You are going to Like this One
I came across Minnesota’s “First Thanksgiving Proclamation.” It was dated 1860. Oh, how the world has changed.
“Proclamation
by Alexander Ramsey, Governor of the State of Minnesota
The falling leaves of Autumn find our garners full of wheat. Warehouses are crowded and steamers groan with the varied products of the harvest.
In every section of the state during the past summer, the sentiment of the Psalmist was applicable, ‘The pastures were clothed with flocks, the valleys also stood so thick with grain that they shouted for joy and sang.” In the gathering of crops there has been unwonted health.
Bright skies and pure air greeted the reaper from day to day, and the farmer now that his labor is over, finds his family free from the diseases so common in lower latitudes, and ready to enjoy the abundance with which they have been blessed.
Hope is seen in every face, and the day seems not far off when there shall be a complete recovery from embarrassments caused by the late financial revulsion.
Not only are our people fed with the ‘finest of wheat,’ but peace prevails within our borders. While foreign lands are convulsed by revolution, and exposed to the horrors of civil war, our citizens from every nation under heaven are tolerant and in the midst of excitement incident to a Presidential election, maintain the courtesies of life, exhibiting the power of self-government to a high degree.
In view of our manifold blessings and increasing prosperity, it seems highly appropriate to give thanks unto the Father of Mercies.
In accordance with a custom now prevalent in the States of the Union, I respectfully recommend to the people of Minnesota to observe in their own way, the last Thursday, the 29th of November next as a day of praise and thanksgiving.
In witness whereof I have hereunto signed my name, and caused the Seal of the State to be affixed, at the city of St. Paul, this 23rd day of October, in the year of our Lord, One Thousand Eight Hundred and Sixty.
Alexander Ramsey.
By the Governor.
J. H. Baker. Secretary of State”
Village Schools of the Bible 