Mothers' Day was held in Boston in 1872 at the suggestion of Julia Ward Howe, writer of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic."
But it was Anna Jarvis, daughter of a Methodist minister in Grafton, West Virginia, who made it a national event.
During
the Civil War, Anna Jarvis' mother organized Mothers' Day Work Clubs to
care for wounded soldiers, both Union and Confederate.
She
raised money for medicine, inspected bottled milk, improved sanitation
and hired women to care for families where mothers suffered from
tuberculosis.
In
her mother's honor, Anna Jarvis persuaded her church to set aside the
2nd Sunday in May, the anniversary of her mother's death, as a day to
appreciate all mothers.
Encouraged
by the reception, Anna Jarvis organized it in Philadelphia, then began a
letter-writing campaign to ministers, businessmen and politicians to
establish a national Mothers' Day.
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In response, on MAY 9, 1914, President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed the first National Mothers' Day as a
"public expression of...love and reverence for the mothers of our country."
President Reagan said in his Mother's Day Proclamation, 1986:
"A Jewish saying sums it up: 'God could not be everywhere - so He created mothers.'"
American poet William Ross Wallace wrote:
"The hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world."
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