Henderson daily dispatch. (Henderson, N.C.) 1914-1995, 1938-06-14

Proudly waving over our udIlOu 1OI
ISL years, Old Glory will celebrate an
other birthday today. Our forefath-
ers gloried in. this beloved symbol,
which has been handed down from
generation to generation as the price
less heritage of a 1iberty-loving peo
pie.
Born amid the first flames of Am
erica's fight for freedom, it has con-
tinued to wave through troublous or
tranquil times, and to lead the way
to- our nation as year by year it has
marched with a renewed hope and
high, resolve along the Road Of Des-
/ Tiny: a9"i}n' ".''''!'
Much of our Tags early history is
shrouded in mystery We know that
a flag of thirteen stars and stripes
was adopted by the Continental Con-
gress on June IA, TIT, but we do not
know positively by whom it was de-
signed or where it1was first flown. A
popular legend attributes the making
of the first Stars and Stripes to Betsy
Ross, a flagmaker Of Philadelphia.
Flagmaking materials were scarce
in those days and this was often a
severe handicap to those who wish
ed to display the new banner. When
John Paul Jones was at Portsmouth,
N. H., preparing to sail aboard on
the ranger, the young ladies of that
seaport fashioned out of their own
and their mothers gowns a beautiful
Star-Spang ed Banner which was
flown to the breeze in Portsmouth
harbor on July 4, 1777.
Another flag was fabricated a few
weeks later by the defenders of Fort
Stanwix, N. Y, when an officer do
mated his cloak for the blue field, sol
dlers gave their shirts for the white
stripes, while the red stripes were
fashioned from the petticoat of
soldiers wife. This flag was flown
from a flagstaff, raised on a bastion
nearest the enemy on August g..
Those. are well authenticated &C
counts of the early, yet probab not
the earliest, displays of our national
flag aficat and ashore. We may smile
little at these primitive efforts at
flagmaklng, yet we cannot forget the
pride and patriotism which inspired
the makers. @3f'a
Old Glory first floated over a fort
ress of the Old World when Lieuten-
ant Presley N. O'Bannon of the Ma
rlne Corps, and Midshipman Mann,
OF the Navy, raised our ag over the
captured fortress at Derne, TripoIi,
where it was flung to the breeze on
April a. 1905.
Nearly every schoolboy knows that
by the dawn's early light on Sep.
temper "A, 1914, Francis Scott Key
saw the Gtar-Spangled Banner still
waving over Fort McMenry, at Balti-
more, and composed the spirited song
which is now the national anthem
From time to tine slight changes in
the flag have been authorized by
Congress. The flags disp aged at TIT
poll and at Fort McHenry had fifteen
stars. and stripes, a departure from
sEc original thirteen stars and stripes
design Two, new stars and stripes
had been added when Vermont and
kentucky came into the Union, and
our flag was of that pattern from
1895 until 1918.
Realizing that toe many stripes
would mar the Leautv of The design,
Congress then authorized a return of
the flag to its original form of thir-
cen stripes, one star being added
thereafter for each State entering
the Union.
Gone are the earlier flags of col
snial days; the rattlesnake spreading
is coils over thirteen stripes with its
ogan of defiance, Don't tread on
,e;" the Grand Union Flag, bearing
he British crosses Of st George and