90 Years Ago
Nov. 28, 1919

Miss Viola James of Perry and Olee Johnson of this city were married Nov. 23.
Mrs. Charles Bohrer was painfully injured when she was thrown out of an auto after it was struck by a freight train at a railroad crossing in Hunnewell. Mr. and Mrs. Bohrer and four children were in the auto but Mrs. Bohrer was the only one severely inured.
Miss Molly Nesbit and Norris Buckman were married in Monroe City Nov. 23.
A proposed bond issue of $1,350,000 for building roads in Marion County was defeated by 478 votes.
Miss Mamie Lee Crawford was appointed enumerator for the 1920 census for the three wards in Monroe City. R.F. Bousman was named as enumerator for Monroe and Indian Creek townships outside of Monroe City.
Charles F. Turnbull, southeast of town, enlisted in the U.S. Navy and reported at St. Louis for assignment.

80 Years Ago
Nov. 29, 1929
Attorney Roy B. Meriwether filed a claim in the U.S. Admiralty Court at San Francisco, Calif., in the amount of $50,000 in the name of Manning Loren Bell, four-year-old son of Mrs. Vera Kliffmiller Bell, who lost his life when the coastwise steamer San Juan was rammed and sunk by the Standard Oil Co. tanker S.C.T. Dodd.
Bowling Green won the championship title in the Northeast Missouri Basketball Tournament held in Monroe City with Leonard girls, runner-up. Clarence boys won first place in the sub-district meet held at the same time with Monroe City boys’ runners-up.
Winnifred and Louise Kendrick, daughters of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Kendrick, were playing their second year as members of the Schenbert basketball team, a semi-professional organization in St. Louis. The Kendrick sisters were expert players during their four years they attended Holy Rosary High School.

70 Years Ago
Nov. 30, 1939
Miss Ruth E. Potterfield of near Ely and Charles B. Harrison of New London were married Nov. 20.
The CCC enrollees and administrative officers occupied the new CCC Camp in Mark Twain State Park at Florida this week. The enrollees were Negroes transferred from the CCC Camp in Washington State Park near DeSoto. All of the officers and engineers were white men. Lieut. Carlyle H. Staab was camp commander and Lyle S. Moutray, construction superintendent.
Miss Frances Gill of near Lakenan and Marshall Couch of near Hunnewell were married Nov. 23. Miss Edna Nesbit of near Hunnewell and Dr. Elbert Baker of Paris were married the previous week.
Five sisters who spent their early life in Hunnewell had enjoyed a reunion for the first time in 34 years. They were: Mrs. Sallie Vernon, Cameron; Mrs. Carrie Havschulte, St. Louis; Mrs. Lasa Patterson, Florida; Mrs. Nora Finney, Monroe City, and Mrs. Eva Vaughn, Mexico.

60 Years Ago
Nov. 30, 1949
Miss Jean Hagan, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. W.J. Hagan, and Carl Myers, son of Mr. and Mrs. J.N. Myers of St. Louis, were married Nov. 19 in Blessed Sacrament Church in St. Louis.
Miss Genell Osborn, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. George Osborn of Kennett, Mo., and Kenneth Henderson, son of Mr. and Mrs. D.D. Henderson of Florida, were married Nov. 23 in Fulton.
Mr. and Mrs. Lee K. Taylor of Des Moines, Iowa, were parents of a daughter, Katherine Cecile, born Nov. 28.
A son, Charles Nicholas, was born Nov. 26 at Mexico to Mr. and Mrs. Charles Burditt.
Mr. and Mrs. Roy Schroder of Lakenan were parents of a son born Nov. 28.
Mr. and Mrs. Raymond Clark Conway of near Shelbina were parents of a son born Nov. 23.
A son was born Nov. 26 to Mr. and Mrs. Sterling Carter.

50 Years Ago
Nov. 26, 1959
The Holy Rosary girls won second in the Leonard tournament.
James Mudd, son of Mr. and Mrs. Pearl Mudd, accidentally shot himself in the leg with a .22 rifle. Surgery was required to remove the bullet.
Gloria Schachtsiek was crowned Barnwarming Queen at the annual Future Farmers Barnwarming held Nov. 17.
Charlotte Watts was declared the winner of the American Legion oratorical contest on the constitution of the United States. Becky Sparks was second place.
Mr. and Mr. William Gill celebrated their 51st wedding anniversary Sunday, Nov. 29.
Open house was held Sunday, Nov. 22, at the Monroe City nursing home. Approximately 250 people attended.

40 Years Ago
Nov. 20, 1969
Kay Quinn was crowned the Monroe City F.F.A. Barnwarming Queen for 1969. Her attendants were Cindy Hays and Rose Hays.
Anne Yates and Paul Gander announced their engagement and upcoming marriage at St. Stephen Church in Indian Creek Dec. 27.
The second annual Moonlight Madness Sale was to be held Friday night.
Larry Abell was the first deer hunter to report his kill to the News office, as hunters in the area opened the bucks only season.
Rodney O’Bryan and Marvin Robinson were named to the Northeast Missouri All-District football squad.
Births: a son, Michael Eugene, Nov. 14 to Mr. and Mrs. Gene Smith; a daughter, Karen Beatrice, Nov. 16 to Mr. and Mrs. Robert Lanham, she is their 11th child and fifth daughter; a son, was born Nov. 23 to Dr. and Mrs. George H. Smith of North Lake, Ill.; a daughter, Melissa Ann, Nov. 18 to Mr. and Mrs. George Beaver; a son, Michael Lewis, Nov. 10 to Mr. and Mrs. Roy McClure of Kirksville; a daughter, Kimberly Ann, Nov. 10 to Mr. and Mrs. Terry Maupin of Shelbina.

30 Years Ago
Nov. 22, 1979
A photo of Roland Oelschlaeger giving thanks as he prayed over his food was taken by Jay Craig.
Mr. and Mrs. William H. Wolfmeyer were to celebrate their 45th wedding anniversary, Nov. 25 at the Msgr. Farischon Hall in Palmyra.
The Christmas decorations were being installed around town by the city crews.
New officers elected by the Monroe City Young Farmers Association for 1980 included: Carl Thompson, president; Doran Osbourn, vice president; Curt James, secretary; John Hancock, treasurer; Danny Hulse, reporter and Steve Tonsor, sentinel.
Births: a daughter, Lori Elizabeth, Nov. 18 to Mr. and Mrs. John A. Hays; a daughter, Sheila Marie, Nov. 13 to Mr. and Mrs. John Berlin of Longview, Tex.

20 Years Ago
Nov. 22, 1989
The 1989 Christmas Season was to begin with the annual parade on Saturday.
The Monroe City Jaycees announced plans to conduct the annual drive for the Christmas Is Caring project to benefit the needy in the area.
Martha’s Home Place was celebrating its first anniversary with an Open House on Saturday and Sunday.
Aaron Crowe, son of Keith and Jane Crowe, won first place in the district Punt, Pass and Kick Competition in Hannibal on Oct. 21. He was to compete in the state contest in Kansas City on Nov. 26.
Births: a son, Ty Bradley, Nov. 3 to Brad and Tessy Watson.
Judy Rae Lehenbauer and Jeffery Wayne Raetz were married Oct. 7 at the Monroe City Christian Church by Rev. Ron Seider.
The second annual Handicap Deer hunt was held on the Mark Twain Lake with five eager deer hunters. One of the highlights of the weekend was when Tommy Dowell was presented his deer mount from last year’s hunt by Bob Kendrick.
Members from the Monroe City FFA Chapter who attended the National Convention in Kansas City were: Lance Burditt, Drew Quinn, Sam Smith, Aaron Hays, John Quinn, Dan Quinn, Brian Dean, Wendy Ritter, Michael Wagner, Steve Foster and the advisor, Steve Yates.

10 Years Ago
Nov. 23, 1999
Taken from the files of The Lake Gazette.
Intermet Corporation announced the agreement of the sale of Ganton Technologies, Inc. and Diversified Diemakers, Inc.
Ryan Ward and Angela Patton announced plans to be married in Sept. 2000.
Don Hulse of Center was recognized at the American Royal in Kansas City as he raised the World Champion Champagne Debutante, sired by Champagne Fizz, an American Saddlebred horse. Don is the brother-in-law to Veronica O’Connor, rural Monroe City
Leslie Ogle and Neil Neumeyer of Kansas City were to tie the knot on Jan. 1, 2000 during the 111th annual Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena, Calif. The couple won an all-expense-paid wedding through FTD’s Ultimate Wedding Contest.
Many pictures were in the Gazette featuring the annual Handicap Deer Hunt.

 

Of all the blessings we have to celebrate on Thanksgiving 2009, the ease of preparing the traditional feast ranks right up there as number one. Any modern cook has plenty of time to watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade, finish in the kitchen before the opening kickoff of those afternoon football games, and still work on a plan of attack to take advantage of the Black Friday Christmas shopping frenzy. It wasn’t always so easy.

The first American Thanksgiving celebration was probably far different than the Victorian-era engravings that commemorated the event. The Pilgrims had arrived in the New World aboard the Mayflower in 1620. They were not the first Europeans to set foot on the northern coast of the continent, but the first to bring women and children with the intent of building a permanent colony. Those in attendance at what we now consider the first Thanksgiving in 1621, natives and English alike, were thankful to just be alive and for the moment at least living in harmony. During their first year in the New World nearly half of the original 102 passengers on the Mayflower died. By some estimates, eventually nearly 90% of Native Americans who had contact with Europeans perished from small pox and other Old World diseases.

As any school child knows, a friendly native named Squanto taught the settlers how to plant corn in hills with fish for fertilizer, which kept them all from starving to death. He was more than just an expert on local agricultural practices. Squanto was born a Patuxet about 1585, captured by explorers and brought to England as a slave in 1605. During a series of liberations and recaptures before he returned to his native land in 1619, he learned to speak not only English but other Native American languages and thus became an invaluable emissary for peace between Massasoit, leader of the Wampanoag Tribe, several other warring tribes and the Pilgrims.

In his book “Mayflower” Nathaniel Philbrick describes that 1621 feast as one similar to a traditional English harvest festival, a secular celebration that dated back to the Middle Ages, in which villagers ate the fruit of their harvest, drank, and played games. According to Philbrick, the first crops grown successfully in Plymouth Harbor would have included corn, squash, beans, barley and peas. The waterfowl was plentiful and in a few hours hunters could kill enough ducks and geese to feed the settlement of 53 souls for a week.

As the Pilgrims gathered to give thanks for their bounty, Massasoit and ninety of his men arrived at the settlement with five freshly killed deer. It’s always nice for the guests to bring food to Thanksgiving dinner, but it did present some logistical problems for the four surviving adult women who were in charge of feeding the crowd. The celebration continued for three days.
According to Philbrick, “Even if all the Pilgrims’ furniture was brought out into the sunshine, most of the celebrants stood, squatted, or sat on the ground as they clustered around outdoor fires, where the deer and birds turned on wooden spits and where pottages, or stews into which varieties of meats and vegetables were thrown, simmered invitingly.”
Although duck, goose and venison may still be the heart of some traditional American Thanksgiving dinners, turkey is by far the most popular entrée. Spanish explorers had found domesticated turkeys in Central America and by 1575 the bird found its way to English tables. In his writing of The Plymouth Plantation Governor William Bradford said wild turkeys were plentiful and fish were abundant in the Harbor.

The Plymouth Colony did not officially recognize their 1621 feast as a day of prayer and thanksgiving. Two years later, Governor Bradford declared a day in July 1623 to pray for rain after a terrible drought. A light rain fell and he declared a day of prayer and thanksgiving. It was not a yearly event. The next official celebration came in 1639 after a ship that had been feared lost at sea arrived with additional settlers.
For the next hundred plus years, each of the American settlements planned their own day of prayer and thanksgiving. The Continental Congress declared a national day of thanksgiving December 18, 1775, after a win at Saratoga. George Washington issued the first Thanksgiving Proclamation by a President of the United States on November 26, 1789.
In 1844 Lydia Marie Child penned her now famous poem, immortalizing her childhood memories of going to her grandparent’s house for Thanksgiving. “Over the river and through the woods to grandfather’s house we go. The horse knows the way to carry the sleigh through the white and drifting snow.” If cooks everywhere can give thanks for the variety of traditional food they find in the frozen and fresh food section of today’s supermarkets, holiday travelers can be equally grateful for modern transportation.
Thanks to the persistent efforts of Sarah Joseph Hale, author and editor of The Ladies Magazine in Boston, President Abraham Lincoln declared that the last Thursday in November 1863 would be set aside as a national Thanksgiving Day. As was to be expected, right in the middle of the War Between the States, it was not universally honored.
After 1869 each United States President declared the last Thursday in November Thanksgiving Day. In the course of cultural and economic changes, the Christmas holiday and the need to exchange gifts began to upstage Thanksgiving as a time for family gatherings. Then as now, the shopping season began the day after Thanksgiving.
Periodically there is a fifth Thursday in November which shortens the shopping season. The nation was in the middle of the Great Depression in 1933 when Thanksgiving Day fell on November 30. The National Retail Dry Goods Association asked President Franklin Roosevelt to move Thanksgiving to the fourth Thursday in November in order to extend the shopping season. He refused, but later agreed to the change, at least for the District of Columbia, when the last Thursday again fell on November 30, 1939. The states continued to set their own date. That created so much discontent and confusion that Roosevelt planned to change it back in 1942, but Congress intervened and a bill was introduced that the President signed into law November 26, 1941, establishing the fourth Thursday in November as Thanksgiving Day. It has been honored on the fourth Thursday by every state in the union since 1956.
Some things about celebrating the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays haven’t changed much, at least not in the last 100 years. In the November 18, 1909, edition of the Monroe City NEWS, just a week before Thanksgiving, the editor gave his readers some advice that is as timely today as it was then:
“Do your shopping whenever you feel like it. When you begin worrying about what to get, take it as a sign that you are not giving for love but from a sense of obligation. Half the fun of Christmas shopping is the crowd, the jam, the discomfort and the hurry. The price tag is not the right way to measure the gift. Some people can shed more joy with a dollar than other people can with a big bank account to draw on. Don’t forget that the girls behind the counter are made of flesh and blood, and that they are quite as apt to become weary as you are. A cheery ‘hello’ is the best Christmas gift you can give to some people. We’d give you a lot more helpful hints about Christmas shopping if it were not for the fact that we’ve got to hustle out and make some arrangements whereby we may be assured of a turkey for Thanksgiving.”






 

The regular monthly meeting of the Monroe County Historical Society will be held at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Nov. 23, in the Roegge Room of the Paris Library.

The public is invited to attend and bring memories to share about going “Over the river and through the woods to Grandmother’s house” for the holidays. This promises to be a fun-filled evening as we celebrate family gatherings and all the preparation that it took a century of grandparents to make them special.