunate that no fires were reported in Bethlehem.

     Other cities did not fare as well as Bethlehem during the “Great White Hurricane.” The East Coast, from the Chesapeake Bay to Maine, suffered fire damage of $25 million dollars worth of property. Four hundred people were killed, two hundred in New York City, alone. Two hundred ships were lost at sea. In Connecticut and central Massachusetts, 50 inches of snow fell as the winds piled up 50-foot drifts.

     The National Weather Service defines a blizzard as a storm with winds of more than 35 miles an hour and snow that limits visibility to 500 feet or less. A severe blizzard is defined as having winds exceeding 45 miles an hour, visibility of a quarter mile or less, and temperatures of 10 degrees Fahrenheit or lower. This was a severe blizzard.

     Early in the morning of March 11th, a fierce hurricane developed in the Gulf Stream along the west coast of Florida. The hurricane moved north up the east coast and was met by an area of high pressure traveling south from Newfoundland. The two weather systems collided and stalled for almost two days, west of Nantucket Island. Although the U.S. Congress created the National Weather Service in 1870, it wasn’t until weather satellites were launched in the 1960s-70s that we could depend upon accurate warnings of storms. The few days before the 1888 storm were mild and the citizens of Bethlehem were probably thinking of the early arrival of warm spring days. No one could imagine that a devastating blizzard was coming his or her way.

     As the northeast recovered from the “Great White Hurricane” citizens called for more efficient methods of dealing with snow removal. Cities began burying communication wires underground. Boston and New York created subways. Snow removal became a well-planned effort as soon as the first snowflakes fell.

End of Prohibition, Beginning of PA State Stores

Bethlehem home of master brewer Johann Sebastian Goundie.

On January 2, 1934, the state store system for selling liquor to Pennsylvania residents went into effect. Three hundred state stores were authorized to sell liquor throughout the state by a three person Liquor Control Board. The “dry” or pro-prohibition Pennsylvania Governor, Gifford Pinchot, saw prohibition coming to an end so he pushed through the legislation of a state store system. Prohibition, which banned the manufacture, sale, transport and consumption of alcohol, went into effect on January 16, 1920 as the Eighteenth Amendment to the U. S. Constitution. Over the next thirteen years the amendment became unpopular with the American people. To appeal prohibition, the U.S. Congress chose the route of state conventions to vote on ratification of the Twenty-first Amendment. The Pennsylvania state convention voted in favor of the appeal on December 5, 1933. Of the thirty-nine states only South Carolina voted against ending prohibition. To appease temperance organizations the amendment allowed for states to control alcohol sales within their boundaries.


      Since Gov. Pinchot’s time, a few Pennsylvania governors have attempted to end the state business of selling liquor. In 1974, Gov. Milton Shapp believed that the switch to privately-owned liquor stores would cut operating costs of the state Liquor Control Board and would provide more revenue for the state. He thought this change would make more brands available at lower prices and increase the number of liquor stores. In 1972, the Liquor Control Board commissioned a study to be done by a Philadelphia accounting firm. They found Pennsylvania was selling far less liquor per person than the neighboring states of Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey and New York where liquor outlets are privately owned and operated. Customers in these states paid less than they did in Pennsylvania.


      In 1981 Gov. Dick Thornburgh was also unable to convince the Pennsylvania Senate to consider a bill that would have allowed the privatization of the state liquor stores. Thornburgh blamed the unions for preventing the bill’s passage. Employees of the state stores must take civil service exams to qualify for employment. Depending on their position, they are represented by the unions of United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW), the Independent State Store Union and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.


      In 1997 Gov. Tom Ridge also failed to privatize the state liquor stores, during his terms of office. His plan was opposed by MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Drivers) and the state Council of Churches.


      The Moravians, who settled Bethlehem, permitted the consumption of alcohol amongst its members but encouraged moderation. Their “Community Ordinances” written in 1762 warned members to avoid excess drinking. The first tavern of the Lehigh Valley was Bethlehem's Crown Inn. Founded in 1745, it became so popular that the Moravians soon saw the need to build a new tavern. The Sun Inn, built in 1758, was stocked by the Moravians with the best wine and spirits available to the colonists.


      In 1803, the Moravians recruited Johann Sebastian Goundie, a master brewer from Offtersheim, Germany, to come to Bethlehem and brew traditional Bohemian-style lagers and ales. He became a well respected member of the Moravian community. His home, built in 1810, located at 501-505 Main Street, was the first brick house in town. The Historic Bethlehem Partnership restored the house as a museum and offers tours everyday except Mondays. Goundie was elected Bethlehem's first mayor in 1827.


     The Moravians, however, soon joined the temperance movement. In 1873, the American Synod of the Moravian Church voted to urge its members to abstain from drinking hard cider, beer, ale, whiskey, wine, brandy, gin, rum and patent bitters (medicines that contained small amounts of herbs and large amounts of alcohol.)


      During the years of prohibition, Bethlehem’s South Side became a hive of speakeasies and stills. The illegal activities attracted criminals from New York and New Jersey. The residents were ready to elect a mayor who could rid Bethlehem of corruption. They choose Robert Pfeifle in November of 1929. Within months of taking office, Mayor Pfeifle with the help of his newly appointed police commissioner, Frederick T. Trafford, began to close down the speakeasies in the South Side. In Mayor Pfeifle’s “Second Annual Message” of January 1931, he reported that the Bethlehem police had arrested 214 for violating liquor laws, closed 241 speakeasies, captured and destroyed 2,902 gallons of moonshine, 105 gallons of gin,159 barrels of mash, destroyed 25 stills and held 1,000 gallons of whiskey at police headquarters.


      Today, state stores employ over 2,200 store clerks and store managers in the 650 Wine and Spirits Stores located throughout the state. All taxes and revenues collected in the stores are transferred to the State Treasury. The Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board is one of the largest purchasers of wine and spirits in the United States.

Slow Down to Enjoy Freemansburg

Canal manager's home.

 

Jacob Freeman (1792-1871) was described as a well-liked and respected citizen of the quaint small town where he lived. He served the town as the coroner and justice of the peace. He would expound upon the virtues of his hometown to anyone who would listen. That is if he wasn’t busy with his favorite pursuit of hunting game. His neighbors showed their appreciation for this town booster, by naming the town after him in1830. Jacob’s grandfather, Edward Freeman, had purchased the land, in 1790, where Freemansburg would eventually be established. Jacob was able to sell off several of his lots when the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company completed the 1.5-mile section of the canal, a lock tender’s house, mule barn and Locks No.43 and 44 in the autumn of 1829. Lock No. 43 is now within the city limits of Bethlehem. A few other European settlers had arrived to settle the area before the Freemans. John Nance was considered the first settler. He opened a gristmill, known as Nance’s Mill. Nancy Run, a stream that runs into the Lehigh River at the north end of town, was named for him. Freemansburg was originally called “Nance’s Mills.” Peter Bachman, another early settler, built his home and tavern at the west end of town, in 1760. The tavern was known as Willow Grove. It was the first stone home built in this area. Legend has it that some of the local Leni Lenape shot arrows at the stone masons, from the south side of the Lehigh River. They hoped to delay the building of the home. A Bethlehem Moravian, George Huber, in the early 1760s, built a sawmill and distillery at the northern end of Freemansburg. In 1817, George Butz built his gristmill on Nancy Run.
Before the construction of a temporary wooden bridge at Freemansburg, the only way to travel across the Lehigh River was by Currie’s Ferry. Lawyer, John Currie, who lived in Shimersville, which was located across the river from Freemansburg, had erected the service. Henry Jarrett built the first temporary bridge in 1816. The bridge only lasted until 1825; when the unfortunate Daniel Schnable, with a four-horse team and loaded wagon, found the bridge could not support him. He and his horses crashed through the structure and fell into the Lehigh. Schnable and his horses survived the fall. Three more bridges followed; a covered bridge made of wood (1826), a bridge made of steel (1896) and finally the modern cement bridge (1990) we use today.
Freemansburg owed its rapid development to the canal built by Josiah White and Erskine Hazard. The majority of the canal boats floating by Freemansburg carried coal; however a few hauled logs, grain, vegetables, and limestone. It wasn’t unusual for the boatmen or “canallers” to live with their families on the boats. They often docked in Freemansburg to trade a bucket of coal for a chicken, eggs or milk. If a bank dweller was without the funds to pay for coal, they were known to set up bottles along the bank. The boatman would play the game and throw coal at the bottles. This coal would be gathered by the bank dweller to keep his family warm.
During the 1830s, Jacob Freeman built the second tavern of the town, known as the Freemansburg Hotel. The structure was described as extravagant. Thomas & Bellows opened a general store in 1831. Three more stores came in the next few years, Leeser’s, Jacob Ginsinger and P.S. Bachman. Three boatyards were built by G.&A. Bachman, Warg & Luckenbach and A. Cortright. The boat yards employed over a hundred people and produced as many as one hundred boats per year.

By 1850 there were one hundred dwelling in Freemansburg. The population boom necessitated the building of a school in 1856 as well as the town’s incorporation as a borough on January 24, 1856. The heyday of the canal came to an end as the Central New Jersey Railroad came through the area in 1860. Some of the graves in the Lutheran Reformed Church Cemetery had to be moved to make way for the tracks. The trains stopped in Freemansburg for industry and passengers. Because of the increasing popularity of cars, buses and trucks, the Freemansburg passenger station was demolished in 1966 and all rail service had stopped by 1989.

Freemansburg attracted other important industries. Bachman and Clewell established the Lehigh Valley Manufacturing Company in 1867. Their company made soap and candles. The Northampton Iron Co. built the Northampton Furnace in 1872 for the production of pig iron. William Shimer & Son Co. from 1875 to 1895 operated a cast iron toy manufacturing company. These cast-iron toy banks, trains and canons are highly collectible today.

In 1901, Lehigh Valley Traction Co. offered trolley service between Freemansburg and South Bethlehem, making the borough a favorite bedroom community for Bethlehem Steel employees. Charles Derr, Vice-President of Freemansburg Borough Council, headed the Old Freemansburg Association. In the late 1990’s they restored the 1.5 miles of canal towpath, lock tender’s house, mule barn and Lock 44. The borough owns and maintains the entire historic property. It is a favorite destination for walkers, runners and bicyclists.

Tannenberg, First American Organ Builder

Tannenberg organ at the York County Heritage Trust.

     David Tannenberg is the most well-known and respected American builder of organs of the eighteenth century. He became the first professional organ builder trained in North America. Tannenberg lived with his family in the Bethlehem, Nazareth and Lititz Moravian communities.

     In April of 1804, Tannenberg brought his last commission, a pedal pipe organ, to the 1762 Christ Lutheran Church in York where he and his assistant worked five weeks to install it in the gallery. Tannenberg did not live to see the installation finished. As he stood on scaffolding, he suffered a stroke, fell and struck his head. He died two days later on May 19, 1804, at 76 years of age. The instrument was played for the first time at his funeral service. Tannenberg was buried in the Moravian cemetery in York.

     Tannenberg was born in the village of Berthelsdorf, Saxony in the eastern part of Germany, on March 21, 1728. His parents, Johann Tannenberger and Judith Nitschmann were Moravians who had found refuge from religious persecution in their native Moravia (now the Czech Republic) on the estate of Count Nicolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf. Count Zinzendorf came to know the young Tannenberg and saw to it that he received proper schooling.

     Tannenberg arrived in Bethlehem in May of 1749 at the age of 21. His occupation initially was that of a joiner, a woodworker who did carpentry or millwork. That summer, on July 15, 1749, Tannenberg and Anna Rosina Kerner, along with 30 other couples, were married in what came to be called the "Great Wedding". The Moravian Church leaders proposed the matches but the women and men had the right to refuse the marriage. They had five children, Rosina, Mary, Anna, David and Samuel.

     When Johann Gottlob Klemm, a professional organ builder from Germany arrived in Bethlehem, in 1757, Tannenberg found his calling in life. He became Klemm’s apprentice and they built at least five organs together until Klemm’s death in 1762. They had set up a shop in the house, at the Burnside Plantation.  Tannenberg wished to continue building organs however the Moravian elders decided that the occupation would bring Tannenberg into too much contact with the outside world. Tannenberg had been making frequent trips around the colonies in search of wood, ebony, ivory, and tin. Fortunately for American music lovers, Tannenberg disobeyed the Moravian elder’s order.

     To supplement the training he had received from Klemm, Tannenberg ordered a copy of Georg Andreas Sorge’s treatice on organ pipe scaling and tuning called "The Secret Art of the Measurement of Organ Pipes". Sorge, a court organist and musical theoretician from Lobenstein, Germany, was the first to apply logarithmic progression to the scaling of organ pipes.

     In 1765, Tannenberg moved with his family to Lititz and set up his organ factory there. During his long life, Tannenberg built approximately 50 organs, along with pianos and clavichords. In Lititz, he was a part of the musical community as an organist, violinist and a cantor for the church services. He initially built organs only for Moravian churches, however by 1769, Lutheran and Reformed churches requested organs as well. Tannenberg built his organs according to the needs of the congregation. He understood that Lutheran and Reformed churches would require an organ that could stand alone and lead congregational singing of the chorales. Moravian Churches used their organs to accompany stringed and woodwind instruments. The notes played on his Moravian Church organs have been described as sweet, lovely and not overpowering. His organs were built for churches in Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina, New York and Maryland.

     George Washington was so impressed with Tannenberg’s organ at the Zion Lutheran Church in Philadelphia that he made a return visit to attend another organ recital in 1791. George (one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence) and Betsy (designer of the American flag) Ross, were admirers of Tannenberg and contracted with him to repair their house organ. Tannenberg was commissioned to build the organ for the Bethlehem Moravian Church. His plans required the church’s roof to be raised four feet higher than called for by the architect. This was done when the church was built. Tannenberg died before he could build this organ.

     There are nine surviving organs built by Tannenberg. The closest one is located at the Moravian Historical Society in the Whitefield House in Nazareth, PA., along with the only existing clavichord made by Tannenberg.  He built the organ in 1776 for the Moravian Chapel in the Single Brethren's House in Bethlehem. George Washington listened to music from this organ during a 1782 visit to Bethlehem. It was reconditioned by R. J. Brunner & Co. in 1997 through grants from the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission and Questers Whitefield Chapter 514. Questers is an international organization dedicated to preserving and restoring works of art and antiquities.

History of Thanksgiving

     Our national holiday of Thanksgiving is linked to a thanksgiving feast held in Plymouth, Massachusetts in October of 1621. The three day event was attended by ninety members of the Wampanoag tribe and fifty English settlers.  Celebrations to rejoice a good harvest have been practiced through the ages. There are records of annual feasts celebrating bountiful harvests going back to the ancient Greeks and Hebrews. A few other American communities claim to have had the first Thanksgiving. St. Augustine, Florida maintains that a Roman Catholic Mass of Thanksgiving and communal meal with the native Seloy tribe in 1565, was the first Thanksgiving. Virginia states that a ceremony of thanks was recorded by its European settlers in 1619, two years before the pilgrims had theirs in Massachusetts.
     James W. Baker, the Senior Historian at Plimoth Plantation, debunks several of the myths of the first Thanksgiving in Massachusetts. The settlers’ first Thanksgiving meal consisted of mainly meat such as venison and wild fowl. Most vegetables were not available in autumn other than cooked, mashed pumpkin or corn. No desserts were prepared as there was little sugar. The food was piled directly on the table or ground as soon as it was cooked. The settlers ate with spoons, knives, and their fingers.  They did not typically wear black, preferring earth colors and buckles were not available.
     New Englanders continued the tradition of the Plymouth Thanksgiving but most Pennsylvanians preferred their Harvest Home festival. Pennsylvania Governor Simon Snyder, in 1817, was the first to recognize Thanksgiving as an official holiday on the third Thursday in November. Governor William Findlay continued the practice the following year, setting Thursday, November 19, as Thanksgiving Day. Governor John W. Geary of Pennsylvania, in 1868, issued a Thanksgiving proclamation urging citizens to “Let us thank Him with Christian humility for health and prosperity" and “our paths through life may be directed by the example and instructions of the Redeemer.”  A week after Geary’s proclamation seven Philadelphia rabbis signed a petition stating, “An elected official, chosen by a large constituency, as the guardian of inalienable rights, ought not to have evinced a spirit of exclusiveness.” Geary did not respond to the petition.
     Sarah Josepha Hale used her position as editor of the Godley’s Lady’s Book and Magazine to campaign for a national Thanksgiving Day holiday. Beginning in 1837, she wrote letters to five presidents and every state governor advocating the holiday as a device to keep the country unified. Southern states rejected the idea considering it a Yankee tradition.  Hale did finally gain President Abraham Lincoln’s ear. Lincoln declared it a national holiday in 1863, after the Union’s victory in the battle of Gettysburg. He dedicated the last Thursday of each November as a "day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father." The holiday emphasized the religious belief that the nation was blessed by God and given a special purpose in the world.
     The first Thanksgiving Day parade occurred in 1920 in Philadelphia. Ellis Gimbel of Gimbels Department Stores sent fifty costumed employees to parade in the street to lure customers to his toy department. The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade began in 1924 when employees of the R. H. Macy and Company store on Herald Square, organized a parade to give thanks for their new adopted country. Many of the employees were immigrants and first-generation Americans.
     Public school teachers picked up on the idea of using the Thanksgiving Day holiday to teach lessons to the children of immigrants. This was an effort to Americanize immigrants. Pupils learned the story of the first Thanksgiving and acted in Thanksgiving pageants. The children then encouraged their parents to celebrate the holiday as Americans did.
     Football soon became essential entertainment on Thanksgiving. The Intercollegiate Football Association scheduled its first championship game on Thanksgiving Day in 1876. Thousands of high schools and colleges had scheduled games on the day by 1900. Listening to the Thanksgiving Day football game on the radio became an important part of celebrating the day, from the 1920s to 1950s. The first national radio broadcast of a NFL Thanksgiving Day game featured the Detroit Lions against the Chicago Bears in 1934. The first televised a broadcast of a NFL Thanksgiving game was viewed in 1956.
      President Franklin D. Roosevelt changed the date for Thanksgiving to the fourth Thursday of November in 1939, approved by Congress in 1941, to accommodate retailers who wanted a longer Christmas shopping season. This Thanksgiving, whether you are with company or alone, it is a good time to consider all the things to be grateful for.