Thanksgiving’s origins began in New Jersey – here’s what happened

We were all taught that Thanksgiving Day came from 1621 in the Plymouth Colony when pilgrims and native Americans sat together for a feast.

Perhaps the mere idea of a ‘Thanksgiving’ comes from this, but it’s so much more involved.

After all, this was a century and a half before we were even a nation, and a so-called Thanksgiving only happened twice more in all that time: in 1679 when smallpox devastated New England, and in 1696 amidst a plot to kill the King.

If that first gathering in 1621 was so inspirational, why did it take so long for it to become an actual holiday, an actual American tradition?

It had everything to do with a congressman from New Jersey.

You can thank Elias Boudinot, a representative from New Jersey, for the annual holiday. It was on September 25, 1789, that Boudinot requested then-President George Washington sign a proclamation establishing a “day of public thanksgiving.”

He envisioned it as gratitude for our newly forged constitution, which had just been ratified the year prior.

Once Boudinot’s idea got in front of other lawmakers, things began to change. Some didn’t want it attached in any way to our new constitution.

Representative Thomas Tudor Tucker of South Carolina was a critic. He felt it was not the government’s place to tell the people when they should express gratitude, especially not for a constitution that had yet to be truly tested.

Southern states weren’t thrilled about a holiday coming from the northern states. The whole idea of a Thanksgiving was more contentious than most of us knew.

Yet George Washington proclaimed a National Day of Thanksgiving to be held, but instead of making it an order of law, the president proclaimed the day as a mere recommendation to the states.

For many years, Thanksgiving was largely just a northeastern holiday.

In 1861, New Jersey Governor Charles S. Olden changed the day of the Thanksgiving holiday to September 26, and only two years later, in 1863, the date was changed once again to April 30th.

In 1865, President Abraham Lincoln declared the holiday to be celebrated on the last Thursday of November.

However, New Jersey, for whatever reason, celebrated Thanksgiving that year on July 4th. Figures New Jersey would start the whole Thanksgiving idea and then go rogue, right?

By 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt re-established the Thanksgiving holiday to be celebrated on the third Thursday of November. However, only 32 states agreed.

So, for years, there was a Thanksgiving, but it depended on what state you lived in as far as what day you celebrated it.

Finally, in 1941, the House of Representatives established Thanksgiving to be celebrated everywhere on the third Thursday of November, but the Senate amended the resolution to the fourth Thursday of November.

What a long, strange road to what we know as our Thanksgiving holiday, and that road began right here in the Garden State.

Opinions expressed in the post above are those of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Jeff Deminski only.

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