Sarah Josepha Buell Hale: Bunker Hill, Mary's Lamb, Mount Vernon and Thanksgiving Day

Sarah (October 24, 1788 – April 30, 1879) was born in Newport, New Hampshire. Her father was Revolutionary War Captain Gordon Buell (February 21, 1752 – March 24, 1819). Her mother was Martha Whittlesey (February 26, 1751 - November 25, 1811). She was named for maternal grandparents Joseph (1722 – 1806) and Sarah (1720 – 1763) Whittlesey. She was permitted:

• Home-schooling with her pro-co-education parents;
• Home-studying with brother Charles Whittlesey (September 27, 1784 – shipwrecked 1808?);
• Home-tutoring with brother Horatio Gates (January 13, 1787 -- February 28, 1833) -- Dartmouth College first-honors graduate and Glen’s Falls judge -- in geography, Latin, literature, and philosophy.

Despite few women holding college-level equivalences or professional jobs, Sarah was a private co-educational school teacher, 1806 – 1813.

After a two-year acquaintance, Sarah married lawyer David Hale (July 3, 1783 – September 25, 1822) on October 23, 1813 at The Rising Sun, the unsuccessful successor to her father’s unsuccessful 400-acre (161.87-hectare) farm, 1776? - 1811. They started a literary club for studying:

• Botany;
• French;
• History.

They were parents to:

• David Emerson (February 19, 1815 – April 30, 1839), West Point-trained U.S. Army First Artillery Regiment Lieutenant, Cherokee War;
• Horatio Emmons (May 3, 1817 – December 28, 1896), U.S. Exploring Expedition to the Pacific philologist, 1838 – 1842;
• Frances Ann Hunter (March 20, 1819 – July 4, 1894);
• Sarah Josepha (December 4, 1820 – May 3, 1863), Philadelphia schoolteacher;
• William George (October 29, 1822 – January 3, 1876), Harvard-trained Louisiana lawyer, New Orleans.

David died of pneumonia the month before their youngest child’s birth. To keep Sarah financially afloat, David’s Freemason lodge colleagues financed:

• Sarah’s brief millinery (hat-making) business;
• Sarah’s collection The Genius of Oblivion, and Other Original Poems in 1823 and novel Northwood in 1827.

Sarah’s writing impelled Cornhill School for Young Ladies headmaster and Episcopal Church Reverend John Lauris Blake (December 21, 1788 – July 6, 1857) to offer in Boston, Massachusetts “The Lady’s Mentor” column editorship at:

• Ladies’ Magazine, 1828 - 1834;
• American Ladies’ Magazine, 1834 - 1837.

The position made Sarah the first woman editor of a U.S. magazine. It provided opportunities to:

• Advance comfortable, professional, uncluttered fashions;
• Freelance;
• Network;
• Promote American, copyright-protected literature;
• Support social causes.

Louis Antoine Godey (June 6, 1804 – November 29, 1878) merged:

• American Ladies’ Magazine;
• Lady’s Book.

Sarah promoted:

• Lydia Child (February 11, 1802 – October 20, 1880);
• Ralph Emerson (May 25, 1803 – April 27, 1882);
• Nathaniel Hawthorne (July 4, 1804 – May 19, 1864);
• Oliver Holmes (August 29, 1809 – October 7, 1894);
• Washington Irving (April 3, 1783 – November 28, 1859);
• Henry Longfellow (February 27, 1807 – March 24, 1882);
• Alice Neal (September 13, 1828 – August 23, 1863);
• Edgar Poe (January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849);
• Catharine Sedgwick (December 28, 1789 – July 31, 1867);
• Lydia Sigourney (September 1, 1791 – June 10, 1865);
• Sarah Whitman (January 19, 1803 – June 27, 1878).

She publicized:

• Mount Ida’s Troy Female Seminary, 1814-;
• Poughkeepsie’s Vassar College, 1861-.

Forty years later, Frank Andrew Munsey (August 21, 1854 – December 22, 1925) bought Godey’s Lady’s Book in 1877. Sarah exited still loving “The Lady’s Mentor” column. As an educated professional in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Sarah indeed realized all of her dearest causes:

• Advancing United Statesian literature;
• Educating and employing fatherless children and widowed spouses of shipwrecked sailors even after her first presidency with Boston Seaman’s Aid Society in 1833;
• Establishing co-education and co-professionalism;
• Getting the Bunker Hill Monument honoring the Revolutionary War’s first major battle -- atop Breed’s Hill in Massachusetts on June 17, 1775 -- completed in 1842;
• Helping Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association rescue world-respected President George Washington’s (February 22, 1732 – December 14, 1799) historic home in 1858.

Sarah actualized two dreams whose final resolution demanded faith in posterity. They respectively commemorated her abiding love for:

• Music and nature;
• Nation and people.

In the first case, Sarah let her poem “Mary’s Lamb” be published in 1830 and set to music by hymn composer Lowell Mason (January 8, 1792 – August 11, 1872). In the second case, she pushed for Thanksgiving joining Independence Day (July 4^th) and President Washington’s birthday as national holidays throughout the presidencies of:

• Zachary Taylor (November 24, 1784 – July 9, 1850);
• Millard Fillmore (January 7, 1800 – March 8, 1874);
• Franklin Pierce (November 23, 1804 – October 8, 1869);
• James Buchanan (April 23, 1791 – June 1, 1868);
• Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865).

The twenty-first century allows little time for pre-computer people and places. For them, “Mary’s Lamb” becomes a piano-playing benchmark. Fall/spring breaks and summer/winter holidays eclipse Thanksgiving. But the survival of both pre-electronics events is due to one woman’s love of:

• A battle-killed son and a short-lived daughter;
• A hard-working sister-in-law, a health-compromised husband, a sea-claimed brother, and a war-wounded father;
• A frisky lamb and a tasty bird.

Thanks to Henry Ford (July 30, 1863 – April 7, 1947), Sarah perished knowing that her poem was being called plagiarism. Thanks to Episcopalians, Freemasons, and President Franklin Roosevelt (January 30, 1822 – April 12, 1945), there always remain thanks-givers to Sarah:

• On her feast day;
• Before the piano;
• At the table.  

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Richard's Free Library, Newport, New Hampshire: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Sarah_Hale_portrait.jpg

Newport, New Hampshire historic buildings: Doug Kerr (Dougtone), CC BY-SA 2.0, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/dougtone/6081031845/

Mrs. Sarah J. Hale, "Anne Boleyn," Ladies' Magazine and Literary Gazette (1831), frontispiece: Public Domain, via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/details/americanladiesma04hale/page/n11/mode/1up?view=theater

New York Historical Society: National Portrait Gallery, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Edgar_Allan_Poe_by_Samuel_S_Osgood,_1845.png

Boston, Massachusetts: Jameslwoodward, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mariner's_House_Boston_MA.jpg

Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, Abraham Lincoln Papers: Public Domain,via Library of Congress @ https://www.loc.gov/resource/mal.2669900/

"Little Mary and Her Lamb," c. 1877 lithograph by Currier & Ives, New York; Library of Congress (LOC) Prints and Photographs Division, Popular Graphic Arts Collection: No known copyright restrictions, via LOC Prints & Photographs Online Catalog (PPOC) @ https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2002708573/

National Portrait Gallery, Washington DC: Cliff (cliff1066™), CC BY 2.0, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/nostri-imago/2871191179/

North Framingham, Framingham, Middlesex County, east central Massachusetts: liz west (Muffet), CC BY 2.0, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/calliope/2951701312/

Thomas Buchanan Read, The Female Poets of America (1850), opp. p. 181: Not in copyright, via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/details/femalepoetsofame00read/page/n211/mode/1up?view=theater

Anonymous. 1 January 2001. "Sarah Josepha Hale, Original Name: Sarah Buell." Find A Grave: Memorial #434. Retrieved November 1, 2014.

• Available at: http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=434

Baym, Nina. June 1990. "Onward Christian Women: Sarah J. Hale's History of the World." The New England Quarterly. 63(2):249.

"Boston Port and Seamen's Aid Society." Mariners House. Boston, MA. Retrieved November 1, 2014.

• Available at: http://www.marinershouse.org/bpsas.html

Brown, Janice. 1 May 2007. "Newport New Hampshire Milliner, Author, Poet, Editor and 'Mother of Thanksgiving': Sarah Josepha (Buell) Hale (1788-1879)." New Hampshire's History Blog: History & Genealogy Blogs > Cow Hampshire Blog. Retrieved November 1, 2014.

• Available at: http://www.cowhampshireblog.com/2007/05/01/newport-new-hampshire-milliner-author-poet-editor-and-mother-of-thanksgiving-sarah-josepha-buell-hale-1788-1879/

"Bunker Hill Monument." National Park Service: History & Culture > Boston's Revolutionary War. Retrieved November 1, 2014.

• Available at: http://www.nps.gov/bost/historyculture/bhm.htm

cynical. 17 January 2014. "Cover Genealogy - Anthropology - Horatio Hale - Clinton Ontario." Stamp Community Forums: All Forums > World Stamps and Covers Discussions > Canadian Stamps and Covers. Retrieved November 1, 2014.

• Available at: http://www.stampcommunity.org/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=35859

Finley, Ruth Elbright. 1931. The Lady of Godey's, Sarah Josepha Hale. Philadelphia, PA; and London, England: J.B. Lippincott Company.

Hale, Mrs. Sarah J. "Anne Boleyn." Ladies’ Magazine, and Literary Gazette, Vol. IV, No. I (January 1831): 1 – 4.

• Available via Internet Archive at: https://archive.org/stream/americanladiesma04hale#page/n12/mode/1up

Levy, Tedd. 25 November 2013. "Looking Back: How Thanksgiving Became a National Holiday." Shoreline Times. Digital First Media CT. Retrieved November 1, 2014.

• Available at: http://www.shorelinetimes.com/articles/2013/11/25/opinion/doc5293b36ff0999827249982.txt

Lewis, Jone Johnson. "Our National Thanksgiving." About.com: About Education > Women's History > Godey's Lady's Book and Sarah Hale. Retrieved November 1, 2014.

• Available at: http://womenshistory.about.com/od/thanksgiving/a/hale_thanksday.htm

Lewis, Jone Johnson. "Sarah Josepha Hale." About.com: About Education > Women's History > Godey's Lady's Book and Sarah Hale. Retrieved November 1, 2014.

• Available at: http://womenshistory.about.com/od/godeyshale/a/Sarah-Josepha-Hale.htm

Mott, Frank Luther. 1938 - 1968. A History of American Magazines. Cambridge, England: Harvard University Press.

Niles, Lisa. May 2003. "Sarah Josepha Hale 1788-1879." Women Writers: Domestic Goddesses a.k.a. "scribbling mobs of women". Retrieved November 1, 2014.

• Available at: http://www.womenwriters.net/domesticgoddess/hale1.html

Okker, Patricia, 1995. Our Sister Editors: Sarah J. Hale and the Tradition of Nineteenth-Century American Women Editors. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press.

Read, Thomas Buchanan. The Female Poets of America. With Portraits, Biographical Notices, and Specimens of Their Writings. Philadelphia PA: E.H. Butler & Co., 1850.

• Available via Internet Archive at: https://archive.org/details/femalepoetsofame00read

Rogers, Sherbrooke. 1985. Sarah Josepha Hale: A New England Pioneer, 1788–1879. Grantham, N.H.: Tompson & Rutter.

"Sarah Josepha Buell (1788-1879)." Ancestry.com: Historical Person Search > Search Results. Retrieved November 1, 2014.

• Available at: http://records.ancestry.com/sarah_josepha_buell_records.ashx?pid=29112440

"Sarah Josepha Hale (Buell)." Geni.com. Retrieved November 1, 2014.

• Available at: http://www.geni.com/people/Sarah-Josepha-Hale/6000000016124507624

"The Sarah Josepha Hale Memorial Park Dedication: November 23, 2013 at 3:00 p.m." Richards Free Library. Newport, New Hampshire. Retrieved November 1, 2014.

• Available at: http://www.rfltest.dreamhosters.com/sarah-josepha-hale-memorial-park/

"Thanksgiving History: Sarah Josepha Hale Biography." Essortment: History & Biographies. Demand Media. Retrieved November 1, 2014.

• Available at: http://www.essortment.com/thanksgiving-history-sarah-josepha-hale-biography-20924.html

Tonkovich, Nicole. 1997. Domesticity with a Difference: The Nonfiction of Catharine Beecher, Sarah J. Hale, Fanny Fern, and Margaret Fuller. Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi.

"Transcription: Hunter, Frances Anne Hale (wife of Lewis Boudinot Hunter) Mar 20, 1819 - Jul 4, 1894." Distant Cousin.com: Cemeteries > Princeton Cemetery, Princeton, Mercer County, NJ - H > Princeton Cemetery Gravemarker Photo #859. Retrieved November 1, 2014.

• Available at: http://distantcousin.com/cemetery/nj/mercer/princetoncem/h.html

Welles, Albert. 1881. History of the Buell Family in England. New York, NY: Society Library.

Wohlers, Charles. 13 March 2010. "Sarah Josepha Buell Hale, Editor and Prophetic Witness, 1879." The Lectionary: A Collection of Lectionary Resources for the Episcopal Church Updated Every Sunday Night. Satucket Software. Retrieved November 1, 2014.

• Available at: http://satucket.com/lectionary/sara_hale.htm