The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-01-02
FLAG OF TWELVE STARS
MADE BY BETSY ROSS FOR PAUL
JoNEs's FAMOUS BATTLE SHIP.
Revolutionary Relic Proves Who
Made Star-spangIed Banner Be
fore Congress Adopted 1t.
kansas civ star.

for this dwelling shop was the very hrst
business building erected in Philadelphia.
1t is on Arch street, just below Third, and
1t nestles between the towering walls OF
two big modem buildings. 1t is quaint
old two -and-a-half-story brick house. with
a steep shingled roof and dormer windows.
And this house is over two hundred years
old. The little fat Dutch brick of which
it was builde6 came over in the ship Well
come and traditions say that William Penn
himself laid part of the walls. And in this
house was made by Betsy Ross the hrst
dag OF the United States
Tradition tells-and at every fiag-raising
and Fourth of July some willing orator has
retold-"how the star-spangled banner that
now proudly floats over the most glorious
nation that ever the sun shone on (etc.,
etc), designed by the father of his coun-
try, 6. Washington; that paragon in peace
that power in war; that (etc etc), was
made by the loving hands of a revolution
airy widow who sewed it's silken strands
between the times of molding bullets, scrap
ing lint and urging with her last devoted
breath the fighting colonsts (etc., etc.)
But this is an old story and it IS not this
story except in its preface, for Betsy never
was a widow, and she never nodded bull
lets. But she did make the first flag.
1t was to this Arch-street house, however,
that in the early part of 177 went the COM
mittee authorized to design a suitable flag
for the new born nation. George Washing
ton, so the histories say, headed the dele
cation of colonial generals and presented to
Betsy Ross a sketch, drawn roughly with
pencil of the American flag. Then history
says also that Betsy looked at the sketch
and saw that the thirteen stars were six
pointed; that is. they were the same kind
that the British heralds used in construct
ing armorial bearings and sometimes in the
quarteringS of crests for the knlghted gen
try. Incidentally, Washington himself had a
coat of arms in which We're three stars,
three six-pointed stars; and some eager ira
ditionists suggest that he took the idea OF
the star spangled union of the flag from the
three stars vert in the crest or the mouse
of Washington. But that is another tradi-
ton. Still another, and an always accepted
tradition says that when the colonial gem
erals came to Betsy Ross that most Ameri-
can of DANES stoutly inveighed against the
six-pointed signs of British heraldy and,
with one sharp clip of her scissors, showed
them how a good American five-pointed star
could be made.
Ross made the first flag and that it was cut
out and completed in the back parlor of her
little Arch-Street home. 1t was the first le-
gally established emblem, and was adopted
by Congress June IA, 1717, under the acts
which provide for stripes alternately red
and white, with a union of thirteen white
stars in field of blue. This act read as
follows:
Resolved. That the flag. of the United
States be thirteen stripes, alternate red and
white; that the union be thirteen stars
white in blue field, representing new
June ii, 1777, is the date of the adoption
of flag by the country, but-and this IS
simply matter of congressional record,
though undiscovered until 1S93-in May,
1777, Congress made an order on the treas
9ry TO pay MIS- hoss 1l4 rs 20 dor TN, tne
and gave her contract to make all gov
eminent flags. This was a month before
the visit of General Washington; just a
month before the adoption by Congress OF
n flag for this Nation, and while 1t has gen.
orally been overlooked it simply and plain
~ proves that Congress adopted the flag
made by Betsy Ross, not that Betsy Ross
made the flag adopted by the continental
Congress. And this must needs be proved
TO make this story possible.
II.
The "Kittie Hawk" was as daring a
prtvateerSman as ever sailed with letters
of marque and reprisal the high seas.
This goodly ba-que had the long, low and
fakish build aScribed to pirates off the
Spanish main-for the 'Kittie Hawk" had
the instincts, of a pirate. The "Kittie
Hawk thirsted for blood in q way that a
prim and quaint little Puritan maid, after
whom the barque was named, could never
understand. Perhaps she did not even try
10 understand, and no perhaps about it
she had nothing more to do with this story
than she did with the ship that claimed
her name. The Ancient Mariner who had
even sailed beyond the horizon that begirts
the sea and had been familiar with Death
and his mate had never met anything
stranger than Kittie Hawk. With decks
untenanted and matches battened down, it
seemingly drfted like a phaeton ship in
the waste of waters. From its listless hall
yards no flag fioated and on its cleared
decks single sable watcher waited.
But this ship always drifted into the. wake
of British merchantmen and woe betide the
luekleSS curiosity that prompted some flyer
of the union jack TO heave TO and wait
for this phantom barque. AT the first shot
up from between the deck would swarm a
hoWiing crew of half-naked black men with
cleaning cutlasSes between their cleaning
teeth (this is latter-day addition to the
accepted tradition, perhaps) and before the
British man could understand 1t they were
swarming over his decks. But one day
corvette of Britishers sank the Kittie Hawk
and the cOmmandant James Bayard Stat
ford wounded and taken prisoner, was
thrown in irons in the hold of of the
victorious merchantmen This commandant
was the head of the American family of
Stafford.
John Paul Jones is an accepted hero in
all American history. He had a ship and a
flag. Every school child knows about his
ship. but the flag IS another story, and that
flag is this story. Before Betsy Ross showed
George Washington how to cut five
pointed star and before Congress adopted
the flag she made, Betsy Ross had made
several other flags. The first flag that Betsy
ever made she sewed for John Paul Jones.
She made little mistake in this flag; she
left out a star. liz fact, but Paul Jones over
his time has generally overlooked ii until
one day last week-hut that is telling the
whole story at once and ii affords no chance
to tell about Paul Jones' and insomuch as
it was the very first flag that Betsy Ross
ever made the mistake could properly be
overlooked.
Returning from France Paul Jones was
flying his twelve starred flag A British
merchantmen took a shot at IT, Then Mr..
Jones poured a broadside into the merchant
man and that sunk the Britishman and its
ill-starred flag. and made its consorts flee
without waiting any further information.
But while the Britishman was sinking a
captured officer told Paul Jones that there
was a Yankee in irons in the flooded hold
of the ship Somehow. and lust how the
historians saith not. this Yankee was res
cued from the sinking ship He was James
Bayard Stafford. Paul Jones made the ex-
commandant his lieutenant When the
"BonhOmme Richard" Paul Jones's ship
engaged the British "Seraphis." a chain
shot caught the halyards on the Richard
and carried away its flag. which dropped
into the sea. over the rail sprang Lieuten-
ant Stafford TO preserve the flag. And ne
did preserve it, for after reScuing il he
then and there nailed it to the mast. And
continued to preserve that flag.
".
From the New York Herald
Trenton. n. j.. Sunday. Oct 24-Samuel
Stafford. said to have been the owner of the
flag under which Paul Jones fought died IN
the State Hospital for the Insane Saturday.
He was eighty-six years old. and was the
last of the family. The Stafford home was