ROSS, BETSY (1752-1836), heroine of one of the most picturesque legends which has grown up around the origin of the American flag, was born in Philadelphia, Pa., on Jan. 1, 1752. She married John Ross, whose uncle, George Ross, was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence.
The versions of the flag story as told by her descendants, agree in the following main points: Washington, accompanied by Robert Morris and Gen. George Ross, called at the little upholstery shop in Arch street, where she was carrying on the business in which she and her husband had been engaged, and asked if she could make a flag. She said she never had made one, but that she could try. They thereupon produced a design, rather roughly drawn. She examined it and, noticing that the stars were six pointed, suggested that they should be made with five points. The gentlemen agreed with her that five points would look better, but that the six-pointed stars would be easier to make. She then showed them how a five-pointed star could be made with a single clip of the scissors. Washington then and there changed the sketch and the three gentlemen left. Soon after a new design was
sent to her, coloured by William Barrett, a painter of some note. She thereupon set to work to make the famous flag, which was soon completed and approved.
This story was first presented by William J. Canby, grandson of Betsy Ross, in a paper read in 187o before the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, and it was verified by other descendants of the family who remembered the story as frequently told to them. No contemporary documentary evidence has ever been found to support the story, nor has any, on the other hand, been found which gives the honour to anyone else. All that has been verified is that there was a Mrs. Ross living in Philadelphia at the time of the flag's adoption, and that she was an upholsterer and flagmaker by trade. She died at Philadelphia on Jan. 3o, 1836.
Canby's claims are ably presented by L. Balderston in The Evolu tion of the American Flag (1909). See also P. D. Harrison, The Stars and Stripes (1914) ; G. H. Preble, Origin and History of the American Flag (new ed., 1917) ; S. Abbott, Dramatic Story of Old Glory (1919) .