With this Sunday being Mother's Day, I thought a little history on the subject might be appropriate. This is a picture of my mom holding me (I don't look very happy) and my two older brothers.
Anna Jarvis, daughter of
Anna Reeves Jarvis, was the power behind the official establishment of Mother's Day. She promised at her mother's gravesite in 1905 to dedicate her life to her mother's project, and establish a Mother's Day to honor mothers, living and dead.
In 1907 she passed out 500 white carnations at her mother's church, St. Andrew's Methodist Episcopal Church in Grafton, West Virginia, one for each mother in the congregation. On May 10, 1908, St. Andrew's was the first church to respond to her request for a Sunday service honoring mothers.
In 1908 the first bill was presented in the U.S. Senate proposing establishment of Mother's Day, by Nebraska Senator Elmer Burkett, at the request of the Young Men's Christian Association. The proposal was killed by sending it back to committee, 33-14. That sounds familiar.
In 1909 Mother's Day services were held in 46 states plus Canada and Mexico
Anna gave up her job to work full-time writing letters to politicians, clergy members, business leaders, women's clubs and anyone else she thought might have some influence. Anna was able to enlist the World's Sunday School Association in the lobbying campaign, a key success factor in convincing legislators in states and in the U.S. Congress to support the holiday.
In 1912 West Virginia became the first state to adopt an official Mother's Day.
In 1914 the U.S. Congress passed a Joint Resolution, and President Woodrow Wilson signed it, establishing Mother's Day, emphasizing women's role in the family (not as activists in the public arena, as Howe's Mother's Day had been, see the last paragraph).
Anna Jarvis became increasingly concerned over the commercialization of Mother's Day: "I wanted it to be a day of sentiment, not profit." She opposed the selling of flowers and also the use of greeting cards: "a poor excuse for the letter you are too lazy to write." I guess she would not be very happy with the commercialization that occurs today.
Anna Jarvis never had children of her own. She died in 1948, blind and penniless, and was buried next to her mother in a cemetery in the Philadelphia area.
The "
Mother's Day Proclamation" by Julia Ward Howe was one of the early calls to celebrate Mother's Day in the United States. Written in 1870, Howe's Mother's Day Proclamation was a pacifist reaction to the carnage of the American Civil War and the Franco-Prussian War. The Proclamation was tied to Howe's feminist belief that women had a responsibility to shape their societies at the political level. If you have never read this, it is interesting, to say the least.
Happy Mother's Day!
Thanks so much to everyone who came through and contributed to our Operation Gratitude box for out soldiers serving overseas. We sent a box weighing 98 pounds. It was filled with jerky, candy, cookies, personal care products, Christmas lights, nerf toys, reindeer antlers,notes of gratitude and thanks and a bunch of beanie babies from the folks at Cox North. "Beanie Babies" you say? Yes, we have been told that the soldiers prefer to give them to the kids rather than candy as they leave a lasting impression. 
