Sunday, June 15, 1919

Cloudy with hard rain in morning and at noon. To Church and S.S.  Children's day exercises fine. Took nap in P.M. To Epworth League. Walked with Everett Young and Charles Wagner. To bed 9:45.

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This Sunday, the third Sunday in June, is now set aside for Father's Day, but in 1919, Father's Day was not yet a National Holiday. Here is the link to a History Channel article: Father's Day. It talks about the first observance of a day set aside for fathers on July 5, 1908 in West Virginia. A church honored "the 362 men who had died in the previous December’s explosions at the Fairmont Coal Company mines in Monongah." Below is a picture (from the Mine Safety & Health Administration website) of the dead in the makeshift morgue six days after the explosion when nearly all the dead had been recovered.

After that, the next father's day was celebrated July 19, 1910 throughout Washington state, largely due to the efforts of Sonora Smart Dodd, who was raised by a widower and thought fathers should be honored just as mothers are.  Here is an article about her: Dodd.

Thanks, Sonora! 

Happy Father's Day to all who serve our country as fathers every day!