In which U.S. city was Anna Jarvis born?

Anna Jarvis was born in Webster, Taylor County, West Virginia.

She was born there on May 1, 1864, to Granville E. Jarvis and Ann Maria Reeves Jarvis. Webster was a small community where her father operated a mercantile business after the family moved there from Philippi. The household later relocated to nearby Grafton, which became more closely associated with Anna’s public legacy.

That distinction explains a frequent quiz trap. Grafton was the site of the first official Mother's Day observance associated with Anna Jarvis: a memorial service held at Andrews Methodist Episcopal Church in 1908. Her birthplace, however, was Webster, and the house where she was born is now known as the Anna Jarvis House.

Anna eventually moved away from West Virginia, worked in Chattanooga, and settled in Philadelphia. After her mother died in 1905, she led the campaign that made Mother's Day a recognized U.S. holiday. President Woodrow Wilson officially designated the second Sunday in May in 1914.