Thanksgiving is this week. Today we take a glimpse at the holiday from long ago.
In 1891, the Thanksgiving menu of the Headquarters Hotel in Fargo took up two pages, and included such dishes as blue point oysters, frog legs, sweetbreads and wild game like venison, quail and duck.
In 1901, The Northwest hotel in Bismarck, among its many items, offered such interesting fare as green sea-turtle, caviar on toast, black cub bear with currant jelly, and opossum, Southern style.
In November of 1902, the owner of the Hunter Herald newspaper offered a five-dollar reward after a thief stole “the fat Thanksgiving turkey” from his coop. It was the second turkey stolen from him in two weeks!
Storms aren’t uncommon on Thanksgiving in North Dakota. In 1896, two men were caught in a bad snowstorm as they traveled from Monango to the Merricourt area. They found shelter in an abandoned shack, where they stayed for three days. They found chickens at a barn nearby, and roasted the meat over a fire on the floor of the shack. In 1928, the town of Buffalo went without electricity from Thanksgiving until almost Christmas after a days-long storm of freezing rain collapsed telephone and power lines. People burned coal and wood for warmth.
In 1935, the Parshall Congregational Church held a special Thanksgiving service after paying off the debt on its parsonage. The service included a worship with the refrain, “We burn the mortgage.”
Thanksgiving in many communities in North Dakota coincided with happy events like weddings and church openings. In 1885, a Medora-area couple had a lot to be thankful for with the birth of a baby boy, who weighed a whopping thirteen and a half pounds!
Dakota Datebook by Jack Dura
Sources:
- Dickey County Historical Society, edited by Black, R.M. (1930). A history of Dickey county, North Dakota. The Dickey County Historical Society: Ellendale, ND. Page 62
- Brustuen, M., Fraase, M., Kringler, R., Larson, G., Beilke, A., Coon, I., Baasch, S., Saunders, M., Coon, C., Fraase, R., Martin, G., Masterson, A., Melvin, E., Pfeifer, C. (1980). Buffalo: Our town on the prairie. N.p. Page 93 (by Smith, L.)
- Bad Lands Cow Boy. 1885, December 3. Page 4
- Bismarck Daily Tribune. 1901, November 27. Page 2: The Northwest, Edwin G. Patterson, Prop., Thanksgiving menu
- Bismarck Daily Tribune. 1902, November 28. Page 2
- Grugel, L., Short, D., Thysell, P., Geib, H., Murray, B., Rendall, J.L., Murphy, K., Green, M., King, G., Ritter, L., Glasrud, B., Petrie, V., Miller, J., Glasrud, C., Binford, H., Rundquist, M., Harness, G., Smerud, A., Glasrud, C. (1975). A century together: A history of Fargo, North Dakota, and Moorhead Minnesota. Fargo-Moorhead Centennial Corporation. Page 37
- Golden Jubilee Book Committee. (1964). Watford City golden jubilee: Watford City, North Dakota 50 years of progress. Taylor Publishing Company. Page 165
- N.a. (1963). 50th anniversary of the first congregational united church of Christ of Parshall, North Dakota 1913-1963. N.p.
- N.a. (1983). Our community, Ayr: 100 years of caring and sharing. N.p. Page 79
