Every week we publish a historic photo highlighting a story from Naperville’s past from the history archives of Naper Settlement.
With this being Thanksgiving weekend, let’s revisit the holiday as it occurred 122 years ago.
This photograph has the notation, “Grandpa Stark’s – Brainard Street, Family Dinner.” Based on other photographs in the Naper Settlement collection, it’s believed to have been taken on Thanksgiving 1901.
Jacob Stark moved to the Naperville area in 1846 with his seven siblings and their parents, William and Elizabeth Stark.
They settled in an area southwest of Naperville called Copenhagen, part of a group of Evangelicals of German descent from Pennsylvania who moved here in the 1840s.
Jacob married a woman, believed to be named Rebecca, who also was an Evangelical German and had migrated from Pennsylvania in 1855.
The couple had 11 children and eventually purchased the family homestead from Jacob’s parents. They later moved to 15 N. Brainard St. in Naperville in 1889.
Rebecca died in 1895 and Jacob in 1915.
The event in Plymouth that we often associate with “the first Thanksgiving” was not actual a Thanksgiving by the definition of the Puritans who organized it. It did not accompany fasting or religious reflection and was, therefore, called a “rejoicing.” It involved a feast, military drills and athletic competitions.
George Washington was the first president to offer a Thanksgiving proclamation, which celebrated the victory in the Revolutionary War and the ratification of the U.S. Constitution.
Many presidents since have made similar declarations.
Thanksgiving was first a regional holiday in the Northeast and Midwest, where Northeasterners tended to migrate. The first time it was associated with the Pilgrims at Plymouth, Massachusetts, was in 1841.
President Abraham Lincoln is credited with nationalizing the holiday.
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During the Civil War, Lincoln declared Nov. 26, 1863, as a day for all American to ask God to “commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife” and to “heal the wounds of the nation.”
The declaration was written by Secretary of State William Seward and when repeated in 1864, it set the tradition of celebrating Thanksgiving on the last Thursday of November.
In 1939, President Franklin Roosevelt broke with tradition and declared Thanksgiving should be held one week earlier.
This was to give retail stores an additional week of sales before Christmas. In those days, it was considered inappropriate to have Christmas merchandise on sale prior to Thanksgiving.
Some detractors unhappy with Roosevelt for moving the celebration date called the holiday “Franksgiving.”
One year later, in 1940, 32 states celebrated the earlier date while 16 celebrated “Republican” Thanksgiving on the last Thursday of the month.
Congress solved that in 1941 when it passed a joint resolution declaring the fourth Thursday of November as Thanksgiving.
Andrea Field is the curator of history at Naper Settlement. For more information, go to www.NaperSettlement.org.
Steve Metsch is a freelance reporter for the Naperville Sun.