The following information have been sent to TheHolidaySpot
by Netta Mullin, President
Henderson Co. Historical & Genealogical Society, Inc.
101 North Water Street, Suite A Henderson, Kentucky 42419-0303
Tel: (270) 830-7514
"It is true that Miss Jarvis' efforts can truly be
credited with the magnitude of the present general
celebration of Mother's Day. But many years before
1907, a Henderson woman endeavored with all the
power of her being to bring about the observance of
Mother's Day.
In the 1920s and into the 1930s a very bitter battle
was being fought on proving who founded Mother's
Day. Jarvis would not concede to the fact that
others had done works before her. Jarvis contended
that Sasseen and Henderson, Kentucky had nothing to
do with her "Mother's Day Inc." Which is very true.
Mary Towles Sasseen or Henderson, Kentucky did not
and do not take claim of Jarvis' Mother's Day
International Association, Inc." Her organization
and all that she did to make a day for honoring
mothers a national holiday is to be commended.
However, she was not the first to recommend and
spend her entire life for a Mother's Day
observation.
I have the distinct honor and privilege to introduce
our very own MARY TOWLES SASSEEN.
Miss Mary Towles Sasseen was born on March 5, 1860
and was reared in Henderson, Kentucky. She was a
teacher in our own public schools, labored earnestly
to have April 20th, her mother's natal day, observed
in the schools in the manner in which we now
celebrate.
Mary also known as Mamie Sasseen was quite tall, had
auburn hair and one of the brightest faces, and the
wittiest tongue Julia Alves Clore had ever known.
One of her chief charms was her happy-go-lucky
spirit. Always smiling where the occasion demanded,
but very firm and dignified. Quick at repartee,
sharp of wit, she was always able to hold her own
with the most intelligent. She was noted for that
famous smile, and her advice was, "Say what you'd
like to say, just so you say it with a smile."
September 1885, Julia Alves Clore began teaching at
Center Street School, where Mary Towles Sassen was
the principal of the primary department. Even then
she wrote stories and poems for pupils to recite on
April 20th, her mother's birthday, calling it
"Mother's Day Celebration", inviting the mothers of
the pupils to be present at that very time. She was
constantly talking and working for this scheme,
often expressing the wish that she might live to see
it a national observance.
In 1888, John C. Worsham, a practicing attorney
since 1905, attended the public schools in Henderson
and during said time he was a pupil of Miss Sasseen
and he often heard Miss Sasseen speak of the efforts
she was making to obtain national recognition of the
mothers of this country by the setting aside of a
certain day to be observed and celebrated as
Mother's Day, and that the day she was endeavoring
to have selected as Mother's Day was the birthday of
her mother, April 20th.
Being unable to find anything suitable, Sasseen
published her "Mother's Day Celebration" pamphlet in
1893. Within this book Sasseen defines Mother's Day
as follows:
Having by experience learned how much one can teach
a child regarding the lives and works of the poets,
by our system of Author's Day, it suggested itself
to me that by celebrating Mother's Day once a year,
much of the veneration, love and respect due to
parents might, by song, verse and story, be
inculcated in the next generation.
By a Mother's Day, I mean a day on which parents
shall be invited to the school and a programme
presented, the recitations being on the subject of
mother, the songs referring to home.
In this pamphlet, Sasseen refers to "Home as the
magic circle within which the weary spirit finds
refuge; the sacred asylum to which the care-worn
heart retreats to find rest. Home! That name
touches every fiber of the soul. Nothing but death
can break its spell, and dearer than home is the
mother who presides over it."
She further states that "We find that every man and
woman, whom the world has called great, whose words
have been treasured for their wisdom and goodness,
all cherished their memories of mother, of happy,
innocent childhood and of home."
Sasseen felt that her "pamphlet was sent forth in
the hope of awakening on the part of the child, a
deeper appreciation of her, who is the central
figure of the home. That it may strengthen the
family bonds, making them more beautiful and tender,
that it may breathe a hope of that future, where
language is music, thought is light, and love is
law."
Sasseen traveled extensively and addressed various
educational meetings over the country in her effort
to have Mother's Day observed in the schools. In
1894 or shortly thereafter, she succeeded in having
it celebrated of the Public Schools of Springfield,
Ohio.
C. E. Sugg had personal recollections of Miss
Sasseen's advocacy of "Mother's Day" as far back as
1897 because he was Miss Sasseen's opposing
candidate for the office of County School
Superintendent.
May 6, 1899, the Saturday Morning Gleaner ran a
campaign advertisement for Mary Towles Sasseen's
candidacy for Superintendent of Public Instruction.
The ad ran as follows:
Miss Mary Towles Sasseen, of Henderson, Kentucky,
who is a candidate for the Democratic nomination for
Superintendent of Public Instruction, adds a new
feature to State politics this year. Miss Sasseen
has made a practical study, in the school systems of
New York, Ohio, Indiana and Colorado, all leaders in
educational matters. She is the author and
originator of Mother's Day. Within the past five
years she has, unaided, secured the adoption of the
day in a large number of States, and cities like
Boston, Brooklyn and Little Rock have had from
10,000 to 14,000 pupils in line, singing songs of
home and reciting poems in honor of mother. The
effect on character must be for good and does credit
both to the heart and head of the originator.
For many years Sasseen taught in the Center Street
School but was forced to give up teaching on the
account of ill health in the early 1900s. However,
she did not give up her quest for Mother's Day as
she continued to travel extensively and addressed
educational societies and other organizations in
various parts of the country in her effort to have
the observance of Mother's Day nationally recognized
and adopted.
On September 28, 1904 Mary Towles Sasseen married
Judge William Marshall Wilson from Pensacola,
Florida. Being such a devoted teacher and
daughter, a cruel twist of fate occurred on April
18, 1906, when Sasseen died in childbirth.
A year later in 1907 was when Miss Anna Jarvis
invited a friend to spend the second Sunday in May
with her to commemorate the anniversary of her
mother's death. On that occasion Jarvis announced
her plan for the national observance of Mother's
Day.
I commend Jarvis for observing the day with fitting
memorial services in churches and homes in
Philadelphia. For writing thousands of letters to
prominent ministers, teachers, business and
professional men about the plan. But the pioneer in
this national observance of motherhood was not Miss
Jarvis, but a Kentucky schoolteacher who laid the
groundwork for the idea long before Miss Jarvis did
in 1907.
Please see our website at:
http://www.rootsweb.com/~kyhende2/Sasseen.htm for
further documentation about Mary Towles Sasseen
Wilson.
And as far as Julia Ward Howe, being considered as
an advocate for a national observation of Mother's
Day is clearly denied by her own writing. In her
"Reminiscences" Howe states that she was in great
opposition to Louis Napoleon from the period of the
infamous act of treachery and violence, which made
him emperor. She wondered, "Why do not mothers of
mankind interfere in these matters, to prevent the
waste of that human life of which they alone bear
and know the cost?" She felt if she sent an appeal
to womanhood throughout the world that the waste of
human life in war could be prevented. Howe's little
document referred to as "Howe's Mother's Day
Proclamation" was not a proclamation about
motherhood or her own mother in the sense that
Mother's Day is expressed today but rather it was an
anti-war movement. I see this woman dressed in
black holding up a sign that reads, "Give peace a
chance" as we saw during the Vietnam War.
Thank you for this opportunity to tell about a very
special woman from Henderson, Henderson County,
Kentucky."
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