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Show SELIXTEI). The First American Flag. At a recent meeting of the Pennsylvania historical society, W. J. C'aiiby, Ksq., read an essay upon the ''American flair." He discovered, in tracing' tiie 1-iistory of this national emblem, that tiie first instances when the tstars and stripes were uuJuiled were at the sieire of Fort Schuyler, August 17, 177(3 and upon the occasion, just a year prior to that time, when the brig Nancy was chartered by the continental congress, to procure military stores in the West Indies, duriti r the latter p-irt of 1775 While at Porto Piico, in July of the ensuing year, the information came that the colonics had declared their in dependence, and with this information came the description, of the flac thai had been accepted as the national banner. ban-ner. A young man, (Japt. Thomas Mandenvill, set at work to make one, and successfully accomplish, d it, when it was unfurled, and saluted with thirteen thir-teen guns. When the brig Nancy was upon her return voyage, she was hem med in by British vessels off Cape May. Her crew succeded in removing -all the munitions to. the Khore, and when the last boat put off, a young man in it named John Hancock jumped into the sea, swam . to the vessel, ran up the shrouds of the mast, and securing, secur-ing, the flig, bore- it triumphantly ashore', through ' a hot' fire from the British men-of-war. The first ' American fl ig, however, according to the design and approval of congress, was made by iMrs. E iza-beth iza-beth Koss. Three of her daughters still live near Philadelphia, to confirm this fact founding their belief not upon what they saw, for it was' made many years before they were born but upon wha; their mo her had often told them. A niece of this lady. Mrs Margaret Mar-garet Rogtjs, aged ninety five years, now lives in l-rennantown. and is con vrsant with the fact It is not generally gener-ally known that to Phila elphia not only belongs the honor of flinging the first star spangled banner to the breeze, but also that a lady of that city hud the honor of makintr it. The house in which it was made still-stttnds, No 239 Arch street, (the old number being SO) the last of an old row. . It is related that when consre.-s had decided upon 'lie.desian.Ool.GeO. lxoss ai d General Washington visited Mrs. Koss and asked her to make it. vhe said, "I don't know whether I can but IT, try," and directly suggested to the gentlemen that the design was wrona, in that the stars were six cornered cor-nered and not five cornered, as they should be. This was corrected, she uiade the flai, congress accepted it, and for half a dozen years this lady furnished fur-nished the government with all its national na-tional flags, having, of course, a large assistance. This lady was also the wife of Claypole. one of the lineal descendants de-scendants of Oliver Cromwell. |