Eagle Feathers #230 – Flag Week

By Bob (Monty) Doherty

Bernard J. Cigrand is widely credited with being the “Father of Flag Day” in America. He was a United States Navy Lieutenant in World War I, teacher, Dean at the University of Illinois at Chicago and a historical author. He pushed for the holiday’s establishment for over 30 years, lecturing over 2,188 times on the flag and patriot-ism before President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed Flag Day on June 14, 1916.

In 1949, thirty-two years later and seventeen years after Cigrand’s death, President Harry S. Truman signed a Congressional act into law. It recommended a voluntary observance of Flag Week. Ever since, Presidents have observed Flag Week with patriotic speeches.

January 1, 1776 is a date etched in stone in Somerville’s history. On this date, the Colonial Army led by General George Washington was formed and its first banner, The Grand Union Flag, was raised in his presence on Prospect Hill. It was an ensign of thirteen alternating red and white stripes with the British flag in its upper left-hand contour.

This flag was the original American standard and waved above our troops and over our ships until June 14, 1777. On that date, Congress replaced the British cornice of our flag with thirteen radiant stars on a blue field. They were equally spaced in a circle to honor the country’s thirteen original states. Since then, with the growth of our nation, our flag has changed 27 times, but the red and white stripes of the Grand Union Flag remain.

On July 4, 1910, President Howard Taft visited Somerville. He was especially impressed by the new flag-raising monument at Prospect Hill. Two years later, he framed the then new forty-eight-star flag into six rows of eight. This flag flew for 48 years until Alaska and Hawaii joined today’s fifty-star union.

Somerville was the first location in America to celebrate our flag before the constellation of stars on it began to grow. Today, she bespangles with fifty stars rep-resenting our fifty states. Of all places, Somerville, the home of the first American flag raising, should celebrate the coming week of June 14 – Flag Week! Raise the halyard, here’s to Old Glory!