NEWPORT, N.H. — A century and a half after President Abraham Lincoln made Thanksgiving a national holiday, a public monument is being dedicated to the New Hampshire woman often credited with influencing his decision.

Sarah Josepha Hale was born in Newport, where a bronze memorial in her honor was being dedicated Saturday in a small park outside the town library. A magazine editor, abolitionist and champion of women’s causes, Hale also devoted years of her life to lobbying for Thanksgiving, starting in 1827 with the publication of her first novel, “Northwood: A Tale of New England,” which described a Yankee Thanksgiving. Her writings led to an offer to edit what later became Godey’s Lady’s Book, the country’s most widely distributed periodical.

Hale’s letter writing campaign paid off in 1863, when Lincoln issued a proclamation calling for a national day of Thanksgiving each fourth Thursday in November.

The Valley News reported that a Newport resident who prefers to be anonymous suggested the Hale memorial and paid for the entire cost. It includes a pair of manacled hands representing Hale’s dedication to abolishing slavery, a pile of books for the 30 she published, a pen to represent her letter-writing campaign, and a silhouette of a girl and her lamb — Hale also wrote “Mary Had a Little Lamb.”