Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1905-12-30
Flag From a Wedding Dress

In the library of a home on River
side drive hangs a frame in which.
under glass, is a piece of a woman's
wedding gown, says the New York
Sun. The remnant is no larger than
the hand. of a sixteen-year-old girl.
The fine old man. who lives in the
house tells this story of the garment
from which the bit was taken:
at is fragment of the wedding
dress of my wife's niece" he said.
1.-THE Civil war was not three months
under way when her husband enlist
ed in the company of Coon Thornton.
afterward a Colonel in the Confeder-
ate service, whose, personal history
and daring made him known to both
armies west of the Mississippi river
in the SOS.
"Soon after the enlistment of the
young husband, he sent word to his
wife that the company had no flag.
She was a spirited woman, as most
Southern women were at that time.
"The stores were not dealing in
much those days except the neces-
saries of life. The young wife took a
last look at her wedding dress and
down it came from it's receptacle. -
"She cut it and slashed it, got the
leu AAOdl chOIAiOA SO"h III AHOi SAOoS
seau, and then added the blue field
from the crown of her hat, which she
had worn when her lover chose her as
the queen of beauty at tournament
in which he was the successful knight
"Out of all these the flag of Coon
Thornton's company was made by this
woman and her friends, and it was
duly presented by the makers. Across
the field of the flag were the words,
stitched in silk. Protect Missouri :"
The owner of the remnant told how
the flag bad been preserved and hand
ed down, and how Coon Thornton and
most of his followers had died and of
the death of the woman who had
planned the flag from the outfit which
is most dear to a woman's heart.
There the story might have ended,
had not the person to whom it was
told known the sequel.
According to his story the flag was
carried until it was frayed and full of
holes. Before the first year of the
war was over the flag was captured
by the captain of Federal company
that was enlisted in Colorado. This
captain afterward became a General.
George West is his name and he is
still living.
The husband of the woman who
gave her wedding garment for flag
is also still living. He is Major Will
-KuykendaH. He has been in iWyom-
ing ever since the war ended. Gen.
West retained the captured flag until
q G. A R. post received it from his
hands, with the understanding that it
was subject to his order. Two or
three times the flag disappeared, but
was returned as mysteriously as it
had been taken away.
Long before Congress decided that
captured Confederate flags should be
returned Gen. West was making in
Quiries about the woman who had
made the flag. He had heard its story.
He learned that the woman who pre-
scented it to Thornton's company was
dead.
Then he began search for Major
Kuykendall and learned that he was
still in the flesh A correspondence
followed, and Gen.. West arranged to
have the tattered emblem returned to
the man who suggested its creation
The return is to be the chief Incl
dent of a meeting of the surviving
members of Gen. Vests Colorado
bers of Coon Thornton's company.
AS soon as all survivors of both COM
mands can be found the meeting will
take place in Colorado and the we'd
ding garment banner, bullet rfddled,
will be returned to the hands of the
man who wed the woman from whose
silks the ensign was made.