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| Father's Day roots in workplace tragedyby Michael G. MatejkaFather’s Day -- a backyard barbeque with dad, maybe a ball game, and a pat on the back to the good ol’ guy who brings home the paycheck and mows the lawn. Few Americans know that the first American father’s day had its inspiration in a work place tragedy. On December 6, 1907, the U.S. suffered its worse mine disaster -- 360 men (or more) killed in the Monongah Mine explosion in northern West Virginia. That tragedy took 210 fathers away from their children and left 250 widows. The tragedy echoed up and down the Monongahela River valley, as mines were everywhere in West Virginia and Pennsylvania and tragedies not uncommon. Fairmont, West Virginia, was the nearest large community to Monongah. Grace Clayton, a member of Williams Memorial Methodist Church, thought of those families and her own recently departed father, Rev. Fletcher Golden, a Methodist minister, and sought a way to commemorate fathers and the miners’ tragic deaths.. At another church in nearby Grafton, West Virginia, the first Mother’s Day, led by Anna Jarvis, was celebrated on May 10, 1908. Clayton asked her pastor, Rev. Robert Thomas Webb, to hold a similar day for fathers, saluting particularly the deceased miners from Monongah. Clayton chose her Father’s birthday, July 5, so that first Father’s Day service was held on July 5, 1908 in Fairmont, West Virginia, at the Williams Memorial Methodist Episcopal Church, today’s Central United Methodist Church. Although this is marked as the first recorded Father’s Day service, it was not repeated. Within the next year activities arose in Spokane, Washington and Chicago to initiate a Father’s Day. In 1972, Father’s Day was formally recognized by Federal law. It was in the hills of West Virginia, spurred by a terrible mine, disaster, that the nation first paused to remember fathers and their contribution to the family and society. The Monongah Mine is long closed as are many others. But dads and moms still go to work everyday to provide for their families. And workers in dangerous occupations -- whether mining, construction or transportation -- still work hard and hopefully work safely to insure that they return home every evening to their spouse and their children. |