Standing on the
steps of the County Court House in Centre Square
on July 8, 1776,Robert Levers, the County Clerk,
read the Declaration of Independence to the
assembled citizens of Northampton County. To
mark this momentous event, the assembled crowd
unfurled a homemade, hand sewn flag.
We believe that the
flag displayed in the Marx Room is the same flag
that was present in Centre Square in 1776.
The flag appeared again on September 6, 1814,
when it was presented by George Beidleman's 14
year old daughter, Rosanna, to Captain Abraham
Horn's Company as they left for Camp DuPont,
Marcus Hook, for service in the War of 1812.
At the conclusion of
the war, the Company disbanded and returned home
with the flag. Members of Captain Horn's
Company, along with Captain Peter Nungesser's
Company of Light Infantry, formed the Easton
Union Guards in 1816. In 1821 they decided to
deposit the flag with the Easton Library Company
for safe keeping in Library Hall on North Second
Street.
At the time of the
Sesquicentennial held in Philadelphia in 1926,
the flag was removed from its pole, placed
between two pieces of plate glass and framed for
exhibition. On its return, it was bolted to the
east wall of the Easton Public Library's marble
stairway in the front entrance to the Carnegie
building.
In 1947, Katharine F.
Richey stitched the flag to Irish linen using
the best preservation techniques at the time.
The flag, in its heavy oak case, was moved to
its new location in 1968 when the addition to
the Library was completed. The flag was removed
from its case in 2000 for conservation and
restoration by Fonda Ghirardi Thomsen, whose
firm, Textile Preservation Associates, Inc.,
restored all the Civil War flags in Harrisburg.
Careful examination of
the banner shows that each of the thirteen,
eight pointed stars, which are seven inches
across from point to point, is slightly
different from all the others. The flag is made
of two kinds of material, the stripes being
grosgrain and the field India silk. The indigo
blue field is in two pieces. The stripes were
pieced together, the white stripes showing more
patching than the red. The flag measures overall
55" by 97".
Precise dating of the
flag has been a matter of controversy and
historical research since the 1890s. Locally, it
is felt that the women of Easton actually made
the flag for the occasion of the reading of the
Declaration, and it was forgotten for some years
until the War of 1812. |
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