Thursday Nov. 28

This is Thanksgiving day.  I awoke early and thought over the past year with its trials and its mercies.  Tried to thank God and take courage.  God has kept us thus far.


"The past with gratitude we own,
The future, all to us unknown,
We to Thy guardian care commit,
And Peaceful leave before Thy feet."


Sarah came down to spend the day with us.  Lucy staid at home with Ephraim.  Rev. Mr. Scott preached a very good discourse.  We had sister Sarah, Mr. & Mrs. Burgess, Maggie and Lizzie, Mrs. M'Clure and Emeline here to dine.  Very fine turkey and good dinner.  Ephraim came down on the evening train and spent the night with us.  Kate has got her pit finished at last and put her flowers in.




Peggy's comments:
Around the Cutler's Thanksgiving table were:

• William and Lizzie Cutler and their two daughters, Annie and Sarah
• Julia Cutler
• Sarah Cutler (sister to William and Julia and the mother to Kate, Lucy, Rufus & Ephraim Dawes)
• Kate Dawes
• Rev. Dyer Burgess and Mrs. Burgess (Lizzie's mother)
• Maggie Voris, Lizzie's 26 year old sister
• Mrs. M'Clure and Emeline, neighbors
• Ephraim Dawes joined them later in the evening.

In trying to take courage and thank God,  Julia quotes from a popular hymn:

                  "Great God, We Sing That Mighty Hand"
                      by Philip Doddridge, 1702-1751
                               Text From:
                   THE HANDBOOK TO THE LUTHERAN HYMNAL
           (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1942) p.95



        1. Great God, we sing that mighty hand
        By which supported still we stand.
        The opening year Thy mercy shows;
        Let mercy crown it till it close.

        2. By day, by night, at home, abroad,
        Still we are guarded by our God,
        By His incessant bounty fed,
        By His unerring counsel led.

        3. With grateful hearts the past we own;
        The future, all to us unknown,
        We to Thy guardian care commit
        And, peaceful, leave before Thy feet.

        4. In scenes exalted or depressed
        Be Thou our Joy and Thou our Rest.
        Thy goodness all our hopes shall raise,
        Adored through all our changing days.

        5. When death shall interrupt our songs,
        And seal in silence mortal tongues,
        Our Helper, God, in whom we trust,
        In better worlds our soul shall boast.