



Produced by K. Nordquist, Anne Storer and the Online
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 The True Story of
 THE AMERICAN FLAG


 JOHN H. FOW




 [Illustration: Fig. 8
 FLAG CARRIED BY THE FIRST CITY TROOP OF PHILADELPHIA IN ESCORTING
 WASHINGTON ACROSS THE JERSEYS ON HIS WAY TO TAKE COMMAND AT CAMBRIDGE]




 THE TRUE STORY
 OF THE
 AMERICAN FLAG


 BY
 JOHN H. FOW


 PHILADELPHIA
 WILLIAM J. CAMPBELL
 1908




 Copyright, 1908
 BY
 JOHN H. FOW


       *       *       *       *       *




INTRODUCTION


I was induced to make this research by the late William H. Egle,
Librarian of the State Library at Harrisburg, whose knowledge of the
early history of Pennsylvania was of valuable assistance to me in
preparing the data for a history of the country along the Delaware river
prior to 1682 (yet unfinished). Mr. Egle agreed with me that the claim
of Mr. Canby that BETSY ROSS designed and made the first flag was
legendary and without that foundation which is so necessary to uphold
claims of this character. Statements of such a character, when allowed
to go unrefuted, do harm to the history of any people, inasmuch as they
encourage others to build "air castles" and purchase old portraits to be
palmed off on others as _our_ "grandfather" who "fit" in the Revolution,
or _our_ "grandmother" who carried supplies to the troops at Valley
Forge.

History is the