Thanksgiving Holiday for Arkansas…145 Years Ago

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145 years ago Arkansas took a moment to pause during the turmoil of Reconstruction for a day of Thanksgiving. In this 1870 proclamation preserved in Special Collections, Governor Powell Clayton of Arkansas suggested Arkansans recognize that “the year drawing to a close has been one of unusual prosperity and happiness to the state” with peace prevailing within the borders, abundant crops, and productive industry.

Governor Clayton Thanksgiving Proclamation — “Proclamation by the Governor,” November 3, 1870, establishing the 24th as the date Arkansas will celebrate Thanksgiving that year. The original published proclamation is preserved in the Arkansas Collection.

Celebrated at different times of the year and in many different ways since (at least)1621, it wasn’t until 1863, in the months after the Union victory at Gettysburg during the Civil War, that President Abraham Lincoln declared that a national Thanksgiving Day be observed every year in November. Clayton had been a Union General during the war and before becoming the first Governor after Arkansas was readmitted to the Union.

The proclamation made seven years after Lincoln’s came as political strife was only increasing in the state and after Clayton had recently used force to combat violent terror campaigns by the KKK and other lawless groups, even surviving an assassination attempt. Nonetheless, in “most heartily concurring in the recommendation of the President,” Clayton declared that November 24, 1870, be a day that “all should suspend their regular employment” and give thanks for all they had.

Note on verso of Thanksgiving Proclamation. — On the reverse of the Powell proclamation is a curious note by a past collector indicating that it was from the Governor of Kansas. The exclamation points in brackets was added after that.

Curiously on the back of the original document in pen a previous collector described it as a “Thanksgiving Proclamation….By the Governor of Kansas.” (Clayton lived in Kansas before being elected captain of the First Kansas Infantry after the Civil War began.) The proclamation is part of the Arkansas Collection of print material in Special Collections:http://library.uark.edu/record=b2226885~S13.

For more information about the thousands of resources preserving the history of Arkansas available through the University of Arkansas Libraries, contact Special Collections, specoll@uark.edu, or visit the department in Mullins Library.

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