The Man Who Inspired Father's Day - by Jo-Ann Roberts

 

“I remember everything about him. He was both father and mother to me and my brothers and sisters.”

                                                                                                       Sonora Smart Dodd

Like Memorial Day, Labor Day, Veterans’ Day, and Mother’s Day, Father’s Day evolved from a concerted effort by a loved one to honor a group or individual for their selfless, and often times, unrecognized contribution to family and country.

Such is the case of Sonora Smart Dodd.

When Sonora was 16, her mother Ellen died, leaving William Jackson Smart as a single father to Sonora and her five younger brothers.

Sonora’s mother Ellen, herself a widow, had three children from a previous marriage. In addition, William had been married and widowed before he met Sonora’s mother. William had five children with his first wife who were already grown when he became a widower for the second time.

An unlikely inspiration for the Father’s Day movement, William Jackson Smart was born in Arkansas in 1842. Records there show that he enlisted as a Union soldier in 1862. That in itself is odd because Arkansas was a Confederate state.

However, records show that he fought for both sides in the war.

Driving a supply wagon for Confederate troops, William was captured in a decisive victory in Arkansas at the battle of Pea Ridge. Rather than languish in a Union prison, he opted to join the northern cause. As a result, Sonora was eligible to claim membership as a member of both the United Daughters of the Confederacy and the Daughters of Union Veterans.

William and his second wife Ellen were living on a “coal ranch” in Jenny Lind, Arkansas when Sonora was born in 1882. Instead of mining for coal, William and the family “farmed” it, collecting chunks of coal from the surface and carting it to town for sale. In 1887,  they sold the farm for $5000—a hefty sum at the time—and the family move to Spokane, Washington. 

Fun fact…the farm in Arkansas would turn out to be one of the most productive coal fields in the entire nation!

In 1898, William became a widower for the second time. In Sonora’s memories of this sad, difficult time, she recalls her father as a “great home person”, a man who exemplified fatherly love and protection.

It was this selfless devotion that prompted Sonora to action while attending one of the first official Mother’s Day services at her church in 1909.

If mothers deserved a day in honor of their loving service, why not fathers?

In 1910, Sonora brought a petition before the Spokane Ministerial Alliance to recognize the courage and devotion of all fathers on William’s birthday, June 5. Though the local clergy like the idea of a day devoted to fathers, they couldn’t pull something together in so short a time span. Instead, they settled on June 19^th, the third Sunday in June.

On that first Father’s Day in 1910, churches sermons across Spokane were dedicated to fathers, red and white roses were handed out in honor of fathers both living and dead, and the governor and mayor issued proclamations...and Sonora found her calling.

With the support of her congressman, she began to lobby for the creation of a national holiday, determined to give fathers like hers the recognition they deserved.

But it wasn’t until 1972 that President Nixon finally signed a Congressional resolution declaring the third Sunday in June to be Father’s Day.

William Jackson Smart, no doubt, would have been proud of Sonora.

Happy Father's Day 

to all the special dads, step-dads, grandads, uncles, 

brothers, cousins, neighbors, teachers, and friends

who stepped up to show a child what it truly means to be a father.

  

THE HISTORY OF FATHER'S DAY by Sarah J. McNeal

Many of you may be surprised to learn about the history of Father’s Day and how recently it was established in the United States.

The first observance of a "Father's Day" was held on July 5, 1908, in Fairmont, West Virginia, in the Williams Memorial Methodist Episcopal Church South, now known as Central United Methodist Church. Grace Golden Clayton was mourning the loss of her father, following the Monongah Mining disaster that occurred on December 1907. 361 men lost their lives, 250 of them fathers, leaving around a thousand fatherless children. Clayton suggested that her pastor Robert Thomas Webb honor all those fathers which they did, but Father’s Day was not celebrated anywhere outside of Fairmont after that first celebration.

Sonora Smart Dodd and Her Father, William Jackson Smart

Later, on June 19, 1910, a Father's Day celebration was held at the YMCA in Spokane, Washington by Sonora Smart Dodd. Her father, a Civil War veteran, William Jackson Smart, raised his six children by himself.

After hearing a sermon about Jarvis' Mother's Day in 1909 at Central Methodist Episcopal Church, Ms. Dodd told her pastor that fathers should have a similar holiday to honor them. I am certain, Ms. Dodd was inspired to honor her father who was both mother and father to her and her siblings.

Although she initially suggested June 5, her father's birthday, the pastors did not have enough time to prepare their sermons, and the celebration was deferred to the third Sunday in June. Several local clergymen accepted the idea, and on June 19, 1910, the first Father's Day was celebrated, sermons honoring fathers were presented throughout the city.

In the 1920s, Dodd stopped promoting the celebration because she was busy studying at the Art Institute of Chicago. Father’s Day faded into obscurity, even in Spokane. However, in the 1930s, Dodd returned to Spokane and began to promote the celebration once again and raised awareness at a national level. She requested the help of those trade groups that would benefit most from the holiday, for example the manufacturers of ties, tobacco pipes, and any traditional present for fathers. Naturally, businesses will rally when there is money to be had. By 1938, she had the help of the Father's Day Council, founded by the New York Associated Men's Wear Retailers to consolidate and organize the holiday's commercial promotion. Americans resisted the holiday for its first few decades, viewing it as nothing more than an attempt by merchants to replicate the commercial success of Mother's Day, and newspapers frequently featured cynical and sarcastic attacks and jokes. However, the merchants remained resilient and even incorporated these attacks into their advertisements. Sort of reminds me of the things which are said about Valentine’s Day and, these days, about the commercialism of Christmas. Even into the mid-1980s, the Father's Day Council wrote, "Father's Day has become a Second Christmas for all the men's gift-oriented industries."

President Woodrow Wilson

So, now we get to the politics and money part. A bill to establish national recognition of the holiday was introduced in Congress in 1913. In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson went to Spokane to speak at a Father's Day celebration. He wanted to make it an officially recognized federal holiday, but Congress resisted, fearing that it would become commercialized. US President Calvin Coolidge recommended in 1924 that the day be observed throughout the entire nation, but he stopped short at issuing a national proclamation. Two earlier attempts to formally recognize the holiday had been defeated by Congress. In 1957, Maine Senator Margaret Chase Smith wrote a Father's Day proposal accusing Congress of ignoring fathers for 40 years while honoring mothers, “thus singling out just one of our two parents". Now the part that amazed me: 

President Lyndon Johnson

In 1966, President Lyndon B. Johnson issued the first presidential proclamation honoring fathers, designating the third Sunday in June as Father's Day. 

President Richard Nixon

Six years later, the day was made a permanent national holiday when President Richard Nixon signed it into law in 1972.

Father's Day is celebrated worldwide to recognize the contribution that fathers and father figures make to the lives of their children. This day celebrates fatherhood and male parenting. Although it is celebrated on a variety of dates worldwide, many countries observe this day on the third Sunday in June.

Pop and his dog, Guess

It seems to me my family celebrated Father’s Day all my life. I had no idea it was not really official until 1972. I’m glad my family celebrated Father’s Day even before the official date because Pop was the kind of father who raised his daughters to be self-reliant, strong, and well mannered. He was my touchstone when I needed help figuring out the world and the people in it. I miss his wise council and his confident strength. Happy Father’s Day, Pop.

I honor all of you who are fathers or who have fathers either in this world or in Heaven, HAPPY FATHER'S DAY.  

Author, Sarah J. McNeal

Sarah J. McNeal is a multi-published author of several genres including time travel, paranormal, western and historical fiction. She is a retired ER and Critical Care nurse who lives in North Carolina with her four-legged children, Lily, the Golden Retriever and Liberty, the cat. Besides her devotion to writing, she also has a great love of music and plays several instruments including violin, bagpipes, guitar and harmonica. Her books and short stories may be found at Prairie Rose Publications and its imprints Painted Pony Books, and Fire Star Press. She welcomes you to her website and social media:

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A Bit of Father's Day Sentiment~Tanya Hanson

 Father’s Day has been around since 1910, when Sonora Smart Dodd arranged a celebration at a YMCA in Spokane, Washington. Her dad, a Civil War veteran, had been the single father of six. Hearing a Mother’s Day sermon in 1909, Sonora decided men should get the same honor. President Calvin Coolidge recommended the holiday in 1924 but stopped short of issuing a national proclamation.

But the celebration didn’t catch on readily, criticized by many as merely an excuse to replicate the commercial success of Mother’s Day. In 1957, Maine Senator Margaret Chase Smith accused Congress of ignoring half of our parents. President Lyndon Johnson passed the first presidential proclamation honoring fathers on the third Sunday in June (Sonora had initially wanted her father’s birthday, June 5) and finally, President Richard Nixon sighed the holiday into law in 1972.

As for me, sadly, I lost my dad in a car accident some 30 years ago, just a few months after my son was born. I like to think the angels part heavenly clouds once in a while so he can peek down and see how blessed I am.  Silly, but it gives me comfort. And among my greatest blessings is a hubby who’s a terrific dad and grampa. Therefore...

This poem is just too adorable not to share. Last year hubby printed it out and framed it for our son and son-in-law who have each given us a grandson

Enjoy Father’s Day! Oh, the photo isn’t anybody I know...(Dreamstime) but it so fits!    

                   

     A LITTLE FELLOW FOLLOWS ME

    A careful man I want to be,

    A little fellow follows me;

    I dare not to go astray                                            

    For fear he’ll go the self-same way, 

    I cannot once escape his eyes,

    Whatever he sees me do, he tries;

    Like me he says he’s going to be,

    The little chap who follows me.

    He thinks that I am good and fine,

    Believes in every word of mine;

    The base in me he must not see,

    The little chap who follows me.

    I must remember as I go

    Through summer’s sun and winter’s snow;

    I am building for the years to be

    That little chap who follows me.

www.tanyahanson.com