Father's Day (June 16, 2013)

[Today is Father's Day and so Samaritan Sunday will be on a brief hiatus this week.  It will return next Sunday!]  

Father's Day is celebrated in some form in more than 40 countries around the world. The U.S. celebrates Father's Day on the third Sunday of June, but the path to its first presidential proclamation by Lyndon Johnson in 1966 (at the urging of Republican Senator Margaret Chase Smith of Maine), and to its eventual designation as a national holiday signed into law by President Nixon in 1972, was a rocky one. Read more about the history of Father's Day in the U.S. and around the world here. 

According to Wikipedia, Father's Day was created in the U.S. as an answer to, and to complement, Mother's Day -- the creation of which is credited to Anna Jarvis in 1908.  The founding of Father's Day supposedly took place on June 19, 1910 at the YMCA in Spokane, Washington.  The founder is said to be Sonora Smart Dodd.  As stated at Wikipedia, Father's Day is "a celebration honoring fathers and celebrating fatherhood, paternal bonds, and the influence of fathers in society."

[A related, but little known, celebration is International Men's Day, which was conceived in 1999 in Trinidad and Tobago to honor men who are not necessarily fathers.  It is celebrated in many countries (including the U.S.) on November 19th.  Again, this was establish in answer to, and to complement, International Women's Day, which is celebrated on March 8th.] 

In honor of my father and my line of fathers, today's post presents my paternal line back to about 1580 with photographs of four generations of fathers back to my great great grandfather, Adam Tew.  Today's post ends with a Father's Day greeting once received by my grandfather. 

Arnold G. Tew, Jr. (1922 -    )
at King's Point, the United States Merchant Marine Academy, in March 1944

My father at the wedding of his granddaughter Molly (July 2009)

Arnold G. Tew, Sr. (1896 - 1958)

John Andrew Tew (1853 - 1903)

Adam Tew (1825 - 1908)

John Tew, Jr. (1784 - 1873)

John Tew, Sr. (1746 - 1827)

William Tew (1720 - after 1782)

Richard Tew (1678 -     )

Henry Tew (1654 - 1718)

Deputy Governor of Rhode Island

Richard Tew (1605 - 1673)

Came to America and Rhode Island in 1640

from Maidford, Northamptonshire, England

Henry Tew (circa 1580 -     )

And finally, from the near mid-point of the last century, is a Western Union telegram sent on Father's Day -- June 18, 1946 -- from my Uncle (after whom I am named) to his father, my grandfather, Arnold G. Tew, Sr. 

A Father's Day telegram to my grandfather, Arnold G. Tew, from his younger son (my uncle), John Andrew Tew II.  This Father's Day greeting was sent by my uncle on June 18, 1946 from Stockton, California.

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All photographs from the personal collection of the author.

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Copyright 2013, John D. Tew

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