The History of Mother's Day

Patrick just returned from a week of schooling at the home office in Rock Island, IL and has come back with tons of interesting historical facts about Modern Woodmen of America. Here is one most interesting and little known fact from The Modern Woodmen magazine dated May 2001:

Did you know Modern Woodmen helped establish the formal celebration of Mother's Day?

Mother's Day didn't originate with florists. Instead, the idea for the holiday came from one person with a vision.

In 1907, Anna Jarvis, a Philadelphia teacher, persuaded her mother's church in Grafton, West Virginia to celebrate Mother's Day on the second anniversary of her mother's death. The anniversary was on the second Sunday in May.

Several months later, Jarvis planted the idea of an annual day to recognize mothers with Modern Woodmen of America's Head Council, Adolphus Talbot. Jarvis was financially unable to promote the Mother's Day idea on a national level and asked for Modern Woodmen's support.

Talbot accepted and formed a committee to publicize the holiday through Modern Woodmen's camps and its then official publication to the membership, The Modern Woodman magazine.

In addition, he issued a formal proclamation to members asking them to observe Mother's Day on May 10th, 1908.

Talbot was the first leader of a large organization to issue a Mother's Day proclamation. Modern Woodmen encouraged members to celebrate Mother's Day until Congress formally dedicated the holiday in 1913.

The acceptance of Mother's Day demonstrates Modern Woodmen's influence as a national and local leader, as more than a million members read about Jarvis and her vision. Today, The Modern Woodmen magazine continues to provide helpful information for families.

We hope you enjoyed the article and found it as interesting as we did. We are so blessed to have Patrick working for such a family oriented society.

We hope you all have a wonderful and blessed Mother's Day!