John Greenleaf Whittier, a Quaker poet, must have had quite fond memories of Thanksgiving and pumpkin pie, as we can see in his 1850 poem, “The Pumpkin”: Ah! on Thanksday, when from East and from West, From North and from South comes the pilgrim and guest; When the gray-haired New Englander sees round his board The old broken links of affection restored; When the care-wearied man seeks his mother once more, And the worn matron smiles where the girl smiled before; What moistens the lip and what brightens the eye, What calls back the past, like the rich Pumpkin pie? …