Algoma: Thanksgiving 1920

It was November 1920. World War l was over, the Armistice was signed, some men were home while others were still coming home, and Algoma folks turned toward Thanksgiving. It wasn’t only Algoma that had much to be thankful for, the country and the world did as well.

Algoma lost several of its young men to the fighting. Others died with the disease that ran rampant throughout the world. Some died in Europe, though others died before they left camp in the U.S.  Ernest Haucke - Algoma’s first combat death - was initially buried in France, but his body was returned to the U.S. and buried in his family’s plot at the Evergreens.

George Washington declared the first Thanksgiving holiday in 1879, although the event was not an official federal holiday until November 1941 when Franklin Roosevelt established the 4^th Thursday in November as Thanksgiving.

Although the article was not attributed, the Record-Herald wrote, “There have been times in the history of the country when Thanksgiving Day was rather the occasion of expressions of hope and blessings to come than of gratitude for those being enjoyed, but even so the nation has not been unmindful of its peculiar position as the most fortunate of the countries of the earth. Much more, then, should there be thankfulness on every side today when not only are the people of the land enjoying peace while thousands mourn abroad, but with peace is plenty in contrast with the hunger that stalks elsewhere to carry out the horror that shot and shell did not complete.”

Eleven days after the Armistice on November 11, 1918, Algoma joined the rest of the country in a National Program of Praise and Thanksgiving for the “extraordinary victory that has been won for the freedom of mankind.” It was said there was never a time when the nation had cause for such rejoicing. Algoma’s program included prayer, readings and music. At 4 PM, the city joined millions of voices across the country singing the Star Spangled Banner.

That 1918 Thanksgiving week was also dubbed Victory Singing Week when, wherever possible, - in schools, churches, theaters and other gatherings – the Women’s Committee encouraged folks to celebrate the conclusion of the war in song. Peace was in the world’s grasp.

Edward Culligan, Owen McGowan and Irv Lohrey had been in the military a little over a year earlier. At Thanksgiving 1919, they were students at Green Bay Business College and celebrated in Algoma with their parents.

By 1920, two years after the Armistice, the city was back in its customary Thanksgiving mode, although while the rest of the city was  celebrating Thanksgiving, the Charles Guths were attending the funeral of their five-year-old son. Karl Guth died on Thanksgiving eve of smallpox that quickly developed into brain fever. It wasn’t the hoopla that kept folks from offering comfort to the grief-stricken family. The nature of the disease meant Karl was immediately buried following a private funeral.

Life went on in the community. Algoma firemen gave a ball the night before Thanksgiving. The well-attended party was a highlight of the season. There were Thanksgiving evening dances at Bruemmer’s and Nickolai’s halls, but, on the sports’ scene that night, the local basketball team was defeated by Mishicot 30-23. The boys were to replay Mishicot the following Saturday, however the weather stopped everything. Friday, the day in between, was not a school holiday and students were back at their desks. In a day before bussing and in a time when roads were still somewhat primitive, many teenaged students from rural areas sought high school opportunities by boarding with city relatives and friends. The paper noted how many of the students were able to spend their one-day Thanksgiving vacation with their families.

Kewaunee Opera House

Descendants of the County’s Slav immigrants joined at a 1920 Thanksgiving Jubilee at the Kewaunee Opera House. The celebration was a response to the happy outcome of the war, giving thanks for peace and liberty that came to the countries of their ancestors. For 300 years, the Hapsburg ruled the Bohemians, and, after the war, the Czecho-Slovak nation became an independent republic with an elected president. Poland was celebrating as a country that would live and prosper. The Jubilee featured prominent Polish, Bohemians and English speakers. Thousands came to hear bands play throughout the day, to take part in singing and other entertainments, to view several parades and to attend the evening’s featured dance.

Families continued to mourn the loss of family members and friends, those who had died in the military and those who died of the influenza spread by the war. But, the war was over, privations lessened and folks were coping. It was a new world that Algoma residents faced with optimism.

Following Thanksgiving 1920, the paper noted that Thanksgiving was over and next was Christmas. Could 1920 Algoma residents have dreamed that one hundred years later, Christmas preparations would start before Thanksgiving?

Sources: Algoma Record, Algoma Herald, Algoma Record Herald. Photos are from the blogger's postcard collection and the Thanksgiving graphic is an online free-source picture.