Albion Interactive History / Buildings
State Register of Historic Places
Mother’s Day in Albion, Informational Designation, ID Number P22689
Significant Dates: 1877
State Register Listed: 03/15/1990
Marker Erected: 04/13/1990
Marker Text
MOTHER’S DAY IN ALBION | On May 13, 1877, thesecond Sunday of the month, Juliet Calhoun Blakeley steppedinto the pulpit of the Methodist-Episcopal Church andcompleted the sermon for the Reverend Myron Daugherty.According to local legend, Daugherty was distraught becausean antitemperance group had forced his son to spend the nightin a saloon. Proud of their mother’s achievement, Charles andMoses Blakeley encouraged others to pay tribute to theirmothers. In the 1880s the Albion Methodist church begancelebrating Mother’s Day in Blakeley’s honor. | MOTHER’SDAY | The offical observance of Mother’s Day resulted fromthe efforts of Anna Jarvis of Philadelphia. In 1868 her motherhad organized a Mother’s Friendship Day in a West Virginiatown to unite Confederate and Union families after the CivilWar. Anna Reeves Jarvis died on the second Sunday in May1905. In 1907 her daughter began promoting the secondSunday in May as a holiday to honor mothers. Following anact of Congress in 1914, President Woodrow Wilsonproclaimed the second Sunday in May Mother’s Day.
Source: Michigan’s Historic Sites Online, Downloaded 2003.