On Sunday June 14, the Walterboro Elks Lodge #1988 honored the American flag with a Flag Day ceremony.
Friends, families, and veterans attended the program to celebrate the day.
Veteran Bob Tiegs led the ceremony and educated the attendees on the history of the American flag.
The first celebration of the U.S. flag’s birthday was held in 1877 on the 100th anniversary of the Flag Resolution of 1777. However, it is believed that the first annual recognition of the flag’s birthday dates back to 1885 when school teacher BJ Cigrand first organized a group of Wisconsin school children to observe June 14 on the 108th anniversary of the official adoption of The Stars and Stripes as the flag’s birthday. Cigrand, now known as the Father of Flag Day, continued to publicly advocate the observance of June 14 as the flag’s birthday — or Flag Day — for years.
William T. Kerr was credited with founding the American Flag Day Association in 1888 while still a schoolboy in Pittsburgh, Pa.
A few years later, the efforts of another schoolteacher, George Bolch, principal of a free kindergarten for the poor of New York City, had his school hold patriotic ceremonies to observe the anniversary of the Flag Day resolution. This led to the formal observance of Flag Day on June 14 by the New York State Board of Education. Over the following years, as many as 36 state and local governments began adopting the annual observance. For over 30 years, Flag Day remained a state and local celebration.
Both President Woodrow Wilson in 1916 and President Calvin Coolidge in 1927 issued proclamations asking for June 14 to be observed as the National Flag Day. But it wasn’t until August 3, 1949, that Congress approved the national observance, and President Harry Truman signed it into law.
Throughout the history of America, there have been many flags used to represent this nation.
On June 14, 1777, the Second Continental Congress passed the Flag Resolution which stated: “Resolved, That the flag of the 13 United States be 13 stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be 13 stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation.”
The new flag was flown in June 1777 by the Continental Army at the Middlebrook encampment in New Jersey.
At the Siege of Fort Stanwix, Mass., reinforcements brought news of the new official flag to Fort Schuyler. Soldiers cut up their shirts to make the white stripes, and red flannel for the red stripes came from petticoats of officers’ wives. Material for the blue came from Capt. Abraham Swartwout’s blue cloth coat. The soldiers made their own flag to fly high with pride above the fighting.
For the next few years, the flags all looked quite different. Finally, George Washington commissioned a flag that contained the 13 stars to represent the 13 colonies.
The first U.S. flag adopted was what became known as the Betsy Ross flag. It had the usual red and white stripes, but the 13 white five-point stars were arranged in a circle to represent the union of the 13 colonies.
The second flag became known as the Star Spangled Banner flag. It had 15 stars to represent the addition of Vermont and Kentucky into the Union. Rebecca Young and Young’s daughter Mary Pickersgill made the Star Spangled Banner flag. She was assisted by Grace Wisher, an African American girl who was just 13 years old. This was the flag whose tattered remains flying over Fort M’Henry inspired Francis Scott Key to write the National Anthem.
On April 4, 1818, U.S. Naval Captain Samuel C. Reid formulated a plan that was passed by Congress in which the flag added 20 stars, with a new star to be added when each new state was admitted to the nation. The number of stripes was reduced to 13 to honor the original colonies.
From 1912 until 1959, the flag stayed the same with 48 stars. In 1959, however, with the addition of Hawaii and Alaska, the flag displayed 50 stars and has remained that way ever since.
In 1986, president Ronald Reagan gave his own interpretation of what the flag means, saying, “The colors of our flag signify the qualities of the human spirit we Americans cherish. Red for courage and readiness to sacrifice; white for pure intentions and high ideals; and blue for vigilance and justice.
