Back in the early 1870s America was gearing up for its Centennial celebration and needed a good story - true or not - to explain who made the first American flag for General George Washington. Into the breach stepped William J. Canby whose grandmother was none other than Betsy Ross.
Canby presented a paper to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania in which he claimed that his grandmother had "made with her hands the first flag" of the United States. Though Canby lacked proof or historical evidence of Ross producing the first flag - there were no letters, diaries, bills of sale - he did cite the word of Clarissa Sydney Wilson, Canby's aunt and Ross' sister-in-law. Aunt Clarissa told Canby Betsy Ross had indeed sewn the sacred first flag.
That story was good enough for the Historical Society and Americans eager for "facts" about the revolution and its heroes and heroines. It became "official" and Betsy Ross was soon seen as a patriotic role model, especially for young girls and a symbol of women's contributions to American history.
Well, Ross had an eventful life, but she likely did not sew the first American flag. Born to a strict Quaker family in 1752 Ross was one of seventeen children born to Samuel and Rebecca Griscom. She learned to sew as a child and upon completing schooling her father apprenticed her to a local upholsterer.
Betsy liked her work and fellow apprentice John Ross, and the couple eloped when she was 21. The marriage caused a split from her family - John Ross was a member of the Christ Church - and the act of marrying outside her religion was strictly forbidden.
Betsy and John persevered and eventually opened their own upholstery business, and flag making was part of the work. And according to Grandson Canby, General George Washington himself paid a call to the Ross business and contracted with her to produce the initial American flag.
Betsy Ross was a talented seamstress and a bonafide flagmaker. She also endured widowhood - John Ross died of a gunpowder explosion, her second husband died in an England prison after his ship was captured and he was charged with treason - single motherhood, and deftly managed a household and business. But the story of her and the American flag is likely nothing more than a convenient invention of history. There simply is no proof.