How could you have not heard of Sarah Josepha Hale? She wrote a poem that every child who speaks English knows, a poem that will be forever remembered as the first audio ever artificially recorded when Thomas Edison invented the phonograph in 1877. Yes, Mrs. Hale is the author of Mary Had a Little Lamb.
What is less known is that she is the person likely most responsible for making Thanksgiving a national holiday. Her crusading finally reached a willing ear on President Lincoln in 1863. Mrs. Hale lived on Locust Street in Philadelphia.