Ross, Betsy (1752-1836), was an upholsterer who made flags in Philadelphia at the time of the American Revolution (1775-1783). Some people believe she made the first American flag that had stars and stripes.
Betsy Ross was born on Jan. 1, 1752, in Philadelphia, the daughter of Samuel Griscom, a Quaker carpenter. She is believed to have attended the Friends School. In 1773, she eloped with John Ross, an upholsterer. Soon afterward, Ross was killed. Mrs. Ross took over his shop and became known as an expert seamstress. She remarried twice and had seven daughters. She died on Jan. 30, 1836.
William J. Canby, a grandson of Betsy Ross, wrote a paper about her in 1870. Canby said that when he was 11, his 84-year-old grandmother told him the story of how she made the first official United States flag. As the story goes, a committee headed by General George Washington visited Mrs. Ross in June 1776. George Ross, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and an uncle of Betsy Ross’s first husband, was a member of the committee. These men asked Mrs. Ross to make a flag according to the rough design they gave her. Washington wanted six-pointed stars in the flag, but the seamstress persuaded him to make the stars five-pointed. No proof has been found that this incident actually happened. But it is known that Betsy Ross was an official flagmaker for the Pennsylvania Navy. The stars-and-stripes design she may have sewed was adopted by Congress on June 14, 1777.
