UConn Celebrating 1936 Gov. Wilbur Cross Thanksgiving Proclamation

MANSFIELD, CT — University of Connecticut officials Wednesday were touting what archivists consider one of the great pieces of governmental correspondence for the Thanksgiving holiday — the 1936 proclamation of then-Gov. Wilbur Cross.

Cross, a four-term governor of Connecticut, was born in 1862 in the Gurleyville section of Mansfield, not far from the Storrs campus.

"Older residents of the state know the Mansfield native for the eloquent Thanksgiving Proclamation he issued as governor of the state in 1936 and which many generations of school children either heard read in class or were required to memorize," officials said.

Here's the proclamation:

Proclamation issued by Gov. Wilbur Cross on Nov. 12, 1936.

Time out of mind at this turn of the seasons when the hardy oak leaves rustle in the wind and the frost gives a tang to the air and the dusk falls early and the friendly evenings lengthen under the heel of Orion, it has seemed good to our people to join together in praising the Creator and Preserver, who has brought us by a way that we did not know to the end of another year. In observance of this custom, I appoint Thursday, the twenty-sixth of November, as a day of Public Thanksgiving for the blessings that have been our common lot and have placed our beloved State with the favored regions of earth – for all the creature comforts: the yield of the soil that has fed us and the richer yield from labor of every kind that has sustained our lives – and for all those things, as dear as breath to the body, that quicken man’s faith in his manhood, that nourish and strengthen his spirit to do the great work still before him: for the brotherly word and act; for honor held above price; for steadfast courage and zeal in the long, long search after truth; for liberty and for justice freely granted by each to his fellow and so as freely enjoyed; and for the crowning glory and mercy of peace upon our land; – that we may humbly take heart of these blessings as we gather once again with solemn and festive rites to keep our Harvest Home.

Given under my hand and seal of the State at the Capitol, in Hartford, this twelfth day of November, in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and thirty six and of the independence of the United State [sic] the one hundred and sixty-first.

Wilbur L. Cross