Waubeka, Wisconsin, a small community located on the Milwaukee River, claims to be the birthplace of Flag Day, a fact often overlooked by many Americans. Flag Day itself tends to get overlooked by many, as well, but today is a perfect time to get a refresher on the holiday and the American flag.
What is Flag Day?
Each June, residents of Waubeka gather to celebrate the most enduring symbol and arguably the most unnoticed holiday centered around the American flag, Flag Day.
What about July 4? It seems every store and doorstep makes prominent use of the flag for Independence Day. According to Dave Janik, a Waubeka native and second-generation president of the National Flag Day Foundation, the token of what ‘Old Glory’ represents is important enough to have its own day, per PBS News.
On June 14, 1885, Bernard J. Cigrand, a Waubeka school teacher, placed a small 38-star flag in his inkwell. Cigrand assigned his students to write an essay about what the flag means to them. This started the idea for an annual flag day to be celebrated across the country.
Decades later, President Woodrow Wilson issued a 1916 proclamation declaring June 14 as Flag Day. Thirty-three years later, President Harry S. Truman signed the formal observance of celebration into law, per PBS News.
Now, 139 years later, Cigrand and his students’ essays live on. In honor of the then 19-year-old teacher, Waubeka celebrates flag day with an annual essay contest that collects entries from across the nation.
“Our passion for the flag here is very deep,” Janik said. “The flag is the symbol of our country — it symbolizes individualism, success, loss, daring, chivalry. People need a compass to guide them, and the flag is a great compass,” per PBS News.
The history of the ‘Stars and Stripes’
The iconic symbol of “Stars and Stripes” began with the American Revolution. In 1775 colonists weren’t fighting under a single flag, as most platoons involved in the war against Great Britain fought under their own flags. In June 1775, the Second Continental Congress met with a goal to unify the colonist troops essentially leading to the first creation of the “American” flag.
On June 14, 1777, the Second Continental Congress during a break from writing the Articles of Confederation, the group determined the arrangement of the nation’s allegiance: “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.”
Facts about ‘Old Glory’
- Betsy Ross is popularly believed to have made the first American flag, according the History website, but there is actually no historical evidence showcasing she attributed to Old Glory’s construction. Later it was validated that Francis Hopkinson, a delegate who signed the Declaration of Independence, designed the American flag.
- In the 1950s Alaska would soon be accepted into the nation, pushing American flag designers to start reworking and attempting to add a 49th star to the existing 48. Simultaneously, a 17-year-old Ohio high school student named Bob Heft took over his mother’s sewing machine, dismantled the family’s flag and crafted a proportional 50-star pattern. He handed his finished school project to his history teacher, explaining his surety that Hawaii would achieve statehood status soon. He received a B-, which was promptly changed to an A after Heft sent his flag to congressman Walter Moller, who presented the design when both States officially joined the Union.
- Have you ever wondered how to fold an American flag? Here is a guide: “First, enlist a partner and stand facing each other, each holding both corners of one of the rectangle’s shorter sides. Working together, lift the half of the flag that usually hangs on the bottom over the half that contains the blue field of stars. Next, fold the flag lengthwise a second time so that the stars are visible on the outside. Make a triangular fold at the striped end, bringing one corner up to meet the top edge. Continue to fold the flag in this manner until only a triangle of star-studded blue can be seen,” according to the History website.