During the U.S. Civil War, mothers on both sides of the war lost sons. The country was very sad.
Grieving mothers from both sides had meetings. Sometimes families had been torn apart by the war. In
1868, Ann Reeves Jarvis started a committee to help families get back together after the war. This
committee tried to establish a “Mothers’ Friendship Day” for mothers who had lost sons in the war.
Unfortunately, Ann Reeves Jarvis died in 1905, so she did not see that the day eventually became
popular.