“Hallmark holidays” get a bum rap. Deemed fake by people believing they exist for the sole purpose of gift and card sales,  often mistrust is directed at deserving holidays like Mother’s and Father’s Day. However, each of these days has a legitimate reason we commemorate the most cherished people in our lives. While Mother’s Day became an official holiday through President Woodrow Wilson in 1914 thanks to the persistence of a woman named Anna Jarvis, Father’s Day has a far sadder story. (1, 2, 3)

The Mining Accident That Inspired Father’s Day

It was the Monongah Mining Disaster in 1907 that inspired Father’s Day. It began with a church service the following year, honoring the 250 fathers killed in the West Virginia accident. Although the death toll was 360, the loss of 250 fathers left more than 1000 children fatherless. (3)

One Of America’s Worst Mining Accidents

There were only four people that survived the tragic explosion on December 6, 1907 at the Fairmont Coal Company of Monongah, West Virginia. While all but four men working in the number 6 and 8 mines died instantly, the four survivors recovered from the site died later. As one of the worst mining accidents in American history, the mourning lasted for years. (3)

Mining Accident Triggers Grieving

With so many families now without their fathers, town resident Grace Golden Clayton felt something needed to be done. Although unrelated to the accident, Grace had also recently lost her father, and understood the pain suffered by the children left behind. To help ease their grief, she convinced her church pastor to hold a service in honor of the lost fathers. (3)

A Single Service Commemorates The Mining Accident

Grace thought a service in memory of the lost fathers would help heal not only the pain of her fellow townspeople but also her own. The single service took place on July 5, 1908 in what is now West Virginia’s United Methodist Church in Fairmont. While it seemed that was that, the service proved to be the catalyst for an official Father’s Day almost 70-years later. (3)

Two Years After The Mining Accident

Two years after the single service in Fairmont, many miles away in Spokane, Washington another woman had a plan. Sonora Smart Dodd, a woman raised by a single father along with her five siblings realized the important role dads play in their children’s lives. She began petitioning for an official Father’s Day around town and spoke to government officials about her idea. As a result, Washington state became the first state to honor Father’s Day on June 19, 1910. (3)

Although it took longer to gain traction than Mother’s Day, in 1924, President Calvin Coolidge encouraged states to follow suit. In 1966, President Lyndon Johnson launched the proclamation to make the third Sunday in June Father’s Day. However, the final proclamation wasn’t signed to make Father’s Day permanent until 1972, by President Richard Nixon.  (3)

The trick to honoring the ones we love doesn’t lie in honoring them a single day each year. Instead, we should all make the effort in our everyday actions to show how much our loved ones mean to us — especially our mothers and fathers.