Anna Jarvis Was born in this home on May 1, 1864 in Webster, West Virginia. The house is located 4-5 miles south of Grafton, WV on Rt. 250. The house is located along the road and easily spotted. It has a WV historical road marker beside it. The home is well kept and open for tours during summer months.

Anna Jarvis

Ann Marie Reeves

1907 - Anna Jarvis passed out 500 white carnations at her mother's church, St. Andrew's Methodist Episcopal Church in Grafton, West Virginia -- one for each mother in the congregation.

1908 - Anna continued to send letters to politicians and leaders in an effort to establish an official Mothers Day. Mostly ignored, Anna kept appealing for help until she connected with an influential Philadelphia, businessman and former US Postmaster General, John Wannamaker. Wannamaker was a multimillionaire whom was has close ties with President William Taft and President Benjamin Harrison.

A bill was proposed to the US Senate in 1908 proposing the establishment of Mother's Day. The bill was defeated 33-14.

Dr. Robert Webb conducted what is believed as the first Father's Day service at the Central Church of Fairmont, West Virginia in 1908.

An official Mothers Day Committee was selected and sanctioned by Miss Jarvis.  The members were:  Mr. John Wanamaker, Mr. H. J. Heinz (Pittsburgh's Heinz ketchup fame), Claude S. Jarvis, Anna Jarvis, and Norman F. Kendall, authorized Mothers Day historian.  The committee mapped out future plans for extending the Mothers Day institution on an international scale. Their success was enormous.

1909 - 45 States held Mother's Day services as well as Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Canada and Mexico.

Anna Jarvis finally quit her teaching job, determined to make Mother's Day a holiday. She continued writing to politicians, business leaders, churches and any other establishment that may aid in her quest.

Again her determination paid off, she was able to convince the World's Sunday School Association (merged & now called World Council of Churches) to lobby local legislators and U.S. Congress members to support the Mother's Day holiday. Their political power was too much for politicians to ignore.

1910 - The first Mothers Day proclamation was issued by Governor William E. Glasscock of West Virginia on April 26, 1910.

1914 - In May 1914 Representative Heflin of Alabama and Senator Sheppard of Texas introduced a joint resolution, at the request of Miss Jarvis, naming the second Sunday in May as Mothers Day, and the resolution was passed in both Houses. President Woodrow Wilson approved it, and William Jennings Bryan, Secretary of State, proclaimed it. In the President's proclamation which followed, he ordered that the flag be displayed on all government buildings in the U.S. and foreign possessions.

After exausting her finances and succeding at establishing the Mother's Day Holiday, Anna Jarvis attempted to keep the holiday from becoming commercialized. She felt cards were a poor excuse for actually taking time to write a letter. This was beyond her control and has become a very large commercial venture for millions every year.

Miss Jarvis spent her later years caring for her sister, Lillie.  After her sister's death in 1944, Miss Jarvis was alone and because of her declining health, her many friends placed her in the Marshall Square Sanitarium in West Chester, Pennsylvania.  It was here that Anna Jarvis died on November 24, 1948 at the age of 84. She was buried beside her mother in West Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia.  On the day of her burial, she was remembered in Grafton when the bell on the Andrews Church was tolled eighty-four times in her honor.