(Graphic Illustration/MetroCreative)
West Virginia is well-known as the birthplace of Mother’s Day, but I did not know until recently that it was also the scene of the country’s first event meant solely to honor fathers. It’s not the kind of thing that gets taught to every middle school student in the Mountain State the way we are taught about Anna Jarvis and her mother in Grafton.
That may be because the desire to honor fathers here was borne out of a horrific tragedy. On Dec. 6, 1907, more than 360 miners were killed in an explosion in the Fairmont Coal Company mine in Monongah. Most historians consider it to be the worst mining disaster in our country’s history.
And, many of the men who were killed were immigrants: Polish, Italian, Russian, Greek and Austro-Hungarian among those known. Their deaths spurred the creation of the U.S. Bureau of Mines, to investigate and inspect the notoriously dangerous operations in which these men went to work to support their families and build a better life.
And when those hundreds of men died, they left behind widows and hundreds of (one writer estimated perhaps 1,000) children who would have to make their way in early 20th Century Appalachia without them.
Grace Golden Clayton, a member of Williams Methodist Episcopal Church South in Fairmont at the time, was so deeply affected by the tragedy that she asked her minister to help organize a service honoring the men. She reportedly said “It was partly the explosion that set me to think how important and loved most fathers are. All those lonely children and the heart-broken wives and mothers, made orphans and widows in a matter of a few minutes. Oh, how sad and frightening to have no father, no husband, to turn to at such a sad time.”
(I say reportedly, because the perils of online research led me to this quote, which on at least one source is listed as having appeared in The Fairmont Times after an interview the source says took place 21 years after Clayton’s death.)
Clayton’s service is considered the first, but it was a one-time event. Mining disasters in West Virginia have not been. Among the more recent tragedies was the explosion at Massey Energy’s mine at Upper Big Branch, in which 29 miners were killed. Again after that disaster, as the search and rescue mission was underway and four miners were still missing, there was the reminder “Everyone is holding on to the hope that is their father, their son,” from then-Gov. Joe Manchin.
Back in the early 20th Century, Sonora Dodd, in Spokane, Wash., eventually built momentum for a designated national day to honor fathers. Her inspiration was her single father, who had raised her and five brothers on his own after the death of their mother.
Fathers, or the men who fill that role for some young people, become so much a part of who we are that we can take them for granted until there is some tragedy, some big event, some loss that brings it into sharp focus. On this Father’s Day there will be some who are able to express their love and gratitude to their fathers in person — maybe with a funny card or hastily chosen t-shirt or tie. For others, the day will be an opportunity to be grateful for a man who may no longer be here in body, but is with his children and maybe grandchildren in spirit every day.
Either way, it is a celebration — and maybe that’s why Dodd’s holiday took off and became a national tradition while Clayton’s memorial service became a historical footnote. Where ever they are, to those who made such a difference in all our lives: Happy Father’s Day!
Christina Myer is executive editor of The Parkersburg News and Sentinel. She can be reached via e-mail at [email protected]
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