Celebrating family ties

We West Virginians know how to treasure our families. The roots of Mother’s Day, Decoration Day and Father’s Day can be traced back to our state.

Fairmont’s Central United Methodist Church is recognized as holding the first Father’s Day service in the U.S. on July 5, 1908. A Spokane, Washington, woman is given credit for establishing the day as a national holiday, but the first true observance was the worship service here.

According to an article in the Dominion Post written by my friend Kelly Barth in 1987, members of what was called the Williams Memorial Methodist Episcopal Church South may have been motivated in creating the service by the 1907 Monongah mine disaster, which claimed the lives of many area fathers. Of course, the first Mother’s Day observance happened in Grafton on May 10, 1908, so Father’s Day may have been a natural outgrowth of that holiday.

So, when you remember your father this Father’s Day, also remember that you’re really celebrating a West Virginia tradition. Go West Virginia!