The "The Whole Truth About Old Glory" Story

Flying Old Glory!

It was an ordinary day.  Opened the front door and unfurled our American Flag that had become twisted in the strong evening wind from the night before.  Quite a few neighbors fly the American Flag and they look so majestic as I drive down the street.  I guess you know that there are a variety of stories as to how we have the flag that we now fly as well as who made it.  Naturally, there is the Betsy Ross story about how she sewed our original flag, but is that really correct?  The story goes that around June 1st, 1776, she was sitting in her shop at 239 Arch Street in downtown Philadelphia when three men entered.  She recognized George Ross who was the uncle of her deceased husband as well as George Washington who she knew as a friend and a customer who would visit to have his shirt ruffles embroidered.  

The Betsy Ross Flag?

The third man was Robert Morris who along with Mr. Ross was a member of Congress.  They arrived to ask her if she could make a flag according to a rough drawing they carried with them.  Being modest as she was, after seeing the drawing they presented, said she could try to make the flag, but suggested the stars they had pictured on the drawing as having six points, be changed to have five points to save on material.  

Painting showing Betsy Ross and a committee of Congress.

They doubted she could do that until she showed them how she could fold material and make a five-pointed star with no difficulty.  Washington was said to redraw his design in pencil in her back parlor to employ the five points instead of six, and Betsy made the flag.  94 years later one of her grandsons presented this story at a meeting of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.  And, they believed it!  In later years numerous historians have conducted searches into the story and none were able to verify the claims of the grandson, William J. Canby.  One of the few accounts they found was that a Naval official commissioned Elizabeth Ross for fourteen pounds, twelve shillings and two pence to make ship's colors which she did for Pennsylvania state ships.  So why do so many people accept the legend that Betsy Ross sewed the United State's first flag?  Seems that a painting by Charles H. Weisgerber depicted a meeting between a committee of Congress and Betsy Ross titled "Birth of Our Nations Flag".  

This painting was made into a postage stamp.

Could that be why people believe it happened the way Mr. Canby stated?  But, some claim that the artist took liberties and painted the flag into the picture.  It is said that careful historians do not accept the Betsy Ross legend and urge others not to either.  But, then along came President Woodrow Wilson and he said this about the controversy,  "Would that it were true!"  Some historians attribute the design of the first flag to Francis Hopkinson who was a New Jersey delegate to the Continental Congress and signer of the Declaration of Independence.  

Flag designed by Francis Hopkinson.

He sought payment from the Board of Admiralty for his design of the "flag of the United States of America."  And then there is the story of U.S. Navy Captain Samuel Chester Reid who was said to have designed the first flag as we know it today with 15 stars and 15 stripes, one for each state at the time the flag was adopted in 1795.  This flag was the one that flew over Baltimore's Fort McHenry and became immortalized as the "Star Spangled Banner."  It is said that Reid's wife Mary is reputed to have sewn the first version which was flown from the Capitol dome on April 13, 1818.  So, what do you think?  And, what do I believe after finding all these different versions?  I'm not sure!  I really want to believe that it was Betsy Ross, since George Ross was a member of the church where I am a member. And, I lived a block from Ross Street in the city and knew where George Ross lived when he lived in Lancaster, PA. And, I played basketball most every Sunday afternoon at Ross Elementary School which was near my home.  And someone as important as George Ross just had to have a relative who designed a flag as important as the US Flag.  And, who else could come up with a better story about how it was easier to make a 5 pointed star than a 6 pointed one?  Have you ever tried to do that?   I have and she is absolutely right!!  So, I vote for Betsy Ross as the maker of our first flag.  And, since this is my story, I'm right!  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.