DID BETSY ROSS DESIGN
THE FLAG OF THE
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA?
By Franklin Hanford.
A paper read before the Scottsville Literary Society, January 22, 1917.
On Saturday, the fourteenth of June, 1777, the Continental Congress, then in session in Philadelphia, adopted a resolution which reads as follows: “Resolved, that the flag of the thirteen United States be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the Union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation.”
“The Journal of Congress is silent as to the name of the member or committee that introduced this resolution and neither is there any record of the discussions that may have preceded the adoption of our national emblem.” “It is a matter of great regret that no record of the circumstances attending the birth of the Stars and Stripes has ever been found,” for we should like to know who designed our present flag, and also, though a matter of less interest, who made, that is manufactured, the first one.
Some years ago I happened to see upon the wall at Mrs. Emma H. Miller’s house in Scottsville, a very attractive picture in colors. This picture represented General Washington seated on the left and Robert Morris and the Hon. George Ross standing near him, while, seated on the right, was Betsey Ross with a completed flag of thirteen stripes, and thirteen stars in a blue field, in her lap. “C. H. Weisberger, Copyright 1903,” was inscribed near the bottom of the picture. Underneath it was this legend; “Birth of our nation’s flag. The first American flag accepted by Congress and adopted by resolution of Congress June 14, 1777, as the national standard, was made by Betsey Ross, in 1776 at 239 Arch Street, Philadelphia, in the room represented in this picture. The Committee, Robert Morris and Hon. George Ross, accompanied by General George Washington, called upon this celebrated woman and together with her suggestions, produced our beautiful emblem of liberty.”
The legend under this picture led me to make some inquiries as to Betsey Ross. Who was she? And did she assist in designing and did she make the first flag or ensign of the United States of America? If not Betsey Ross, who did design and make it? Endeavoring to answer these questions, I have consulted some thirteen works relating wholly or in part to the flag of the United States. A list of them is appended to this paper.
Betsey or Elizabeth Griscom was the fifth daughter of Samuel and Rebecca (James) Griscom and was born January 1, 1752. She was married when quite young to John Ross, son of the Reverend Aeneas Ross, an Episcopal clergyman of Newcastle, Delaware, whose brother, the Hon. George Ross, became one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. George Ross was interested in the furnishing of cannon-balls, with perhaps other military stores for the Colonial defence, and it was while on guard at night over these, with other young men, that the nephew, John Ross, Betsey’s first husband, received an injury from the effects of which he died in January, 1776.