A Woolson family Thanksgiving, Claremont, 1830

By SHARON WOOD
Claremont Historical Society
We all have our own memories and ideas of what a traditional Thanksgiving holiday should be. When we were young, that image may have been of a large, extended family gathering at our grandparents’ home for the classic feast that included roast turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie. 

 Aunts, uncles, and cousins may have continued to come together for a yearly reunion, but as family dynamics changed over time, the traditional meal may have been relocated. The family patriarchs may have passed away or transferred their role as host to one of their children.  

Our enjoyment of the day may have also changed as the years went by. Delight in getting together with cousins when we were young may have changed to our preference for spending the day with our friends in our adolescent years. There may have been some family battles over our parents’ insistence that we not ruin the holiday with our less than cheerful attitude!

 Do you think this struggle to maintain a family centered tradition is a problem unique to modern times? Here’s a story from almost two hundred years ago that disproves that idea!

 In 1830, Hannah Pomeroy of Cooperstown, New York married Charles Jarvis Woolson, and moved with her new husband to his hometown of Claremont, New Hampshire. Her grandparents, William Cooper, and his wife Elizabeth Fenimore, raised a large family in the New York town that bears their family name. 

 Hannah herself shared the literary talent of many of her relatives, including her uncle, James Fenimore Cooper, and her own daughter, Constance Fenimore Woolson, reputedly a close friend of writer Henry James.

 Let us skip ahead to the 20th century when Elinor E. Colby addressed the Claremont Historical Society on the topic of “The Claremont Woolsons.” In 1983 a small booklet based on the content of her talk was printed by the Claremont Print Shoppe. 

The cover photo, credited to Hal Johnson Photography, is of the 19th century wood stove in the kitchen of the Claremont History Museum. Invented and patented by Thomas Woolson, the Woolson stove is reputed to be the first successful iron cooking stove in the country. 

 Mrs. Colby gave thanks to Cynthia McKee and Edgar Boadway for assisting in the writing, and to Constance Woolson’s niece, Clare Benedict, for allowing the use of family photographs and her aunt’s essays.

 Included in the booklet are excerpts from an essay written by Hannah Pomeroy Woolson about the Woolson family Thanksgiving dinner in 1830, along with many engaging stories of all the major players in her life—the Coopers, Pomeroys, Woolsons, and Benedicts. Clare Benedict included Hannah’s Thanksgiving essay in her own publication, “Voices Out Of The Past.” Colin Sanborn related the story in a 2009 Eagle Times article. The tale goes something like this.

At the time when Hannah married into the Claremont Woolson family, the custom of celebrating Thanksgiving in November was not a tradition in her home state of New York. We’d like to think she learned of the New England tradition from Sarah Josepha Hale’s lengthy description of the holiday feast in her 1827 novel, Northwood. Mrs. Hale had also begun writing editorials in Godey’s Lady’s Book, the foremost women’s magazine of the 19th century, about her desire to have Thanksgiving celebrated nationally.

 Hannah was excited at the prospect of experiencing her first New England Thanksgiving with her husband and his family, who were delighted to acquaint her with their celebration of the holiday. 

 The young couple were boarding at the Samuel P. Fiske home, a large brick house on Broad Street, set back from the road. At the time, it was adjacent to the Fiske family property on the corner of Broad and Summer Streets. Another building now stands between them. Known locally as the “telephone building,” it is currently occupied by Consolidated Communications.

 Hannah began her story by saying, “We were to go to church in the morning, after service to return to Mrs. Fiske’s, and adorn myself in becoming array for the grand occasion.” 

 When they were ready, Jarvis, as her husband was known, hitched his prize horse Sultan to a sleigh, and the couple headed off to Father and Mother Woolson’s home, less than a mile away on Sullivan Street. Jarvis’ sister Mary Ann had set the time for one o’clock, but she had admonished them, “Dinner might not be prompt to the minute.” 

 Around the table sat Hannah and Jarvis, his parents and siblings Mary Ann, Henry, and two little sisters. The meal amazed Hannah and she wrote that spread upon the table were “…roasted turkey … baked chicken pie; boiled chickens and roast ducks to complete the meats. There were potatoes, turnips, winter squash, gravies, jellies, pickles and New England apple sauce.” This very closely resembles Sarah Hale’s description of a New Hampshire Thanksgiving feast in her novel.

Hannah continued, “We commenced our dinner on turkey… I was very hungry, and as I knew it would be expected that the contents of every dish should be tasted, I only had a very small piece upon my plate, and commenced eating daintily and slowly.” 

But Hannah never tasted all the fine food that was set out. The first course had barely been completed when a friend of Jarvis’ entered. After some discussion, young Woolson was enticed to join his friends in going to a “Bachelor Supper Party” in Charlestown.  Sultan, was needed for the four-horse team to pull the sleigh and Jarvis loved to drive. 

 After their departure, Father Woolson, who had announced earlier his intention of driving to Amherst on business, said to Mary Ann, “You can get me a piece of pumpkin pie and cheese and then I shall go.”   Mary Ann’s feeble reply was, “Why, Father–on Thanksgiving Day!”

 With the men gone, the festive mood was broken, and the rest of the meal was consumed with little appetite. Of the dessert that was served, Hannah wrote, “Finally, to the delight of the children, the whole array of pies made their appearance – mince pie, apple pie, custard pie, cranberry pie, plum pie, cheese, butternuts, walnuts, and cider.” 

 With dinner over, Mary Ann’s friend Frances stopped in and after some pleading, persuaded Mary Ann to join her friends for “a grand molasses candy pull.” The little girls were invited to a friend’s for tea and games, and Henry had plans to join his friends for sledding “and a big fire for roasting potatoes and apples, and pop corn.” 

 On learning that Henry had promised his father that he would not go sledding with his friends until he drove Hannah back to the Fiske house, she took pity on him and left her mother-in-law’s company to return to her rooms on Broad Street. Alone, for the Fiskes were still out enjoying their holiday, and hungry after her meager Thanksgiving dinner, Hannah retired for the evening and awaited the return of her husband. 

 Hannah wrote, “I went to my room, took off my pretty silk dress, hung it in the wardrobe, took from my hair all the little ornaments so tastefully arranged, laid aside my pet bronze slippers, wrapped myself in a wrapper, twisted my hair plainly back, and went into the parlor. I drew up a rocking chair in front of the fire and I sat there all alone in that large house and cried and cried!”

 The following morning the famished Hannah joined the Fiskes for breakfast. She wrote, “Mr. and Mrs. Fiske trifled with their breakfast. Indeed, Mrs. Fiske remarked: ‘Really, one has very little appetite the morning after Thanksgiving.’  

 ‘I assure you’ said I, ‘it has had no such effect upon me. I am really quite hungry.’ And the delicious coffee, the tender steak, the potatoes stewed in cream, and the hot buckwheat pancakes were to me a delicious feast.” 

 Years later Hannah Woolson was able to laugh about her first Thanksgiving dinner in New England. It had not been the cozy family gathering she’d anticipated!

 The old cliche’ “The more things change, the more they stay the same” seems to fit well at this point in our story. While we may dream of bringing our family together to enjoy each other’s company in an old-fashioned way, the dinner table is not the only place we choose to do so. 

 Smaller family groups enjoy sharing time together at football games, shopping malls, movie theaters, and around the television set, computer screen, or iPhone, watching parades and performances from distant parts of our country and the world.

 Hannah Pomeroy Woolson’s tale proves that people living in the “good old days” often had to deal with some of the same problems we face today. 

 Thanksgiving Day is a perfect time to share our family stories so they will be remembered long after we are gone. 

 

NOTE: For a copy of The Claremont Woolsons send $5.15 (postage included) to Claremont Historical Society, PO Box 973, Claremont, NH 03743.