The celebration of the first Thanksgiving is commonly believed to have taken place in Massachusetts in 1621 with the arrival of the Pilgrims in Plymouth. But settlers in Virginia had their own Thanksgiving celebration two years earlier, and centuries later, that event was properly commemorated and given a generous helping of publicity, thanks to tireless advocate John J. Wicker Jr.
In the first half of the 20th century, some then-newly discovered documents came to light that made mention of a day of Thanksgiving in 1619 at Berkeley plantation in Charles City County.
Historian Lyon G. Tyler, son of President John Tyler and former president of the College of William & Mary, published an article in the Richmond Times-Dispatch on Dec. 4, 1932, declaring that the first Thanksgiving took place in Virginia, not Massachusetts.
Tyler discovered documentation, known as the Nibley Papers, of a group of settlers in 1619 from England to Virginia — the Berkeley Hundred Company, led by Capt. John Woodlief — which included a proclamation that they give thanks upon their safe arrival.
“Not only were the first Thanksgiving celebrations held in Virginia but she had the honor of holding the first annual Thanksgivings, and this by public authority,” he wrote. “There was feasting and sports on such days, and no doubt plenty of turkey, which was a favorite dish for the table in Virginia.”
Decades later, in 1958, Wicker, an attorney and former Democratic Party state senator from 1932 to 1936, spearheaded the effort to commemorate the first Thanksgiving in Virginia by helping to launch the first Virginia Thanksgiving Festival at Berkeley.
Wicker also spread the word far and wide, taking on the task of being the foremost advocate for Virginia as the site of the first Thanksgiving.
In November 1961, Wicker, honorary chairman of the Richmond Thanksgiving Festival, embarked on a trip with a group of Richmonders and a pair of live turkeys to Boston. Wicker presented Gov. John Volpe with a wild turkey and a proclamation declaring Virginia as the site of the first Thanksgiving, as well as an invitation to attend the first Thanksgiving commemoration at Berkeley on Nov. 19.
The following year, when President John F. Kennedy delivered his Thanksgiving Proclamation, he naturally gave credit to his home state of Massachusetts.
Wicker wasn’t about to let that go without a response, however, and on Nov. 9 he offered his own counterpoint to the president in the form of a telegram, disputing his claim of the Bay State being home to the first Thanksgiving. In the conclusion to his telegram, he said, “As a matter of fairness, please issue an appropriate correction.”
He received a response from Kennedy’s special assistant, Arthur Schlesinger Jr., conceding Wicker’s assertion with an acknowledgement of the White House’s “unconquerable New England bias.”
Schlesinger wrote, “We are all grateful to you for reminding us of the Berkeley Hundred Thanksgiving; and I can assure you that the error will not be repeated in the future.”
For Christmas that year, Wicker presented a framed copy of his telegram and the Schlesinger letter to Gov. Albertis Harrison.
On Nov. 11, 1963, one of Kennedy’s final acts in office before his death by an assassin’s bullet later that month was to acknowledge Virginia before Massachusetts in his Thanksgiving Proclamation, in which he said: “Over three centuries ago our forefathers in Virginia and Massachusetts, far from home and in a lonely wilderness, set aside a time of thanksgiving.”
Kennedy’s was the first presidential proclamation in history that acknowledged the Thanksgiving service in Virginia.
Not everyone was convinced by Wicker’s efforts. In 1977, James Deetz, a visiting professor at William & Mary, said Virginia’s claim isn’t valid and that the Thanksgiving holiday stems from the 1621 harvest celebration in Plymouth Plantation in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Regardless, a Nov. 22, 1977, Times-Dispatch story says that he was “not going to worry about it.”
The Virginia Thanksgiving Festival is still held annually on the first Sunday of November at Berkeley in Charles City.
Source: www.dailyprogress.com