Jarvis, Anna

History of Mother's Day

Anna Jarvis was born in Webster, West Virginia, on May 1, 1864. She was the 10th of 14 children born to Granville E. Jarvis and Ann Reeves Jarvis and one of the only four Jarvis children who lived to adulthood. Her father sought careers in the mercantile and real estate businesses and served in city government. Her mother served as superintendent of Sunday schools for Andrews Methodist Church and became locally famous for her community activism during the American Civil War.

In 1883, Jarvis completed two years of coursework at the Augusta Female Seminary in Staunton, Virginia (present-day Mary Baldwin College), and then taught school in Grafton, West Virginia. She moved to Philadelphia in 1892 to live with her brother, Claude, the owner of a successful taxi business. There Jarvis became the first female stenographer at the Edison Electric Company and later the first female literary and advertising editor at Fidelity Mutual Life Insurance. She remained a single career woman her entire life, never becoming a mother herself.

In 1904, Anna and Claude Jarvis convinced their mother and youngest sister, Lillian, to move to Philadelphia after the death of Granville Jarvis. Their mother died the following May, and within two years, Jarvis began her campaign to establish a Mother's Day. She incorporated the Mother's Day International Association in 1912, headquartered in her home, to promote the national and international celebration of Mother's Day. Although [Page 603]President Wilson issued the national Mother's Day Proclamation in 1914, Jarvis always contended that Mother's Day was her intellectual and legal property. Since Jarvis legally trademarked the words Mother's Day, The Second Sunday in May, and the white carnation emblem when she incorporated her association, she never considered Mother's Day as a public holiday. She frequently included disclaimers in memos, letters, and formal press releases stating that Mother's Day was not common property.

...