W. Howard Coop, 32°
111 Dogwood Drive, Lancaster, Kentucky 40444-1034
hkcoop@aol.com

If the Pilgrims, who suffered such severe privation and hardship during their first
year in the New World, could observe a special day of thanksgiving, so should we with even more gratitude.

A recent trip to Plymouth, Massachusetts, was most rewarding. While visiting the replica of the Mayflower, which is anchored in Plymouth Harbor, I listened to the compelling story of the men and women aboard who portrayed the passengers and crew of that small sailing vessel during its most famous voyage across the Atlantic in the fall of 1620. Then I walked to a nearby pavilion built over and giving protection to a granite boulder that lies half-buried in the sand at the edge of the shore.

Looking through an opening in the floor of that pavilion, I saw the famous Plymouth Rock, which I had expected to be much larger. As I looked at it, I recalled that there, on December 21, 1620, the Pilgrims, 101 in number and weary from a long and difficult voyage across the stormy ocean, used that rock as a stepping stone to shore. It was a giant step, in significance if not actual length, from the landing boat of the Mayflower to the strange soil of the New World where they built new homes and began a new life free of tyrannical oppression.

Turning from Plym-outh Rock, I faced Cole's Hill, which overlooks the harbor. This, I knew, was the first burial ground of those sturdy Pilgrims, and the first winter took its toll. Hezekiah Butterworth, a New England poet, had preserved the tradition that the daily ration was only five grains of parched corn. Many died of pneumonia, and history records that, at any one time, only six or seven were in proper condition to attend the sick and bury the dead. By the end of the winter, 47 members of the original group were buried on that famous hill overlooking Plymouth Bay.

After the first harvest and before the first anniversary of their landing in the New World, William Bradford, Governor of the Plymouth Colony, proclaimed a day of thanksgiving. Many of the details of that thanksgiving come from a letter written by Edward Winslow, a 25-year-old Pilgrim who served as the colony's ambassador to the Indians. Winslow records that Governor Bradford sent four men on a shooting expedition so that the colonists might have suitable fowl for a special dinner where they could rejoice together. Also, it is known that Chief Massassoit came with 90 men to that first Thanksgiving Day in the Puritan colony. For three days, the residents of Plymouth and the friendly Indians entertained each other and feasted.

The menu for the feast was long. Winslow's letter indicates that it included venison, roast duck, roast goose, clams, other shell fish, eels, white bread, corn bread, leeks, watercress, salad greens, wild plums, dried berries, red wine, and white wine. While Winslow does not mention turkey, we know Governor Bradford had sent four men fowling. Also, he recorded that, in the area of Plymouth, there was a great store of wild turkeys. One tradition says the Indians brought four wild turkeys to the feast, and this probably became the basis for our tradition of serving turkey at Thanksgiving.

If the Pilgrims, who suffered severe privation and hardship during their first year in the New World, could observe a special day of thanksgiving, so should we with even more gratitude. We live in a wonderfully blessed land of abundance. We should always and for everything give thanks to God and to all of those to whom we are indebted for what has been given to us. Then, the observance of Thanksgiving will be more than a big feast. It will, instead, become a remembrance, recognition, and appreciation that reveals the genuine feelings of a grateful heart.

W. Howard Coop is a retired United Methodist Minister and has been a Mason since 1952. He is a Past Master of Lancaster Lodge No. 104, currently serving as Chaplain and member of W. R. Selby, Sr., Chapter 4, Danville, Kentucky, and the Scottish Rite Bodies of Louisville, Kentucky.