Dell (McCreery) Smith and a Thanksgiving Tradition

Yesterday was Thanksgiving Day and a perfect time to reflect on family traditions and gives us time to think about our family members who have come before us and left these rich traditions to carry into the future. Although the first Thanksgiving that was celebrated in Plymouth, Mass. is filled with many idealistic images for us today, I can't help but to think about my ancestors who were Mayflower passingers and wonder what their lives must have been like. William and Susanna White, their son Resloved White and Richard Warren can all be celebrated in my lineage and I wish to honor their sufferings and sacrifices upon the venture across the Atlantic to the wildreness of North America in the 17th century. But ofcourse I never knew any of these folks and I'm sure our modern Thanksgiving celebration little resembles the feast that they celebrated back in the 1620's.

In 1899 Dell McCreery Smith, my gg-grandmother, began a tradition in our family of hosting a large Thanksgiving feast at her home for her immediate family, which also including her parents, Lawrence Hobart and Annice Ann McCreery, and any of her siblings and their families who were able to come. Dell lived on a small farm with her husband Daniel Edwin Smith, Sr. in rural Henrietta Township, Jackson County, Michigan--near the village of Munith. This became one of Dell's annual gatherings until sometime in the 1930's when the family had grow so large that it was nolonger room to feed so many family members in her house. About this time her daughters step-up to the plate. Anna Smith Carley would entertain family members at her home on Sayers Road and Nellie Smith Walz and Lulu Smith would organize the feast to be held a few miles away at the Wild Cat Mill's hall in Leoni Township. The growing family would soon outgrow this arrangement and a new venue was needed. The newly constructed Richard H. Reno Post of the American Legion would fit the bill. Located just south of the village of Munith, the Legion Hall was outfitted with a large kitchen where the meals could be prepared, a large dinning hall with enough seating for the 100+ family could sit together to enjoy a grand family celebration. Dell would attend the festivities throughout the rest of her life, the last one she attended at the ripe old age of 101 years old in 1959.

The Legion Hall was large enough to accomadate all ages in the family. A television set was brought in to entertain the men with their football games. A record player and plently of records were brought for the teenagers to listen too and dance on the upper floor of the hall. Even the young children had activities that included making the table decorations. Not to mention the team of mothers, grandmothers and great grandma's who where were busy in that huge kitchen. It was a well coordinated event. It became so well known that in 1965 the Jackson Citizen Patriot, the local daily newspaper, ran a feature story on this big family Thanksgiving tradition.

While the large gatherings didn't last beyond the 1960's, the memory of our family gatherings have lived on through the stories and the snapshots that have survived. In the center of the image included with this post, Anna Smith Carley is the women standing with her apron on. Lulu Smith is seated just in front of Anna and next to Lulu is their mother Dell Smith. Thank you Dell, Anna, Nellie and Lulu for bring the spirit of Thanksgiving too our family.