HISTORY

THE FIRST FATHER'S DAY OBSERVANCE

The United States will hold its national observance of Father's Day in June. Business establishments have geared their advertisements to induce people to make purchases for "Dad". All fathers supposedly will be honored by their children. Most will likely have no knowledge of the origin of this special day or how it came to be observed. Some may have been reminded that President Richard M. Nixon signed a congressional resolution in 1972 that established a national Father's Day to be observed annually on the third Sunday in June.

And there may be those who assume that Father's Day was put on the calendar to supplement Mother's Day, which is established annually as the second Sunday in May. The majority will have no knowledge of the fact that the first Father's Day observance was held on July 5, 1908, at Fairmont, West Virginia. In 1908, as Independence Day neared, Mrs. Charles (Grace) Clayton at Fairmont continued to think how important and how loved most fathers are. Her father, Rev. Fletcher Golden, a Methodist minister, had died in 1896, and she still missed his fatherly guidance. On December 6, 1907, a horrible mine explosion at Monongah had killed more than 360 men, 210 of whom were fathers. 250 widows and more than 1,000 children were left grieving.

Thoughts of these lonely persons touched Grace Clayton deeply. She suggested to her pastor, Rev. Robert Thomas Webb at Williams Memorial Methodist Episcopal Church, South, that it would be wonderful if fathers were given a special day to be honored and remembered. Just two months earlier, on May 10, 1908, Mother's Day had originated some 20 miles away at Webster, W. Va. (near Grafton) under the leadership of Anna Jarvis. Dr. Webb was quite receptive, and had a Father's Day service at the church on July 5. Members who attended were quoted later as saying they were quite favorably impressed by the service and noted that the altar was decorated with sheaves of wheat.

Apparently, Mrs. Clayton did not follow through to convince the City of Fairmont or the State of West Virginia to issue a proclamation establishing an annual Father's Day - an unfortunate omission, since other persons and other locations ultimately received credit for the founding of Father's Day.

Over the next several year, a number of persons in different states made efforts to found a Father's Day with a national observance signed into law in 1972 by President Nixon. In 1909, a year after the first service held in Fairmont, Mrs. John Bruce Dodd of Spokane, Washington talked to her minister, Dr. Rasmus, about founding a Father's Day. It is possible that word of Mrs. Clayton's effort in Fairmont may have reached her and given her the idea. We will never know for certain.

A year later, in the spring of 1910, Mrs. Dodd presented a petition to Rev. Conrad Bluhm, president of the Spokane Ministerial Association, asking that he and the Association select a day for the honoring of fathers. This was done and the mayor of Spokane issued a proclamation on this. A request was sent to the state capitol and Govorner Hay of Washington set the third Sunday in June for a state-wide observance of Father's Day, with the first celebration coming on June 19, 1910--two years after the initial service in Fairmont, WV.

Thus, in spite of all claims from all others, the indisputable fact remains that the first Father's Day service was instituted on July 5, 1908, by Mrs Grace Clayton and Rev. Robert T. Webb in the Williams Memorial Methodist Episcopal Church, South, at the northwest corner of Second Street and Fairmont Avenue, Fairmont, W. Va. The original church building was torn down when a new church was constructed in 1922 at the southwest corner of Third Street and Fairmont Avenue and named Billingslea Memorial Methodist Episcopal Church, South. The church is now called Central United Methodist Church and Father's Day is celebrated there each year.

Highway signs were erected at city entrances proclaiming "Welcome to Fairmont--the Friendly City--Home of the First Father's Day Service, July 5, 1908". A plaque was placed on an outside church wall in 1984, and in 1958 a historical marker was erected in front of the church by the W. Va. Department of Archives and History. President, Marion County Historical Society
and member of Central United Methodist Church

QUIZ

1. WHERE DID THE CUSTOM OF MEN'S NECK TIES ORIGINATE?

A. SILK SASHES OF BABYLON PRIESTS.
B. TWELFTH CENTURY FRENCH UNIFORMS.
C. ENGLISH HIGH COURT NECK WRAPS.
D. CHINESE WARRIOR GARB IN THIRD CENTURY BC

2. IN WHAT PROFESSION DID 80'S TV DAD, DANNY TANNER, WORK?

A. ARCHITECTURE
B. SALES
C. NEWSCASTER
D. LAW

3. WHICH TV DAD WAS BUSY WITH THREE BOYS OF HIS OWN?

A.. TONI MICELLI
B..CLIFF HUXTABLE
C. MIKE BRADY
D. DARRIN STEVENS

4. IN WHAT PLAY DID A FATHER GIVE A SON THIS ADVICE "THIS ABOVE ALL. TO THINE OWN SELF BE TRUE..."

A. OTHELLO
B. HAMLET
C. CANTERBURY TALES
D. ANNIE

5. WHO IS THE FATHER OF OUR COUNTRY? (USA)

A. THOMAS JEFFERSON
B. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
C. GEORGE WASHINGTON
D. PAUL REVERE

6. WHICH OF THESE WIDOWED TV DADS FOUND A "FINE" NEW MOTHER FOR HIS CHILDREN?

A. MAXWELL SCHEFFIELD
B. HOWARD CUNNINGHAM
C. WARD CLEVER
D. TIM TAYLOR

7. IN ENGLAND, FATHER CHRISTMAS LEAVES WHAT?

A. FRUIT
B. PRESENTS IN STOCKINGS
C. PRESENT UNDER THE TREE
D. COOKIES AND MILK

8. WHICH OF THESE TV FATHERS KNEW BEST?

A. ARCHIE BUNKER
B. BEN CARTWRIGHT
C. RICKY RICARDO
D. JIM ANDERSON

9. HOW MANY DAD'S DID NICOLE HAVE ON THE TV SHOW "MY _______ DAD'S.?

A. ONE
B. TWO
C. THREE
D. FOUR

10. WHO WAS THE BETTER DAD?

A. WARD CLEVER
B. HOWARD CUNNINGHAM
C. CLIFF HUXTABLE
D. YOURS

ANSWERS

1.=D
2.=C
3.=C
4.=B
5.=C
6.=A
7.=B
8.=D
9.=B
10.=D

QUOTES

"It is a wise father that knows his own child."
-- William Shakespeare

"I cannot think of any need in childhood as strong as the need for a father's protection."
-- Sigmund Freud

"I watched a small man with thick calluses on both hands work fifteen and sixteen hours a day. I saw him once literally bleed from the bottoms of his feet, a man who came here uneducated, alone, unable to speak the language, who taught me all I needed to know about faith and hard work by the simple eloquence of his example."
-- Mario Cuomo

"If the new American father feels bewildered and even defeated, let him take comfort from the fact that whatever he does in any fathering situation has a fifty percent chance of being right."
-- Bill Cosby

"Blessed indeed is the man who hears many gentle voices call him father!"
-- Lydia M. Child

"None of you can ever be proud enough of being the child of SUCH a Father who has not his equal in this world-so great, so good, so faultless. Try, all of you, to follow in his footsteps and don't be discouraged, for to be really in everything like him none of you, I am sure, will ever be. Try, therefore, to be like him in some points, and you will have acquired a great deal."
-- Victoria, Queen of England

TRIVIA

Dialing Dad

It's his special day. So if you didn't get him a gift for Father's Day, at least give him a call. But don't be surprised if it's tough to get through. Here are some statistics on American calling patterns on Father's Day:

Person mostly likely to call dad on Father's Day is 33 years old, married, and a high school graduate.

Men and women are equally likely to place that special Father's Day call.

While men are more likely to take dad out to celebrate Father's Day, women are more likely to visit dad or give him a gift.

One-third will call someone other than dad on Father's Day, and women are more likely to do so than men. Other people most likely to be called are (in order of frequency): fathers-in-law, brothers, grandfathers, and friends.

About half of those surveyed call dad at least once a week, but only one-third said their father calls them weekly.

12 percent call dad once a day or more; women are almost three times as likely as men to do so.

17 percent never call their father. -AT&T