Ann Maria Reeves was born in Culpeper, Virginia, on September 30, 1832, the daughter of the Reverend Josiah Reeves. When Ann was 12 years old, the family moved to Barbour County in present-day West Virginia, when Reverend Reeves was transferred to a Methodist church in Philippi. Ann Maria Reeves Jarvis and daughter Anna Jarvis In 1850, Ann married Granville E. Jarvis, the son of a Philippi Baptist minister, and moved to Webster in Taylor County. Ann gave birth to eleven children, but only four lived to adulthood. Two years later, Ann organized a series of Mothers’ Day Work Clubs in Webster and other nearby towns to improve health and sanitary conditions, which contributed to the high mortality rate of children…
