17 Facts About Ann Jarvis

Ann Maria Reeves Jarvis was a social activist and community organizer during the American Civil War era.

Ann Jarvis is recognized as the mother who inspired Mother's Day and as a founder of Mother's Day movements, and her daughter, Anna Marie Jarvis, is recognized as the founder of the Mother's Day holiday in the United States.

Ann Marie Reeves Jarvis was born in Culpeper, Virginia, on September 30,1832, the daughter of Josiah Washington Reeves and Nancy Kemper Reeves.

Ann Jarvis bore between eleven and thirteen children over the course of seventeen years.

Ann Jarvis was a dynamic woman who saw needs in her community and found ways to meet them.

In 1858, while pregnant with her sixth child, Ann Jarvis began Mothers' Day Work Clubs in the towns of Grafton, Pruntytown, Philippi, Fetterman, and Webster to improve health and sanitary conditions.

Ann Jarvis' clubs sought to provide assistance and education to families in order to reduce disease and infant mortality.

Ann Jarvis urged the clubs to declare neutrality and to provide aid to both Confederate and Union soldiers.

Ann Jarvis illustrated her resolve to remain neutral and aid both sides by refusing to support a proposed division of the Methodist Church into a northern and southern branch.

Ann Jarvis shared with the veterans a message of unity and reconciliation.

In Grafton, Ann Jarvis was involved in the Andrews Methodist Episcopal Church's construction and subsequently taught Sunday school classes there.

Ann Jarvis served as superintendent of the Primary Sunday School Department at the church for twenty-five years.

Ann Jarvis was a popular speaker and often lectured on subjects ranging from religion, public health, and literature for audiences at local churches and organizations.

Ann Jarvis succeeded when, in 1914, President Woodrow Wilson signed a congressional resolution officially making the second Sunday in May the national Mother's Day and calling for Americans to recognize it by displaying the flag.

Ann Jarvis remained in Grafton until after the death of her husband in 1902.

Ann Jarvis died in Philadelphia on May 8,1905, surrounded by her four surviving children.

Ann Jarvis was buried in West Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia.