The holiday of Mother’s Day began as an antiwar statement and a vehicle for women’s activism , but numerous people and organizations have tried to seize Mother’s Day for their own various causes or purposes throughout the years.

It was, however, the actions of the modern day Mother’s Day founder, which really steal the show.

The roots of Mother’s Day in the United States can be traced back to the 1850s.  Ann Reeves Jarvis, a women’s organizer from West Virginia organized Mother’s Day work clubs.  These club strived to lower infant mortality by curbing disease and milk contamination, according to historian Katharine Antolini of West Virginia Wesleyan College, who wrote “Memorializing Motherhood: Anna Jarvis and the Defense of Her Mother’s Day.”

Anna Jarvis. Photograph by Olairian

The same groups tended to wounded soldiers from both sides during the Civil War, and organized Mother’s Friendship Day picnics to unite former foes in the postwar…