Episode 1 of 1
Earliest Diary Mention
- When
- February 2, 1840 (day-level attribution per secondary source)
- Where
- Pennsylvania Dutch Country
James L. Morris recorded the first known North American reference to Groundhog Day in his diary entry from February 2, 1840.
The entry appears in the diary of James L. Morris of Morgantown, Pennsylvania Dutch Country. According to Don Yoder's book, this is the earliest mention of the tradition, establishing the record's existence within the regional context of German communities. The passage context describes the diarist as commenting on his neighbors of German stock in a Welsh enclave.
Sources
- Groundhog Day Wikipedia, revision of 2026-10-02
Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.