And I like telling the kids about her because the history of the church isn’t a history of ministers. I like that kind of spunk She would have been a really interesting person to know. She said, ‘How lazy can you be to buy somebody else’s sentiments for your mother? One day out of the year sit down and tell your mother what you really think of her.” And she was just furious. And her comments about Hallmark are just wonderful. But the price soon went up to $1.50, $2.00 apiece because people found they could make money off of it. ![]() When she made carnations the symbol of Mother’s Day they sold for pennies. She had a lot to say to the Salvation Army that started selling carnations. She later became an outspoken critic when the special day turned too commercial.ĭonna Miller: “She was really aggravated at people that turned that observation into a commercial outlet. She envisioned Mother’s Day as a time to write a personal letter to your mother, a time to send her an inexpensive carnation (a flower in which the petals hold tight like a mother’s love) and a time to visit or attend church together. But her daughter Anna (who was never a mother herself) stayed true to the purpose of the celebration. She and John Wanamaker, who was a famous retailer here, are the ones that got Woodrow Wilson to sign the petition.”Īnn Jarvis died in 1905, before an official holiday was in place. But she’s best known for the efforts she made to get Mother’s Day recognized as a national observance. George’s Methodist Episcopal Church.ĭonna Miller: “Anna became a Sunday school teacher here at St. When she was older, Ann Jarvis and her daughter Anna became members of Philadelphia’s St. And that’s what’s at the genesis of the current Mother’s Day.”įaith was always foremost. Harriet Olson: “Ann Jarvis was convinced that mothers, women, but especially mothers, had to work for peace because they could see the ravages of war in their husbands and in their sons, in a way that was so focused and so clear that their voices would be powerful. And then the Civil War came along and they put a field hospital right outside Grafton.”Īnn recruited nurses for military hospitals, and after the war formed friendship clubs to promote reconciliation. And she talked to them about hydration for fevered babies, about sanitation and nutrition. George’s United Methodist Church: “She started mothers clubs. And she could see the effect of the economy of her day on the people that she cared for most directly.”ĭonna Miller, Archivist, Historic St. And she could see the needs of women and children. For Ann, she was in a coal mining part of what is now West Virginia. ![]() Harriet Olson: “Women came together with their sisters in their locations to respond to the needs that they could see. Harriet Olson, Chief Executive, United Methodist Women: “They were thinking about the work of women and the significant testimony that women could give about the need for peace.”Īnn Reeves Jarvis organized women’s clubs in the 1860s to serve suffering mothers and children. Instead the Methodist women who invented the idea in America wanted to honor mothers in a deeper way. Harriet Olson, Chief Executive, United Methodist Women: “When Ann Jarvis was working to establish Mother’s Day as a national event, and when her daughter picked up the mantle from her, they were not thinking about greeting cards and flowers.” ![]() In this video, meet the Methodist mother and daughter team who worked to create a day to honor a mother's love and to emphasize how important a mother's role is in building a peaceful world. All that cash and commercialism goes against everything the women who originated the idea wanted.
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