Which woman founded Mother's Day Work Clubs before the modern U.S. Mother's Day holiday?

The woman who founded Mother's Day Work Clubs before the modern U.S. holiday was Ann Reeves Jarvis.

Jarvis began the clubs in 1858 in communities including Grafton, Pruntytown, Philippi, Fetterman, and Webster in what is now West Virginia. Their purpose was practical public health: members taught families about sanitation, inspected milk, raised money for medicine, and helped households affected by illness.

Her work grew from the severe disease and infant mortality that troubled Appalachian communities in the mid-19th century. During the Civil War, Jarvis also encouraged cooperation and care for wounded soldiers from both Union and Confederate sides. Her activism later helped inspire her daughter Anna Jarvis’s campaign for a national Mother's Day.

Ann Reeves Jarvis and Anna Jarvis are easy to confuse because they were mother and daughter. Ann created the Work Clubs and inspired the movement; Anna organized the 1908 memorial observance and campaigned to establish the national holiday. Julia Ward Howe was another peace activist who promoted a separate Mother's Day for Peace proposal in 1870.