Mother’s Day paved the way for Father’s Day in 1908

Which “holiday” came first – Mother’s Day or Father’s Day? 

The nod goes to the Moms.

The first Mother’s Day memorial service was held May 10, 1908, at Andrews Methodist Episcopal Church in Grafton, W.Va., an effort coordinated by Anna Maria Jarvis.

 

The first Father’s Day was observed July 5, 1908, at Williams Methodist Episcopal Church South in Fairmont, W.Va., organized by Grace Golden Clayton.

 

Interestingly, the two communities are only 17 miles apart, located in adjoining counties in northern West Virginia.

Grafton, with a population of about 4,500, is the Taylor County seat. Fairmont, with about 17,975 residents, is the Marion County seat.

Anna Maria Jarvis, who was born in Taylor County in 1864 and grew up in Grafton, wanted to honor her mother, Ann Maria Reeves Jarvis (shown below), for her love and devotion.

 

Anna was 12 when her mother taught a Sunday School lesson on “Mothers of the Bible,” ending with a prayer calling for someone to establish a Mother’s Day. That prayer “burned its way into my mind and heart so deeply, I could never forget it,” Anna said.

At her mother’s gravesite, Anna pledged to be the someone: “The time and place is here and the someone is your daughter, and by the grace of God, you shall have that Mother’s Day.”

The service was arranged for May 10, 1908, about three years after Ann Jarvis’ death. Anna provided the congregation with 500 white carnations, her mother’s favorite flower.

 

After the first Mother’s Day in 1908, Anna Jarvis, who had become a successful businesswoman in Philadelphia, Pa., orchestrated a nationwide letter writing campaign to push for an official holiday dedicated to celebrating all American mothers.

A bill designating the second Sunday of May as Mother’s Day sailed through the U.S. Congress, and President Woodrow Wilson signed it into law, effective May 10, 1914.

 

In 1966, Andrews Methodist Episcopal Church in Grafton merged with two other congregations to form a new church. The historically significant Andrews building was preserved through the formation of an International Mother’s Day Shrine Commission.

The shrine in the former church parlor contains many original church furnishings and Jarvis family photographs and papers. The building is open May through Labor Day, Wednesday-Friday, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. A Mother’s Day service is held each year, with an open house for tours during the afternoon.

 

Grace Golden Clayton was born in 1875 in Barboursville, W.Va., located in Cabell County near Huntington along the Ohio River. Her father, the Rev. Martin Fletcher Golden, was an itinerant Methodist minister who had moved his family to Marion County when he was assigned to that circuit.

Grace suggested that her home church in Fairmont conduct a memorial service to honor the men, mostly husbands and fathers, who perished in violent explosions that destroyed two Fairmont Coal Company mines in the community of Monongah on Dec. 6, 1907. The date selected for the first Father’s Day tribute was July 5, 1908.

Father’s Day had a longer journey to become a recognized federal holiday. Although President Wilson offered his endorsement of legislation, several attempts fizzled out.

Finally, in 1957, U.S. Sen. Margaret Chase Smith (R-Maine) lambasted Congress for “ignoring fathers for 40-plus years.”

 

“Either we honor both our parents, mother and father, or let us desist from honoring either one. But to single out just one of our two parents and omit the other is the most grievous insult imaginable,” she said.

On April 24, 1972, President Richard Nixon signed a bill into law establishing Father’s Day on the third Sunday of June.