BLOOMINGTON — Huge golden-brown turkeys trimmed with potatoes sat on each end of the table elegantly set with fine china and linens.

Although the food is fake,  the decorated table is an es-sential part of the David Davis Mansion’s “Blessings of the Table: Thanksgiving at Clover Lawn” event that shows a traditional Thanksgiving dinner in the 1860s.

“I wish I could go back to this moment in time to experience this for real,” said Eleanor Gregory of Alhambra, Ill.

Gregory was visiting the mansion Saturday afternoon with her daughter, Cindy, an Illinois Wesleyan University student. 

David Davis was a local at-torney and judge who was later appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court by President Abraham Lincoln. Docent Kathe Conley explained at that time Illinois was lacking in some of the traditional East Coast tradi-tions David Davis’ wife, Sara, enjoyed. That included a big Thanksgiving dinner.

“We have a letter where Sara talks about how when she came to Bloomington, people didn’t celebrate the way they did out east,” Conley said. “It wasn’t as big of a holiday in Illinois as it was in her home state of Massachusetts.”

Thanksgiving was a holiday for a big meal and time spent with family but still irregularly celebrated until 1863 when Lincoln set the last Thursday in November as the national holiday, Conley said. 

During the Thanksgiving dinners at the mansion, turkeys, cranberries and oysters loaded the table along with foods that were harder to come by, such as celery and oranges.

Desserts were essential in the meal. Sara Davis liked to serve Marlborough pie, a type of lemon pie, Conley said.

Because David Davis was working, either traveling the legal circuit in Illinois or sitting on the U.S. Supreme Court, he was frequently absent from his wife’s Thanksgiving feast.

“Sara would sit at the head of the table for these,” Conley added.

The Thanksgiving tour at the mansion continues through Nov. 22.