Was turkey always the traditional Thanksgiving meal in Ridgefield?
We don’t know about “always,” but it’s been served certainly for more than 200 years.
Back around 1800, Samuel G. Goodrich reported in his autobiography, his father — parson of the First Congregational Church — used to receive a turkey each Thanksgiving from “some of the magnates” of the congregation.
That prompted Goodrich, whose pen name was Peter Parley, to recall that a turkey “in those good old times was a bird of mark. No timid, crouching biped, with downcast head and pallid countenance, but stalking like a lord, and having wattles red as a ‘banner bathed in slaughter.’ His beard, or in modern parlance, his goat, without the aid of gum and black-ball, was so long, shining, and wiry, that it might have provoked the envy of his modern human rival in foppery.”
There were wild turkeys in town then, but they were rare. However, they were responsible for strengthening the stock of barnyard turkeys, as Goodrich explains:
“There was, in fact, something of the genius of the native bird still in him, for though the race was nearly extinct, a few wild flocks lingered in the remote woods. Occasionally in the depth of winter, and along to the early spring, these stole to the barnyard, and held communion with their civilized compatriots. Severe battles ensued among the leaders for the favors of the fair, and as the wild cocks always conquered, the vigor of the race was kept up.”
Turkey was the traditional meal of innkeepers Abijah and Anna Resseguie, and their daughter Anna Marie. Because they ran the Keeler Tavern and were accustomed to lots of people year-round, they seemed to appreciate Thanksgiving as a time to dine by themselves. According to Anna Marie’s diary, Thanksgiving in 1851 included “turkey, pig, chicken, and many good things beside.”
She adds that eating all this by themselves “does seem really selfish, I declare.”
Most people tended to have dinner guests on Thanksgiving, and there was a lot of house-to-house visiting as well.
Dinner wasn’t always turkey. On Dec. 6, the day before Thanksgiving in 1865, farmer Jared Nash of Silver Spring Road reported that he “dressed some chickens for Thanksgiving.” Alas, on the holiday itself, he sadly reported, “snow and some rain through the day. Work some at a pr. of shoes for Emmie. Father soled his shoes. Did not have any company to keep Thanksgiving.”
While Thanksgiving had traditionally been marked in late November, President Andrew Johnson had declared Dec. 7, 1865, a “National Thanksgiving” to celebrate the end of the Civil War.
In 1866, when Thanksgiving was back in November, Jared reported the day before, “I pick turky & some chickens.” On Thanksgiving itself, he says only, “Damp & foggy through the day. Work some at Charly’s waggon.”
Again, no guests.
Incidentally, Charley was his year-old son and the wagon dad was building was probably for a way of transporting the baby around the house and farmyard.