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The Family Hall of Fame
Writing Contest!

Love to Write?
Enter our Writing Contest for the chance
to be published and win cash prizes!

• 1st Place wins $100

• 2nd Place wins $50

• 3rd Place wins $25

Tell us about your positive family stories
and have the chance to win money
and be published!

Read previous winning essays!



Enter Writing Contest!
 

The History of Mother's Day

Anna M. Jarvis

Anna Jarvis, the founder of Mother’s Day was born to Ann Marie Reeves Jarvis and her husband Granville in this home.  Ann Marie was known in the community as a community activist, while fulfilling her duties as a devoted wife and mother.  She was instrumental in saving thousands of lives through her organizing women into Mothers Friendship Clubs that offered the mothers and families of the community teaching in basic nursing and sanitation.  Her famous physician brother James Reeves, MD, assisted Mrs. Jarvis in this very important task.
 

The Anna Jarvis Home Birthplace Museum

The Jarvis home was constructed in 1854 by Granville Jarvis and occupied by the Jarvis family for eleven years.  It is located on Route 119 (250), in Webster, West Virginia adjacent to a history site that commemorates one of the focal points of the Civil War.

The museum, located in Webster, West Virginia, is open Tuesday to Sunday April 1st through November 1st from 10a.m to 4 p.m. The museum sponsors special events such as daily festive December Christmas tours ending December 31st and a special May weekend event entitled Mothers Day Founders Festival Weekend, the second weekend in May.

Bus tours are welcome and parking is ample. Contact Olive Crow to arrange for a guide to accompany buses to historic sites.

Call: 304-265-5549

Admission:
Adults………………………….$4.00
Seniors…………………………$3.00
Students………………………..$2.00
Children under 6 years are free when accompanied by an adult.

The International
Mother's Day Shrine
Grafton, WV

Most recently Hall Of Fame For Mothers joined with the International Mother’s Day Shrine in promoting this unique museum located in Grafton, West Virginia.  This former Methodist church building pictured above was dedicated as a shrine to mothers and a museum for Mother’s Day history in 1962.  It houses the many papers and historic documents related to the work accomplished by Mrs. Anna Reeves Jarvis and her daughter Ms. Anna Jarvis in establishing an annual Mother’s Day celebration by our country.  It is dedicated to the preservation of Motherhood

This beautiful, historic structure was built in 1873, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.  It is located at 11 East Main Street in downtown Grafton and open from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, and from 12-4p.m. on Sunday.  For more information, contact  http://www.mothersdayshrine.com
or phone: 304-265-1589.

At the beginning of the Civil War, Mrs. Jarvis swore the Mothers Friendship Clubs to neutrality that allowed them to nurse the wounded soldiers of both the Confederate and the Union troops. The area around the home served as a staging area for both troops and supplies. This area was known by the military strategist as the “Back Door to the South” because the Wheeling-Staution Pike rail-head connected the two largest cities in what was then the state of Virginia. This area is rich with the history of our country’s greatest civil conflict. Ann Marie Jarvis through her community based Mothers Friendship Clubs was instrumental in soothing the ill-feeling among the citizens of the area after the Civil War was over. Much of the area’s history and community efforts of the Jarvis family are explained during a 30 minute tour of the Jarvis home.

Miss. Anna Jarvis was born in this home on May 1, 1864. Miss. Jarvis grew to be a very successful businesswoman and social activist herself. She fulfilled her mother’s wish by establishing an internationally holiday to celebrate and honor all mothers. Anna made a commitment to fulfill her mother’s wish as she stood at the foot of her mother’s grave on May 9,1905.

Mothers Day is set apart every year on the second Sunday in May to honor motherhood.

On May 8, 1914, President Woodrow Wilson signed a proclamation designating the second Sunday in May to annually be observed in this nation as Mother’s Day.

The first known suggestion for a Mother’s Day observance came in 1872 in the United States by Julia Ward Howe who wrote the words to the Battle Hymn of the Republic. She saw the day as dedicated to peace and suggested people observe a Mother’s Day on June 2nd as a day dedicated to mothers and family. For many years an annual Mother’s Day meeting was held in Boston, MA. Mary Towles Sasseen, a Kentucky schoolteacher, started conducting Mother’s Day celebrations in 1887. Frank Hering of South Bend, Indiana, launched a campaign for the observance of Mother’s Day in 1904.

Beyond these on May 10, 1908, the first Mother’s Day observance was officially held in the Andrews Methodist Church in the small town of Grafton, West Virginia. It was later nicknamed the “Mother’s Day Church,” because of the action of one of its members. The idea was born in the heart and mind of Miss Anna M. Jarvis, a Taylor County native and teacher in the Grafton school system. This celebration was conducted in honor of her mother and all mothers of the time who were struggling to restore high standards of family and community life. It was Miss Jarvis’ idea—at a time before there was a designated day for nearly everything—that once each year, with the arrival of the first spring blossoms, the people of the community should pause to honor and bless mothers, living and dead. Anna Jarvis is the woman credited as the founder of Mother’s Day. Her home in Grafton, West Virginia is now a national landmark.

The inspiration for Anna Jarvis’s campaign to create a national day of recognition came from the activity and achievement of her mother, Anna Marie Reeves Jarvis who organized “Mothers’ Work Day Clubs” in the 1850’s in the West Virginia area. These clubs provided medicines for the poor, nursing care for the sick and arranged care for children sick with tuberculosis.

At the beginning of the Civil War Mrs. Jarvis called together four of her clubs and asked them to make a pledge that friendships and good will would not become victims of the Civil War. In a display of feminine compassion, courage, and friendship the mothers clubs nursed soldiers from both sides and saved many lives.

Anna Reeves Jarvis, after the war was over, worked as a peacemaker encouraging people to set aside differences created by the polarization of the Civil War. Anna organized “Mother’s Friendship Days” in order to bring together families who had been in conflict during the war. She worked as a courageous proponent of reconciliation and peace. In 1907, two years after her mother’s death, Anna Jarvis’s daughter organized a “Mother’s Day” celebration in Grafton, WV, so that the work of peacemaking, reconciliation, and a movement against poverty waged by her mother would not be abandoned. By May of 1908 the service had been arranged on the second Sunday in May at the Andrews Methodist Church where Anna had been a Sunday school teacher and peacemaker.

The custom of a Mother’s Day observance spread to churches in nearly 50 states. The Governor of West Virginia declared the first Mother’s Day in 1912. Soon Governors of other states followed his example and a Congressional resolution passed and was signed by then President Woodrow Wilson in 1914.

At the heart of the traditions around Mother’s Day are such themes of honor, peace, and reconciliation. The movement for Mother’s Day focused attention on the struggles to gain equal rights for women, our social action against and a desire to prevention poverty. But the central focus of Mother’s Day has always been to honor our mothers and celebrate family!

At first, Americans observed Mother’s Day by attending their churches and by visiting or writing letters to their mother. Gradually, other sentiments were added, such as giving presents and candy, mailing cards, sending flowers, and taking mom out for lunch or dinner.

We at Hall Of Fame For Mothers™ hope you will find our virtual museum helpful in honoring your parent and celebrating Mother’s Day.