According to the Oregonian article dated November 25, 1917, the state of Oregon wasn’t always in agreement with the rest of country as to when Thanksgiving should be celebrated. The newspaper reported that in 1894, then Governor Sylvester Pennoyer wrote a handwritten proclamation on an ordinary sheet of note paper from his Salem office. It read: “I hereby appoint the last Thursday of this month a Thanksgiving holiday.” This caused confusion because 1894 had five Thursdays in November, and the rest of the nation was observing the holiday on the fourth as it is today. The article claimed some Oregonian’s celebrated one day and some of them observed the other. Even back then, they must have been thinking about how many shopping days we could get in before Christmas.
