The Father’s Day Story
A notable father, William Jackson Smart, was the inspiration for Father’s Day. He certainly qualified as a dad because he had 14 children.
He was born in Arkansas in 1842. After enlisting as a Confederate soldier, he was captured in the battle of Pea Ridge while driving a supply wagon. But instead of sitting in a POW camp, he decided to fight for the North. It was a rare distinction to be both a “Reb” and a “Yank.”
After the war, he returned to Arkansas where he worked a farm that was unusual because of the large amount of coal that was easily accessible on the ground. The family collected chunks and sold them.
In 1887 they decided to sell the “farm” and move to a homestead near Creston, Washington, not far from Spokane.
William valued relationships. He stayed close to his children even through the heartbreaks of losing his first wife, Elizabeth, and later his second wife, Ellen. Both mothers died while their children were still young at home. His daughter, Sonora, remembered him as devoted and loving. “He was both father and mother to me and my brothers and sisters,” she said.
Sonora wanted to do something to honor him and all fathers. In 1910 she gathered signatures and presented them to the Spokane Ministerial Alliance, asking them to recognize the courage and devotion of fathers with a day in their honor. It turned out to be a grand celebration including sermons, roses, and proclamations by local and state leaders.
The event got noticed. One of the most well-known politicians of that time, William Jennings Bryan, wrote Sonora a congratulatory letter.
In addition to her many-sided career, she spent the rest of her life promoting the idea of a national holiday for fathers. Her efforts were rewarded when she lived to see President Richard Nixon sign a Congressional resolution declaring the third
Sunday in June as Father’s Day. It was 1972, six years before she passed at 96.
The Bible says, “Children’s children are the crown of old men, and the glory of children is their father” (Proverbs 17.6).
Remember dear old dad this year in a special way! By Barry Kimbrough bPastor, Gold Beach, Brookings, and Cave Junction Seventh-day Adventist