http://www.palmbeachpost.com/state/cont ... _1124.html
Florida experts insist first Thanksgiving here
By Andrew Marra
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Thursday, November 24, 2005
We were first.
Sure, Massachusetts has its pilgrims, its Mayflower, its turkey and corn.
• Our readers tell us why they're thankful
More local news
Latest breaking news, photos and all of today's Post stories.
• State news
Storm 2005: Hurricane news
• Sound off in the forum
• Columnists
• Crime, live scanners
• Photos | Special reports
• Weather | Traffic | Obituaries
But when it comes to Thanksgiving, Florida historians have been saying the same thing for years: It happened first in the Sunshine State — with salt pork, sea biscuits and garbanzo beans.
In the 1560s, French and Spanish settlers arrived separately on Florida's northern coast, and each celebrated with prayer and a thanksgiving feast. The Spanish gathering at St. Augustine even featured guests from a local American Indian tribe.
"They were thanking God, they had food, they said prayers," said Paul George, a history professor at Miami-Dade College. "They were the first ones to essentially give us a recorded celebration."
It wasn't until 1621, more than 50 years later, that Pilgrims came to Plymouth, Mass., and held the feast that was later dubbed the first Thanksgiving.
But the Florida celebrations didn't become widely known until the second half of the 20th century, long after Abraham Lincoln's 1863 declaration that the last Thursday in November would be the national day of Thanksgiving.
Michael Gannon, a University of Florida professor, upset New Englanders in the 1980s when he started pointing out that a book he wrote decades earlier established that the first Thanksgiving took place in St. Augustine on Sept. 8. 1565.
They called him the Grinch who stole Thanksgiving....