Member-only story
William Jackson Smart, The Civil War Vet And Single Dad Of 14 Who Inspired Father’s Day
After raising a brood of 14 children by himself after the death of two wives, one simple man became the inspiration for a national holiday
Although they are also known as “Hallmark holidays,” annual occasions like Father’s Day have taken on extreme importance in the United States as a reminder to appreciate segments of people at least once a year. Every third Sunday in June became a national holiday in honor of dads in 1972 when then President Richard Nixon signed a measure into law. However, it’s origins date back to 1910, when a woman pushed to have a day to honor the actions of her father, a single dad and Civil War veteran named William Jackson Smart.
Smart was born in Arkansas in 1842. He enlisted in the Union Army (it’s believed he also fought for the Confederates at other times) during the Civil War starting when he was just 19. Primarily opposing bands of guerillas in his home state and Missouri, he made it through the conflict safely, despite being captured on multiple occasions, After mustering out, he married Elizabeth Harris and they started a family.
Sadly, she passed away in 1878. He remarried around 1880, tying the knot with Ellen Victoria Cheek Billingsley. That year’s census showed that the couple had eight children, all under the age of 13, living with them, and made a living from coal farming (gathering coal from the ground instead of from mines).
In 1898, Billingsley died in childbirth while giving birth to the couple’s sixth child together. That left the aging veteran alone to raise his large brood of 14 children by himself. It was not common at the time for men to handle such domestic matters themselves. So when he did it with a combination of love and even-handedness, it was something his children couldn’t stop raving about.
One of Smart’s daughters, Sonora Smart Dodd, was in particular a great champion of her father. She was inspired in 1909 while attending a church service in honor of the newly established Mother’s Day to explore doing something similar for exemplary fathers.
