Since no newspaper was published in Vernon County before the "Nevada City Times" in 1866, the county's first periodical publication of any sort must be "The Little Osage Enterprise." This was one of the several projects of "The Little Osage Literary Association," a curious organization launched in 1838 by residents of Little Osage, the formal or post-office name of the place always better known as Balltown, a little west of modern Horton. Copies of a few editions of the journal came into the hands of the Vernon County Historical Society some years ago.

The editorship, it seems, was widely handed around. "Vol. 2nd, No. 1, Nov. 23rd, 1858," for example, was edited by David Redfield, son of Abraham Redfield, founder of Deerfield, and himself afterwards the founder of the Deerfield Pottery.

Under the masthead appears the journal's watchword: "Devoted to the improvement of the mind," along with the further tantalizing information that it "will be published weekly by the scholars of Little Osage. Terms [price] liberal contributions." The Little Osage Literary Association's chief activity, oddly enough, seems to have been the founding and running of a cemetery, the county's oldest.

But it also built and ran the county's first school, located at about the southwest comer of the present Little Osage or Balltown cemetery. The courts not yet having discovered the "wall of separation between church and state," the building was also used for religious services.

And the Literary Association at least made a stab at living up to its name by turning out "The Little Osage Enterprise." The modest magazine, on sheets of blue paper held together with colored ribbons, was entirely handwritten. Seemingly most contributions were copied in by the editor (or "editress," which wasn't yet a politically-incorrect word). Possibly only one copy was made, to be passed around from hand to hand. The "scholars of Little Osage," described as the "publishers," are presumed to be mostly schoolchildren, though a few (such as the author of an account of a trip to the California goldfields) seemingly were older.

Tantalizingly, little is said of what we'd really like to know: namely, what everyday Iife was like on the Vernon County frontier. The writers' thoughts are on the more genteel life they remember (or imagine) from back East. Most of the little essays are setpieces on "respectable," "literary" subjects, such as the one included here. The writer, "Abbie Allice," remains unidentified. No such family name appears in the 1850 or 1860 census.

THANKSGIVING DAY

By Abbie Allice

The Little Osage Enterprise,

Nov. 23, 1858

In some parts of our country, the people have an interesting festival called Thanksgiving, which generally comes on about the 25th November. In the morning of the appointed day, the inhabitants repair to the churches and meeting-houses. The day is kept as a day of thankfulness, and acknowledgement to God for his many mercies, and blessings, shown to us for the peace and prosperity which we enjoy as a nation.

After meeting, the children that had left home and been scattered about in different directions all return home to their Father's house, and what a time they would have. Such stocks of pies as Grandmother had made, and what loaves of nice cakes, and nice bread, and roast turkeys, and stuffed chickens, baked pig, and many other nice things; indeed it seemed as if Grandma was the best cook in the world.

Then when Thanksgiving morning comes, what a party of little children with such bright little eyes might be seen at Grandmother's; dressed in their Sunday clothes of course. What a fire blazed in the sitting room fireplace, and how each little child would run and warm. How Grandfather would walk around and look at his grandchildren and pat first one and then another on the head; and perhaps take the baby in his arms.

Then how happy they all looked at the table eating the Thanksgiving dinner; and then Grandma would have a time trying to get the children to eat, as she said, when merrily they had ate a great deal; then she would wonder what had become of their appetites.

And then all the family would go back into the sitting room, and perhaps they would sing "Home, Sweet Home" or which they like best.

Then what a time they would have bidding goodbye when they started home.

But I suppose such times as those are to be recorded among the things that were.

At least we do not see such Thanksgiving dinners in this part of the country, but I have heard of them in my Grandmother's time.

Abbie's account rather surprisingly reminds us that Thanksgiving wasn't always the well-entrenched institution we know today.

The encyclopedia offers the stock story that Thanksgiving began with a proclamation by Gov. William Bradford of Plymouth Colony in the autumn of 1621. Some Southerners say this story got established only because New England writers relentlessly promoted it, chauvinistically overlooking earlier thanksgivings observed in colonial Virginia.

Be that as it may, days of thanksgiving were celebrated "sporadically" until President George Washington proclaimed a nationwide day of thanksgiving on Nov. 26, 1789.

It was intended as a strictly religious holiday, to be observed by all Christian denominations.

But, as Abbie Allice's little story tells us, observation of the day had by no means become nationwide by the middle years of the 19th century.

Credit for finally establishing the day as a national holiday usually is accorded to Sarah J. Hale, founder (in 1828) and editor of the "Ladies' Magazine."

Her editorials and letters to President Abraham Lincoln resulted in Lincoln's 1863 proclamation, in the middle of the Civil War, designating the last Thursday in November as "a national holiday of thanksgiving."