You probably think you know the story of Thanksgiving. Pilgrims, a big feast, 1621—the usual stuff we learned in third grade. But honestly, that’s mostly a fairy tale we cooked up later. If you want the real story of how we ended up with a national day for turkey and stuffing, you have to look at Sarah Hale New Hampshire native and a woman who was basically the Oprah of the 19th century.
Sarah Josepha Hale wasn't just some casual writer. She was a powerhouse. Born in Newport, New Hampshire, back in 1788, she grew up in an era where women weren't exactly encouraged to have "careers." Her parents, Gordon and Martha Buell, were pretty radical for the time, though. They believed girls should be educated just like boys. Since Sarah couldn't go off to Dartmouth like her brother Horatio, she just... learned everything he did. She read his textbooks. She studied the classics at home. She was brilliant.
Then life got messy.
The Newport Roots of a National Icon
She married a lawyer named David Hale. They were happy. They had five kids. They spent their evenings studying together. But then David died suddenly in 1822, leaving Sarah a widow with five mouths to feed and almost zero money. In 1822, your options as a widow were basically "start a millinery shop" or "starve." She tried the hat-making thing for a bit, but her heart wasn't in it.
She turned to her pen.
People often forget that before she was a famous editor, she was a New Hampshire schoolteacher and a struggling poet. Her husband’s Freemason lodge actually helped her publish her first book of poems. That’s the kind of local support that kept her afloat. But it was her 1827 novel, Northwood, that changed everything. It was one of the first books to really contrast the North and the South, and it put Sarah Hale New Hampshire's literary scene on the map.
Why the "Lady Editor" Title Was a Big Deal
The success of Northwood caught the eye of people in Boston. She was offered the job of editor for the Ladies' Magazine. Later, this merged into Godey’s Lady’s Book. We’re talking about a magazine that eventually hit 150,000 subscribers. That was massive for the mid-1800s.
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She used that platform for thirty years.
Hale wasn't just talking about lace and tea parties. She used her "Editor’s Table" to push for things that seem normal now but were wild then. She wanted women to be teachers. She wanted them to have physical education (can you imagine the 1850s version of a gym class?). She even helped found Vassar College. She was a "gentle crusader." She didn't want the vote—she actually opposed suffrage because she thought women had more "moral influence" outside of politics—but she wanted women to be smart, healthy, and financially independent.
The 36-Year Campaign for Thanksgiving
Now, let's talk about the turkey in the room.
Before Sarah stepped in, Thanksgiving wasn't a "thing" the way it is now. It was a New England tradition. If you lived in New Hampshire, you celebrated it. If you lived in Virginia or Georgia? Probably not. It was a chaotic mess of different dates. Some states did it in October. Some in January.
Sarah wanted a national holiday. She saw it as a way to glue a fracturing country back together.
- She wrote to Zachary Taylor. No luck.
- She wrote to Millard Fillmore. Ignored.
- She wrote to Franklin Pierce (another NH native!). Still nothing.
- She wrote to James Buchanan. Crickets.
She didn't quit. For 17 years, she published editorials and sent personal letters. Finally, in 1863, in the literal middle of the Civil War, she wrote to Abraham Lincoln. She told him a national day of "hospitality and Christian charity" might help heal the Union. Lincoln, probably looking for any shred of unity he could find, said yes.
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The New Hampshire Menu We Still Eat
If you’ve ever wondered why we eat pumpkin pie and turkey instead of, say, ham or roast beef, you can thank Sarah’s New Hampshire upbringing. In Northwood, she wrote a whole chapter describing a Thanksgiving dinner. She talked about the roasted turkey, the savory stuffing, the ginger beer, and—crucially—the "celebrated pumpkin pie."
She basically wrote the script for the American holiday.
And then there's the lamb. You know the rhyme "Mary Had a Little Lamb"? Yeah, she wrote that too. It first appeared in her 1830 book Poems for Our Children. There’s a whole debate about whether there was a "real" Mary (from Massachusetts), but Sarah maintained it was based on her own childhood memories. It’s funny how a woman who shaped national policy and founded colleges is often remembered for a nursery rhyme about a sheep.
Beyond the Holiday: A Legacy of Preservation
Sarah was also a bit of a history nerd. The Bunker Hill Monument in Boston? It was sitting unfinished for years because the men ran out of money. Sarah organized a massive seven-day "Bunker Hill Monument Fair" at Faneuil Hall. She got women from all over New England to bake, sew, and sell things. They raised $30,000.
The monument got finished.
She did the same for Mount Vernon. When George Washington’s home was falling into ruin, she used her magazine to rally women to save it. She was obsessed with American identity. She wanted us to have symbols, holidays, and stories that belonged to us and nobody else.
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Why We Still Talk About Her in 2026
Honestly, Sarah Josepha Hale is a complicated figure. Modern feminists often find her frustrating because she didn't support the right to vote. She was a traditionalist who happened to be a pioneer. She believed a woman's place was in the home, yet she spent 50 years working a high-profile job and supporting her family as a single mom.
She lived to be 92.
She didn't retire until she was 89. Just think about that for a second. In an age where the average life expectancy was much lower, she was still running the most influential magazine in the country well into her late 80s. She died in 1879 and is buried in Philadelphia, but her heart—and her culinary tastes—never really left Newport.
Today, Newport, NH still honors her with the Sarah Josepha Hale Award. It’s given to New England writers who have made a huge impact. Robert Frost was the first person to win it. It’s a fitting tribute to a woman who started with nothing in a small New Hampshire town and ended up changing the way an entire nation eats and thinks.
Actionable Ways to Explore Sarah Hale’s Legacy
If you’re ever in the Newport area or just want to dig deeper into the history of Sarah Hale New Hampshire's most famous daughter, here is what you can actually do:
- Visit the Richards Free Library in Newport: They hold the Sarah Josepha Hale Award archives and have local records about her family and her father’s tavern, The Rising Sun.
- Read Northwood: Don't expect a fast-paced thriller, but if you want to see the 1827 "blueprint" for a New England Thanksgiving, check out Chapter 25. It’s available for free on many digital archive sites.
- Check out Godey's Lady's Book digital archives: Seeing the actual fashion plates and Sarah's "Editor's Table" columns gives you a real sense of what 19th-century life was actually like.
- Look for the Sarah Josepha Hale Medal: If you're a book collector or history buff, researching the past winners of the Hale Award (like Sy Montgomery or Robert Frost) is a great way to discover the best of New England literature.
Sarah Hale proves that you don't need a vote or a seat in Congress to change the world. Sometimes, you just need a very sharp pen and a lot of New Hampshire grit.