The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-07-08
CONNECTICUTgS FIRST FLAG
PRESENTED TO THE CONTINENTAL
 TROOPS AT NEW HAVEN.
An Interesting Narrative Concerning Com
 neotiemt,s FirAt State Flng.


 An Interesting Narrative Concerning Com
 nectieut's First State Flag.
 MT. Ira Hart Palmer of Stonlngton
 has written an interesting article con
 corning the first state flag. The
 story published recently In the New
 London Telegraph Is of so much inter
 est at this time that we give It below;
 There has been, perhaps you have mo-
 ticed, deal said in the papers of late about the effort of the Anna War
 ner Bailey chapter D. A. R., of Groton
 and Stonington, to get the state to adopt or legalize some specific flag,
 and as an outgrowth of such effort the
 general assembly has voted so to do, and the adjutant general, in due time, will doubtless officially declare respect-
 Ing the old grapevine flag.
 Apropos of the desire and effort of the good, patriotic women folk of historic
 old Groton and still older Stonington. now sailing under the flag of Anna Warner Bailey chapter, allow me to re- late that during the revolutionary pe- riod couple of Connecticut women had in their breasts a. desire and a pa- | trlotism similar to that now swelling
 many on the east banks of the Thames and at our borough-by-the The authoress Elliot, in her "Women
 of the Revolution" thus relates: q had heard indeed that Madame Wooster
 and Mrs. Roger Sherman gave the Con- necticut troops the first national flag
 ever used In this state, which flag was composed of their own eundry and sev- eral articles of dress"
 Then the authoress, whether from wo- manish jealousy or something expresses
 a doubt concerning 1t. Later on she wrote:
 "The fact, however, is established that the two ladies above mentioned did make the flag displayed an occasion of the public rejoicing for the peace in New Haven" She further states: T turned to President Stiles literary diary, which is a manuscript and fills between twenty and thirty volumes, confident that I should find something in relation to the matter On turning to the proper date, the first thing that met my eye was picture of ,he flag in the doctors brief style of drawing, with the following description; ''At sunrise the Continental flag dis played by the ladies (cost S120) the stripes red and white, with an azure field in the upper part, charged with thirteen stars. On the same field and among the stars were the arms of the United States. the field of which con- tained a ship and plough, and three sheaves of wheat; the crest, an eagle soIant: the supporters, two white hors- es The arms were put on with paint and gliding. When displayed 1t ap- peared we'll"
 A traditional joke then follows thus: There is a tradition that this flag displayed at first, in all the pride of paint and gliding, the arms of Pennsyl- yania-a mistake which arose very nat urally, as the ladies. turning in urisus- pecting confidence to the family Bible, l (which happened to be a Philade, ohia edition) copied the arms from the title page The mistake was rectifed, 1t is said, when Roger sherman returned from congress.
 It will thus be seen that some of our good maternal ancestors of the revolu- tionary period were "in it" the flag craze) as we'll as our wives, sisters and i perhaps daughters of these latter days Finally, it is hoped that the state flag to be adopted will have on it no more than the state motto and grapevine dis play-nofhing emblematical of the north, south, east or west, for to-day 1 we are one as a nation. It is by vir- tue of maternal ancestry that I have 1 the pleasure, yea claim the right to ef- | fuse as above.
 IRA HART PALMER.