Thanksgiving – Just Ahead

As we celebrate good news, think about good fortune, and offer prayers to our loving God, we also know Thanksgiving is just around the corner. Here is some history you may not know.

Less than 45 miles southeast of me, as the eagle flies, is a Maine beach. The beach is Popham, a well-known summer spot in Maine, which has – at the north end – a fort called “Fort Popham.”

Fort Popham is named for an Englishman named George Popham, who in 1607 set up camp on that spot, which juts out into the Kennebec River like a north-pointing finger, in full view of the Atlantic.

Why exactly he set up in this dicey spot, where his 120 men would get the brunt of 1607’s Nor-Easters, the fury of the Atlantic, subzero temps, and possible hurricanes, 175 miles per hour, is unclear.

Obviously, the ocean views were spectacular, the fishing excellent, the commute to fishing holes short, and the beach a real bonus. As a long-term investment, underwritten – as it was – by the Plymouth Company, one of two competing companies within the larger Virginia Company, it was a find.

Even the locals, Popham’s nearest neighbors, the Abenaki Indians, who ranged up to the lake on which I now live – Androscoggin, a subset of the Abenaki – and even further north, were friendly. 

At the time, gas for cars, oil for winter heat, burdens of crime, drugs, and politicians were low. Actually, there were no cars, oil heaters, furnaces, crime groups, drug traffickers, or politicians – not even horses. This may seem idyllic, in some ways was for Popham’s men, but there were costs.

During that year, Summer 1607 through Spring 1608, a lot got done, but temperatures tested them. They built a five-sided, star-shaped fort, America’s first pentagon. They set up a supply house. They built the first major, ocean-going boat in what would become the United States, The Virginia.

Perhaps the location was, after all, a good one. Years later, a bigger fort was built in the Revolutionary War, Civil War, and World War I, and today, tourists love Popham, with no idea about George.

But in late fall 1607, things got chilly. Popham’s men – all of whom lived except one, and Popham himself, who died in 1608 from fragile health –  were cold. This is where good things start to happen.

The Abenaki Indians, who had no idea the other Virginia Company subdivision, named the London Company, had set up in warmer Jamestown in 1605, or that the Plymouth Company that financed Popham would later finance another notable outpost south of them … befriended Popham.

That 1607 fall, Maine’s Abenaki befriending Popham was a Godsend. While the Indians liked to indulge Popham’s imagination, confirming a big sea to the West, Northwest Passage a real possibility, and China out there to be found, not sure what China was, they were also kind.

A tradition among the Abenaki was the harvest festival. In that spirit, the Popham settlers invited the Abenaki Indians, whom they soon knew by their first name, to celebrate festivities at their fort.

They all did that. The feast, interestingly, followed a day of giving thanks through shared prayer at the fort, no fear or contest, just gratitude that they had so far survived, and had local friends.

Truth be told, this Thanksgiving between Popham’s men and the Abenaki near Popham Beach in Maine, was the first Thanksgiving. The journals that followed the day called it … Thanksgiving.

Sometime during the winter of 1607, Fort Popham’s supply house burned. Modern archeologists suggest, that more of the fort burned. In any event, the settlers’ luck had turned.

Not only did George die, but the next leader learned he had inherited a fortune in Great Britain, and word spread that Jamestown was thriving. Some left Fort Popham for Britain, others Jamestown, and the Popham Colony was abandoned.

Ironically, even after celebrating the first Thanksgiving with Maine’s Abenaki, and building a pentagonal fort and America’s ocean-going vessel, Popham’s colony ended.

That said, it served a big purpose. While the London division of the Virginia Company pushed new money into Jamestown, the Popham colony proved to their own parent company – the Plymouth Company – New England was worth investing in. They then pushed a settlement to the south.

In 1620, Plymouth Rock hosted a ship called the Mayflower, which produced the Plymouth Colony. What happened at Popham then occurred at Plymouth, a Thanksgiving celebrated, what we think of as the first one. America started victories that continue to this day. So, bring it on! Happy Thanksgiving!

Robert Charles is a former Assistant Secretary of State under Colin Powell, former Reagan and Bush 41 White House staffer, attorney, and naval intelligence officer (USNR). He wrote “Narcotics and Terrorism” (2003), “Eagles and Evergreens” (2018), and is National Spokesman for AMAC. Robert Charles has also just released an uplifting new book, “Cherish America: Stories of Courage, Character, and Kindness” (Tower Publishing, 2024).