My name is Jack Stanley, I have studied history for many years. This blog is about history in a more raw view, not over done. I often use original materials to bring a historic event or story to life or an interview I may have done with the person mentioned. If you cook a vegetable too long it loses much. The same can be said of many histories. They are the history of the history written before it. Over done history. THIS IS HISTORY IN THE RAW. Comments send to phonograph78@hotmail.com
Thursday, August 17, 2006
Betsy Ross 1752-1836 ...The many traveled body of the supposed creator of the American flag
We have heard the story of Betsy Ross who worked with George Washington to make the first American flag.
Well today most historians take that story as hogwash.
The story did not come out till the 1870's by Ross's grandson....She did make flags for ships in Philadelphia but there is no record of her work on the American flag.
Her grandson's story said that right after the Declaration of Independence was signed George Washington asked her to make a flag....Well it was not authorized by Congress till over a year after that....Washington would not have been in charge of that anyway.
The flawed picture of Washington crossing the Delaware shows first off, Washington standing and also an American flag...which just did not exist at the time.
So it is nice to think of Ross's work as true...but sadly it is not...When asked if he believed the story Woodrow Wilson Historian/President of USA/ President of Princeton University/ replied "would it, were it true".........
Betsy Ross was married 3 times and was originally buried in the Free Quaker Burial Ground.
She was moved with husbands to Mt Moriah Cemetery in 1857 where they rested till 1975.
Then they were moved to the courtyard of the house where she lived. I was in Philadelphia when the graves were moved and I asked one of the men involved how did they know they had them after all the time in the grave. He said that they took a large batch of the dirt and took 6 feet deep of it. So he said that they got all of them. So in the grave of Betsy Ross is a mixed bag of folks some mentioned, and some not!
I saw Philadelphia and the Betsy Ross house again in 2005.. It was all fixed up and it looked as though she had rested there all her life. Well we know she is there...at least some of her.......
Very much interested in your comments regarding the re-interment of Betsy's bones. Are you willing to discuss in more detail for a book I'm publishing on folklore?
ReplyDeleteSure you can contact me at phonograph78@hotmail.com
ReplyDeletebest wishes jack