Thanksgivings Past

Last month I found myself going through the many newspapers on geneagloybank.com searching for articles of the past relating to the Halloween holiday.  I was curious about the type of articles that were written for Thanksgiving and I was pleasantly surprised. I know Thanksgiving is only days away and I thought you might enjoy reading some of these articles about Thanksgiving past. There is a wide range of articles that I found, including the importance of family, tradition and how far a family member will go for warm and love.

These first few articles you might find a little on the strange side for Thanksgiving. But even those who are in prison think of the holiday’s they realize things continue even without them.   The one about the mother who wants only warmth for her family during the holidays, she was willing to steal it.  

Patriot from Harrisburg, PA

December 1, 1902

Forger Broke Jail to Spend Thanksgiving

With Parents Brought Back by Father

By Associated Press to The Patriot. 

LOCKPORT, N. Y., Nov. 30 – C. Braithewaite, sentenced to the county jail for forgery under the name of John Daley, who broke jail Thanksgiving night, by sawing out a bar and sliding down a rope made of blankets, surprised the prison officials by returning late last night. When Jailer Foley asked: “Who’s there,” a familiar voice replied: “Daley, I’ve come back to stay with you my allotted time. Will you let me in?” Young Braithewaite, who was accompanied by his father, said he could not resist the longing to go to his family in Toronto on Thanksgiving evening. He says his father persuaded him to return and serve out his time to avoid having two crimes hanging over him all his life. Father and son bade each other an affectionate farewell. 

New York Herald from New York, NY

December 11, 1895

THANKSGIVING PRISON RELEASE

[BY TELEGRAPH TO THE HERALD

VICTORIA, B.C., Dec 10, 1895 – Advices from Honolulu this morning, per steamer Warimoo, dated December 2, state that on Thanksgiving Day that government released seven political prisoners, five natives and two whites, Walker and Rickard. Those remaining in prison are Gulick, Seward, Bowler, Bob Wilcox, Bipekane and John Wise. Public sentiment appears to favor an early release of all. Thanksgiving morning witnessed the largest and best drilled military display ever seen in Honolulu. Over 500 volunteers paraded.  

Jackson Citizen Patriot from Jackson, MI

November 25, 1898

Thanksgiving at the Prison.

The convicts at the prison were given a holiday and were given the freedom of the wings in the main building from 8 o’clock a.m. until 10 a.m., and the halls presented a busy scene during those hours. Men were hurrying here and there in search of friends or acquaintances, on pleasure of business bent. Gathered about in little groups were men earnestly engaged in the discussion on many topics, not least among them being the contract labor question; here some fellow, with a little group gathered around him, was relating some tale of past adventure; here one of the dusky sons of Africa was amusing his auditors by singing some popular ditty or showing them a new and fancy step in dancing. The men engaged in the manufacture of pearl and onyx jewelry and of many other toys were busy showing their goods and selling to who they could gifts for friends at the coming holiday season, and were seemingly good-natured, cheerful crowd, with a smile and cheery word, no matter how the heart might ache beneath that coat of gray, as thoughts of other days, home and loved ones come crowding o’er them. At 10:30 a.m. a service was held in the chapel, the Rev. Dr. Master preaching the sermon. Taking for his subject, The hand of God in all things and gave a clear, logical argument for his belief in a direct providence. The music was furnished by the prison choir. At the conclusion of the chapel exercises the men repaired to the dining room where a dinner consisting of mashed potatoes, green peas, roast chicken, bread, cakes, mince pie and coffee was awaiting them, and to which all done ample justice; then back to the cells, and stillness once more settled down over the big prison, broken only by the footsteps of the officers on duty. Thanksgiving day, 1898, has gone into the past, and the inmates of Jackson prison are grateful for the privileges enjoyed.

X.

New York Herald from New York, NY

November 30, 1893

SHE WANTED A THANKSGIVING FIRE.

Her Family Had No Turkey so She Stole a Bushel of Coal.

Victoria Pallianno, sixty years old of 150^th street and Morris ave, was held in $100 bail for trial yesterday in the Morrisania Police Court on the charge of stealing a bushel of coal form Grocery-man George F. Mervin, of 158^th street and Vanderbilt avenues. She was arrested while carrying the coal away.

She told Justice Taintor that the family was without coal and had no money to buy it and she wanted to have a fire Thanksgiving day, even though she couldn’t have turkey for dinner.

Dancing on the Grave

You guessed it another spooky find on GenealogyBank.com and it reminds me of a saying I’ve heard in many movies. I’m sure many of you have heard someone in a movie say something about dancing on a dead man’s grave but who would have thought it would be a ghost. “SAW A GHOST” appeared in the Jackson Citizen Patriot paper out of Jackson, MI in May of 1900. 

 SAW A GHOST

In a Cemetery That Danced on Dead

 Men’s Graves.

To those that are inclined to scoff at the residents near Mapledale cemetery, at New Haven, Conn., because they are excited over a ghost that dances nightly over new-made graves the point is made that the believers have seen the wraith while the unbelievers have not.

For three dark nights many persons have gathered at the cemetery gates, and ghost, being a “well-bred and considerate spectra has not disappointed them. It has walked regularly and danced with its usual grace.

Any one who does not believe in ghosts should talk to John Bertram and George E. Backmailer. They laughed at the suggestion of disembodied spirits promenading in the cemetery or anywhere else, and the suggestion that a ghost would dance they declared was manifestly absurd. The young men announced that they would clear up the ghost mystery and placed themselves on guard in the cemetery, thereby winning many compliments for their pluck until the ghost appeared. Then the two brave young men took to their heels and never stopped running until they were exhausted.

They said that nothing would persuade them to enter the cemetery again at night so long as the weird spiritualists were among those on guard. They also saw the ghost. They explained it by saying that it was a spirit seeking some one it had wronged in life.

It has not been determined whether it is a man ghost or a woman ghost, but it is properly attired, according to all traditions, in a long, flowing robe of white. It violates one of the rules for ghosts, however, in that it makes its appearance before midnight. It was about 11 o’clock Thursday when it suddenly appeared out of nowhere, and after floating about for half an hour melted into thin air in the most approved fashion.

From the stories of those who have seen it, the ghost appears to be most capricious in its movements, having fixity of purpose. Sometimes it moves slowly, and then it darts along. Occasionally it stops. At times it hops from mound to mound and when it finds a new-made grave executes a curious, slow and dignified dance.