In the United States, Father’s Day history begins with Mother’s Day history.
On May 10, 1908–three years and one day after the death of her mother—a West Virginian in Grafton, named Anna Jarvis, honored her mother and mothers everywhere in what is considered the first official Mother’s Day ceremony in the United States.
Fifteen miles away in Fairmont, another West Virginian named Grace Clayton (née Golden) had been mourning her deceased father at the same time the entire town was reeling from a mining disaster that had killed 361 men, over 2/3 of them fathers—leaving thousands of West Virginia children without their fathers. It was a devastating time for West Virginia, but Clayton eventually had an idea to help the community—if not herself—heal.
Clayton: Um, excuse me, Pastor Webb? I was thinking maybe we should have a memorial service here at the church to honor my father, these mining fathers, and—golly—why not all fathers across the United States, like Anna Jarvis over in Grafton just did for mothers.
Webb: Okay. When?
Clayton: Hm, how about July 5? It’s the Sunday closest to my father’s birthday.
Pastor: Sure. Have at it.
Thus (not exactly in that way), the first official Father’s Day ceremony was held in Fairmont, West Virginia, on July 5, 1908. But because of the mining disaster, Independence Day celebrations, the lack of event promotion, and Clayton’s reserved nature, the event was little noticed.
In contrast, Anna Jarvis decided to pursue making something bigger out of her Mother’s Day idea and began actively promoting it across the nation. Eventually, Jarvis’s idea made it into a pastor’s sermon over 2,300 miles away in Spokane, Washington, where it reached the ears of Sonora Smart Dodd.
Dodd: Pastor, the Holy Spirit has moved me to come talk to you.
Pastor: Glory be.
Dodd: As you know, my father—who fought so bravely during the Civil War—single-handedly raised me and my five siblings.
Pastor: Lord bless him.
Dodd: I heard what you said about Mother’s Day in today’s sermon, but I don’t understand why no one has suggested a Father’s Day.
Pastor: Are you suggesting it?
Dodd: Why, yes. Yes, I am! Fathers deserve to be honored, too!
Pastor: Well, then, I’ll talk about fathers in a future sermon. Going now—
Dodd: No, no, that’s not good enough.
Pastor: Gee, thanks.
Dodd: Go talk to the church alliance and get them all on board, too. Ooh, schedule it for June 5–my father’s birthday. Tell them I’ll even knit ties for all the fathers out there in Spokane. Go big or go back to Arkansas, I always say!
Pastor: Ohhhkayyy. Walking away now.
The church alliance agreed to everything the pastor said, except for the date because they needed more time to prepare, so they chose instead the third Sunday in June—a tradition that continues in America today. Thus, the mother of Father’s Days was held on June 19, 1910, at a Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) in Spokane, Washington.
(It coulda been us, West Virginia!)
The annual Father’s Day event continued in Spokane for several more years, then fizzled out there in the 1920s. But as word spread, Father’s Day celebrations were being considered in more places across the nation: Portland, Oregon; Chicago, Illinois; Vancouver, Washington; and even Fairmont, West Virginia, again after a brief hiatus.
Suddenly, people with more clout than Clayton and Dodd began promoting it: social reformer Jane Addams, the Lions Club, the US Congress, and even presidents Woodrow Wilson and Calvin Coolidge. But despite growing interest, Father’s Day gradually got erased off everyone’s calendar, even in Spokane.
Meanwhile, Jarvis was having national success with Mother’s Day; its first presidential proclamation was made by Wilson on May 9, 1909. Jarvis even went so far as to prescribe symbolic colors and flowers to use, and this helped make Mother’s Day profitable. She also pronounced the “don’ts,” such as not giving your mother candy that you eat or cheap cards she just throws out.
Well, the fathers were not to be outdone. By the 1930s, Dodd took up the Father’s Day standard once more. This time, her “Go big or go back home to Arkansas” attitude gained traction (no, she didn’t really say this or knit any ties). Dodd got support from men’s retailers and industries who wanted to gain the same profitability from Father’s Day that their ladies’ counterparts were getting from Mother’s Day.
But Father’s Day still didn’t have the full support of the public, which pushed back against the commercialization of both commemorative days. Even Jarvis, who had never gained financially from her efforts, started a campaign in 1943 to rescind the Mother’s Day proclamation, but she had to halt this campaign because she was placed in a sanitarium. Jarvis died in 1948 and is buried next to—who else?—her mother.
Meanwhile, Dodd, the men’s retail industry (particularly the Father’s Day Council of New York), and others kept pushing for a presidential proclamation for Father’s Day, but for decades it never came. Finally, President Lyndon Johnson made the first Father’s Day proclamation in 1966. In 1972, President Richard Nixon signed it into law.
Press: Why now, President Johnson?
LBJ: Well, people are celebrating it anyway.
Press: We talked it over, and we don’t like that answer.
LBJ: Fine. How ‘bout this? In this age of hippies and free love, I can use this proclamation to remind men that they still have personal responsibilities. The children that are bound to result from their free-lovin’ ways will need these men to be stable fathers in their lives. So, too, will the mothers who openly shared in this free-love experiment. This proclamation reminds us all of the importance not just of fatherhood but also of having a strong American family.
Press: Yeah, okay, we’ll print something like that. Thanks.
LBJ: And add that the Soviets can eat my shorts.
Lady Bird: Um, dear, you do realize that your Father’s Day proclamation covers only the year 1966, right?
LBJ: Sheesh, Lady Bird. I’ve got space stuff happening on the moon and a crisis brewing in Vietnam. Forgive me if I proclaimed a national Father’s Day for only one year!
Lady Bird: That’s nice, dear, now, what are you going to do about making Father’s Day an annual celebration?
LBJ: Meh. Leave it for the next guy.
Nixon: Hello, it’s me, “the next guy,” the guy who’s not yet a crook. On April 24, 1972, I’ll sign a Joint Resolution from Congress to enact annual Father’s Day celebrations across the nation. It may provide cover for the May 26 and June 17 Watergate break-ins, which I clearly know nothing about but will resign over them and be absolved of them nonetheless. Afterwards, I will go down in American lore as a crook. Thank you.
And so, not exactly in that way, Father’s Day was now permanently inked onto the US calendar. By the 1980s, it would grow to become second only to Christmas for American spending money on gifts for dads.
And to think it all started in the great state of West Virginia!
Of course, there are many disputes and claims that go into this history, but this is one version of events.
How do you celebrate Father’s Day?
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