By Tracy Gupton

A direct line to the creation of Father’s Day is blurred by history. But when researching the origin of the annual holiday Americans observe in recognition of beloved dads, that line becomes more sharply focused on West Columbia, Texas.

The nascent stage of Father’s Day can be traced back to three origins:  1908 in West Virginia, 1910 in Washington state or 1911 in Texas. In a 2003 “Brazosport Facts” interview, the late West Columbia veterinarian, Dr. Burch Loggins, spoke about the beginnings of Father’s Day. He said his grandmother, Zula Winstead Loggins, got the idea for Father’s Day while hospitalized in San Antonio in 1911.

To support his claim, a 1947 Freeport Facts story revealed that Zula mailed letters to numerous southern newspapers seeking the print media’s assistance in promoting her idea to have a new annual holiday created to go along with Mother’s Day celebrations nationwide.           

Zula was born to Stephen Hall Winstead and Della Elouise Dance in 1870. Winstead died when Zula was only four years old. The grieving family moved in with Della’s three bachelor siblings, the famous Dance brothers who manufactured pistols used by Confederate soldiers during the Civil War.

“It was the depth of love and appreciation for those uncles that prompted her to try to have a day set aside for fathers, that the same honor and appreciation might be shown them as had been so lovingly bestowed upon our dear mothers,” it was written in the 1947 Facts story about Zula Loggins.

Coke Stevenson, governor of Texas between 1941 and 1947, credited Zula with being the creator of Father’s Day. Dr. Loggins said his grandmother received a letter in 1945 from Governor Stevenson that recognized her efforts to have Father’s Day observed nationwide.

Modern-day, rapid research of the origins of Father’s Day on Wikipedia and Google reveals a couple other names competing with Zula Winstead Loggins as founders of our national holiday. 

Preceding Zula’s 1911 efforts are those of Grace Golden Clayton, the daughter of a dedicated minister, and Sonora Louise Dodd, daughter of a Union Army volunteer in the Civil War. The first known Father’s Day service occurred in Fairmont, West Virginia, on July 5, 1908, to honor the 362 men killed in an explosion at the Fairmont Coal Co. mines in Monongah, West Virginia, the previous December. Clayton proposed a one-time commemoration at a West Virginia church in the summer of 1908 to honor the many fathers killed in the worst mining accident in United States history.

The first statewide Father’s Day celebration was observed on June 19, 1910, in Washington state. Sonora Smart Dodd, one of six children raised by a widower, sparked that Father’s Day holiday in Spokane by wanting to honor not only her own father—Arkansas native William Jackson Smart—but all fathers nationwide.

It was not until 1972—thanks to the original efforts of women like Loggins, Dodd and Clayton—that the nationwide observance of Father’s Day annually on the third Sunday in June was decreed by law and by proclamation of President Richard Nixon. Fifty-eight years after Mother’s Day was made official, the day honoring fathers became a nationwide holiday in America, to the men who bring us up and never let us down.          

Who was Zula Loggins?

Born in the Columbia area in 1870 to a prominent family, Zula Della Winstead was allegedly the granddaughter of General George Washington’s flag bearer David Etheldred Dance at Valley Forge. 

_{Dr. Burch Loggins and his wife, Donna Ruth Chesney Loggins, pictured at their golden wedding anniversary celebration. Dr. Loggins was the grandson of Zula Loggins who is credited with being the founder of Father’s Day in Texas.}

Zula left East Columbia to attend West Tennessee State Normal School in Memphis. She met and fell in love with Reuben Burch Loggins Jr. there. They married in 1891. In 1893, they moved back to West Columbia where Judge Loggins would serve 16 years as Brazoria County Attorney and operate his own law practice. The couple had two sons:  George Etheldred Loggins (1900-1978) and Dr. Loggins’ father, Reuben Burch Loggins III (1904-1987). Judge Loggins died in 1939 at age 73. Zula Loggins died in 1957 at the age of 87.

Among descendants still living in West Columbia today are Dr. Loggins’ widow, Donna Ruth Chesney Loggins (who owns and operates Chesney’s Jewelry in downtown West Columbia), and her children, Reuben Burch “Bubby” Loggins V and Jenny Beth Loggins Morrow, their children and grandchildren.