05/03/2026
Next Sunday is Mothers Day.
I recently discovered this article from the “Record and Star” newspaper, April 23, 1909, written by the GAR, veterans of the Civil War.
The article began “…last year, the second Sunday in May was observed, or set apart, as Mother’s Day and services were held in many churches and between five and six million of persons throughout the United States celebrated the festival. On the second Sunday in May this year the day will be observed throughout the land and will be a universal fete fay for filial worship. The white carnation has been selected to be worn in memory of mother. Comrades, there is no class of men living whose mothers were as patriotic, loyal, and heroic as your mothers from 1861-1865. No mothers ever made such sacrifice as your mothers did, and the commander-in-chief requests that you wear on the lapel of your coat a white carnation or other white flower to honor the memory of your own mother if deceased, and in reverence for her if living.”
Wow. So of course, it had to be researched. Did you know that Mother’s Day began the second Sunday in May, 1908? Anna Jarvis (1864-1948) wanted to establish a day dedicated to mothers in honor of her own mother, Anna (Reeves) Jarvis. Her mother Anna was an activist during the Civil War. She encouraged her daughter to attend college and further her education. The family later moved from Webster to Grafton, West Virginia.
Anna (her daughter) attended Augusta Female Seminary at Staunton, Virginia. She worked in the public schools and became a bank teller. She then moved to Philadelphia to live with her brother where she became the first female literary and advertising editor for the Fidelity Insurance Company and a shareholder in her brother’s cab company.
Her mother, Anna (Reeves) Jarvis died May 9, 1905. Three years after her mother’s death, Anna held a memorial service to honor not only her mother but all mothers. It was held at Andrews Methodist Episcopal Church at Grafton on May 10, 1908.
In 1909, the Commander-in Chief of the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR), Henry Nevins, notified all post comrades to join in honoring “the best comrades of all-their mothers.”
As the years went by, she pushed to have Mother’s Day a recognized holiday. It was finally proclaimed a national Holiday by President Woodrow Wilson in 1914.
As the holiday gained popularity, it also gained commercialism. Anna fought hard to retain the original flower symbol of white carnations and a hand-written note. However greeting cards, candy, and cheaper flowers became the symbols.
“A printed card means nothing except you are too lazy to write to the woman who has done more for you than anyone in the world.” She organized a petition to remove Mother’s Day as a holiday. She tried to hold on to the original meaning of the day without the commercialism, but her efforts came to an end when she was placed in a sanitarium at West Chester, Pennsylvania. It is said that people who had interests in the greeting card and flower industry paid for her to remain in the facility. She died November 24, 1948, and was buried at Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania. Her birthplace in Webster, West Virginia, known as the Anna Jarvis House, is on the National Register of Historic Places.
The picture attached to this post is of the ladies of St. John's Delaware Run Lutheran Church (River Church) on Mothers Day, 2016, when the church celebrated its 200th Anniversary.
