History of the Fourth
On June 14, 1777, the Continental Congress passed an act establishing an official flag for the new nation. The resolution ordered that "the flag of the United States be made of thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation."
While no one knows the exact origin of the first American flag, some historians believe it was designed by Congressman Francis Hopkinson and sewn by Philadelphia seamstress Betsy Ross.
Between 1777 and 1960, Congress passed several acts that changed the shape, design and arrangement of the flag and allowed stars and stripes to be added to reflect the admission of each new state.
Today the flag consists of 13 horizontal stripes, seven red alternating with six white. The stripes represent the original 13 colonies. The stars represent the 50 states of the Union. The colors of the flag are symbolic as well: red symbolizes hardiness and valor, white symbolizes purity and innocence, and blue represents vigilance, perseverance and justice. Information from http://www.pbs.org/capitolfourth/flag.html.
A young girl's thoughts on the American flag
It was 1925 when 13-year-old Catherine Thummel Bieker drew a picture representing the American flag of her era and attached to it a paper she wrote for a school assignment.
Catherine, born in 1912, married Al Bieker in Kansas, and the couple moved to this area in 1931. As fate would have it, Catherine was not destined for a long life. She died in 1933 of what the family believes was pneumonia.
She left behind two small babies — Esther, 1½, and JoAnn, who was only one month old when her mother died at the age of 21. Family, formerly from Kansas, had settled already settled in this area and helped Al, who, like many men of that era, did odd jobs for a living.
Eventually, Al became a manager at Perry Brothers, a poultry business in Chehalis.
Not knowing that The Chronicle was working on a flag story, Esther Thummel Canfield, now all grown up and living in Chehalis, dropped this flag and essay off at our front desk. It fell fortuitously into my hands. For obvious reasons, Esther doesn't remember much about her mother — her death and short life remained always too painful for the family to discuss.
But they did keep some of her things, and these precious items were among Catherine's possessions. Esther has cherished them all these years.
"I wanted something of my mother's and just held onto it," she said of the class assignment.
The following is Catherine Thummel Bieker's essay, written Feb. 2. 1925, in a Kansas classroom and published as she wrote it:
The American Flag
The flag of the United States means so much to us that no one in our presence can or wish to say a word against it which we do not resent!
The thirteen stripes mean that there were thirteen Colonies or States. It means so much that we are willing to fight for it, if necessary, or to die for it, if need be rather then see it lie in the dust, or to see any other flag put in its place.
It means the Freedom to do what we do what we believe, to be right; no matter what any one else may say or think and whenever or wherever we see the flag we are proud to remember that we are living in a country which is called by all nations, the land of the free.
Mistress Ross made the flag but the diagram was put to her by Washington.
The first flag of America is also called the Grand Union flag was flown for the first time December 3, 1775.
The colors of the flag first were used by the Christian church.
The forty eight stars stand for the forty eight States.
The names which are given to our flag the National, the Star Spangled Banner, Old glory. No man loved the flag of the union more than Captain Driver During the civil war.
This flag was the object of search.
The red on the flag means blood.
Notes: The famous name Old Glory was coined by Captain William Driver, a shipmaster in Salem, Mass. His mother and her circle of sewers presented him with a beautiful 24-star flag in 1824. As the banner opened to the ocean breeze for the first time, he exclaimed,'" From "The Story of Old Glory" By Robert W. Henderson, Jr.
According to MSN Encarta: "In the language of the Continental Congress, which defined the symbolic meanings of the colors red, white, and blue, as used in the flag, 'White signifies Purity and Innocence; Red, Hardiness and Valor; and Blue, Vigilance, Perseverance and Justice.'"
The Mistress Ross mentioned above is Betsy Ross, credited by some as the sewer of the first American flag after a visit in June 1776 by George Washington, Robert Morris, and her husband's uncle, George Ross.)
Claquato flag returns to Lewis County
(From a Nov. 11, 1984, story in The Chronicle found in the Lewis County Historical Museum files, published below as it appeared in the article.)
"Georgia and Gordon Jones, a descendant of Edna Newland of Claquato, spent their vacation looking for the family flag. The flag first flew over the Lewis County Courthouse, Claquato, in the year of 1862. It flew there for 12 years. In search of the flag the couple traveled to Washington from where they now live in Chula Vista, Calif."
The flag, so the story goes, was once loaned by Edna Browning (Georgia Jones' grandma) to the Washington State Historical Society. The receipt was still in the family's hand, but the flag wasn't.
According to Georgia Jones, "My grandmother, Edna Browning Newland, often told the story about her Grandfather, Lewis Hawkins Davis, which was, 'Grandfather gave the land and the building for a courthouse, as Claquato was the county seat.' It must have been in 1862 that a flag pole was raised, a wonderfully tall one. My first recollection of the 'world affairs' was when mother and a neighbor made a flag for it in 1862. It was the largest Army regulation size we had seen."
After years of writing in frustration to the Washington State Historical Society, we learn from the family, "Finally we took a trip to Olympia, to the historical society with the receipt in hand. After some prodding, the flag was found and reclaimed when they found it in the archives."
According to Karen Johnson, curator of the Lewis County Historical Museum, the Claquato flag was made when the Civil War was in full swing. Claquato became the county seat of Lewis County in 1862 and remained so until 1874, when Chehalis successfully lobbied for that distinction.
A comprehensive history of Claquato may be found at the office of the Claquato Cemetery, said Johnson. It contains pictures and documents, descriptions of the village in the early days and several actual artifacts from the old town.
The flag itself is now stored at the present-day Lewis County Courthouse, but is in very fragile condition.
This was no ordinary flag
(Information from The Lewis County Historical Museum files)
Louisa Jackson Ware, daughter of John R. and Matilda Jackson, holds the original Jackson Courthouse flag at the Jackson Courthouse. John was justice of the peace, postmaster, sheriff, clerk and recorder for the first court session at the Jackson Courthouse. The photo accompanying this story was published by the Chehalis Advocate in January 1938 and appeared also in "Our Hometowns; A Historical Photo Album of Greater Lewis County Vol. II," published by The Chronicle.
Deemed by most to be the first flag made in the brand-new Washington Territory, this flag was said to have been made by the Jacksons and their neighbors in 1853.
An excerpt from a story in the September 2004 Lewis County Historian reads: "This was no ordinary flag. It was made of wool bunting that John R. Jackson had sent for from San Francisco; the stars were of muslin. Though patterned after the country's first thirteen-star an thirteen-stripe flag, it ended up with only eight stripes, since there wasn't enough material for the entire design.
The flag flew July 4, 1853 at the first known Fourth of July celebration in the newly formed Washington Territory (created by an act of Congress in March of that year).
The flag still exists in the collection of the Washington State Historical Society.
Pat Jones is The Chronicle's lifestyle editor. She may be reached by e-mail at pjones@chronline.com, or by telephoning 807-8226. The Lewis County Historical Museum's Internet address is www.lewiscountymuseum.org.
