# Tragic Origins of Father’s Day 

This Father’s Day, appreciate the progress that has given fathers more years with their families, alive and well.

June 20, 2022 • Commentary 

By [Chelsea Follett](https://www.cato.org/people/chelsea-follett) 

This article appeared in *[Real Clear History](https://www.realclearhistory.com/)* on June 20, 2022. 

Few are familiar with the tragic origins of Father’s Day. Father’s Day was inspired by both a lethal workplace catastrophe and by a single father who raised six children after his wife’s untimely death.

In 1907, an explosion in a West Virginia coal mine resulted in the deaths of 361 men, 250 of whom were fathers. It was the deadliest mining disaster in U.S. history, and [1,000 children](https://www.fatherly.com/love-money/first-fathers-day-monongah-mining-disaster/) lost their fathers in the accident. To honor the lost miners, a local woman named Grace Golden Clayton arranged a “Father’s Day” tribute the following year on July 5th.

Workplace death was sadly common in that era: scholars estimate that in the United States around [61 workers](https://capx.co/the-market-is-the-real-driver-of-better-working-conditions/) per 100,000 employees died in work-related accidents during the early 20th century. In 2020, the most recent year for which there is data, that figure was [3.4 fatalities ](https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/cfoi.pdf)– a 94% reduction. Progress in workplace safety is particularly good news for men. Holders of the 20 jobs with the highest occupational fatality rates, such as logging and steelworking, are over 90% male, [and](https://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/document.php?id=cqresrre2019110800) men account for more than 90% of workplace fatalities. While even one workplace death is too many, we can be thankful that, as workplace deaths have become rarer, far fewer children lose their fathers to disasters like the one that inspired the first Father’s Day.

This Father’s Day, appreciate the progress that has given fathers more years with their families, alive and well.

**A tragic, but rewarding life**

While West Virginia may be the birthplace of Father’s Day, the event did not catch on until later; the annual Father’s Day tradition on the third Sunday in June that we know today was inspired by a devoted single father named William Jackson Smart.

William was born in 1842 in Arkansas. He had the unusual experience of fighting on both sides of the Civil War. Arkansas joined the Confederacy, but in 1863 William [switched](https://www.history.com/news/man-who-inspired-fathers-day-civil-war-vet-single-dad) sides to fight for the Union. He was fortunate to survive: one in five Civil War soldiers met an untimely end. In 1865, the year the war ended, he married Elizabeth. She [died](https://www.geni.com/people/Elizabeth-Smart/6000000082519241895) at age 30 in 1878. Some sources report that the couple had five children, and that at least one died in infancy. What we do know is that William was left to care for three surviving children: an infant [daughter](https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/55383746/anna-a-glasgow), a five-year-old [daughter](https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/57150763/susan-ida-hastings), and a six-year-old [son](https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/55383685/william-joseph-smart).

In those days, losing a spouse to premature death was a common affair. Data suggests that among white men in William’s birth cohort, [nearly](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3002115/) 5% were widowers during their 40s. Reflecting the higher male mortality during the Civil War, over 10% of women in that same demographic were widows in their 40s. Such statistics are not surprising, given how short the typical lifespan was during that era. As late as 1880, the average U.S. life expectancy was [only](https://www.humanprogress.org/dataset/life-expectancy-at-birth-2/?countries=167&start-year=1880&view=selected) 39 years; today that figure is more than 76 years.

After two years of single fatherhood, William remarried [in](https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/45306602/william-jackson-smart) 1880. His second wife was Ellen, a 29-year-old widow with [three](https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/55336289/ellen-victoria-smart) children of her own. William and Ellen added seven more children to their household (one of whom [died](https://ancestories1.blogspot.com/2013/06/the-family-plot-of-fathers-day-family.html) in [infancy](https://web.archive.org/web/20150626013143/https:/historicaldigression.com/tag/william-jackson-smart/)), and moved their sprawling family from Arkansas to a farm in the Pacific Northwest.

**Daughter honored twice widowed dad**

William’s children from his first marriage and his stepchildren were grown when he became a widower for the second time. When Ellen died in [1898](https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/55336289/ellen-victoria-smart), William was left to raise their 16-year-old daughter Sonora and five sons: a [15-year-old](https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/54848708/charles-pinkney-smart), [12-year-old](https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/44525020/george-alfred-smart) [twins](https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/55336940/henry-albert-smart), a [10-year-old](https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/55563745/marshall-harrison-smart), and a [7‑year-old](https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/53263267/thomas-fred-smart). Sonora may have helped him take care of her younger brothers initially, but when she married the following year, William was left to raise the five boys on his own.

William rose to the challenge. Sonora [said](https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2021/06/20/fathers-day-history-sonora-smart-dodd/) admiringly of her father: “This role he performed with courage and selflessness until we were all in homes of our own.”

Starting in 1909, as Mother’s Day — a [holiday](https://www.humanprogress.org/this-mothers-day-celebrate-progress-for-mothers-and-children/) with its own tragic backstory — grew in popularity, Sonora worked to popularize a complementary Father’s Day to be celebrated around the date of her father’s birthday. She partnered with businesses, ranging from menswear manufacturers to greeting card trade groups, and spent decades lobbying for the holiday’s official recognition — which finally [arrived](https://www.census.gov/history/pdf/1972-fathersdayproclamation.pdf) in 1972.

The holiday’s heartrending beginnings highlight how much more difficult fatherhood often was in the past, when high rates of premature death killed many fathers and made others into widowers left to raise children on their own. This Father’s Day, appreciate the progress that has given fathers more years with their families, alive and well.

##### About the Author 

[![Chelsea Follett](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/author_picture/public/2021-01/Chelsea%20Follett.jpg?itok=t0sPC8WK)](/people/chelsea-follett) 

##### [Chelsea Follett](/people/chelsea-follett)

Research Fellow, Human​Progress​.org, Cato Institute

[ 

](https://x.com/chellivia) [ 

](mailto:cfollett@cato.org)