There was a time when schoolchildren and even the adults in Freeborn County and most of the nation observed the birthdays of two American presidents during February.

Saturday, February 16, 2002

There was a time when schoolchildren and even the adults in Freeborn County and most of the nation observed the birthdays of two American presidents during February.

Now the birthday observances for Lincoln and Washington have been combined into a newer legal holiday called Presidents’ Day.

This creation of Congress comes on the third Monday of February, which means it will always be after Lincoln’s birthdate, and usually before the observance of Washington’s birthdate on the 22nd. This year the observance will be on Monday, Feb. 18.

Presidents’ Day was created by Public Law 90-363 in 1963 and became effective in 1971. The original intent of the law was to create several holidays on Mondays during the year so federal employees could have three-day weekends. Within a few years most of the states decided to go along with the same concept for a new February holiday.

Minnesota was one of the first states to legalize Lincoln’s birthdate as a holiday. Illinois was the first to designate Feb. 12 as an official day of observance in 1892. New Jersey, New York, Minnesota and the state of Washington took similar action in 1896.

Despite Congressional action in 1909 which established Lincoln’s Birthday as a national holiday, 17 states never did officially recognize Feb. 12 as a holiday. Nine of these states reportedly still legally observe June 3 as either Jefferson Davis Day or Confederate Memorial Day. (Jefferson Davis was born on June 3, 1808, and was the first and only president of the Confederate States of America during the Civil War.)

Washington’s Birthday has has always been a day of observance every Feb. 22 since the earliest days for the citizens of Albert Lea and the territory and state of Minnesota, despite the fact that the nation’s first president was actually born on Feb. 11, 1732.

The addition of 11 days to Washington’s birthdate came in 1752 when the British Parliament passed an act which switched the nation and its colonies from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar (the one now in use). Washington still continued to celebrate his birthday on Feb. 11 until 1783 when he finally accepted the newer and later date.

If the observance of Presidents’ Day can be extended to salute other former chief executives born in February, then two more names could be added to those of Lincoln and Washington.

The nation’s ninth president, William Henry Harrison, was born on Feb. 9, 1773. He became president in 1841, served for just a month, and was the first to die in office.

The fourth former president born during the second month of the year is Ronald Reagan, who was born on Feb. 6, 1911.