Hidden History: A really grand old flag

by Robert Herron

Town Historian Emeritus

Courtesy Photos

In March of 2017 Lisa Zerio, then the director of Rocky Hill Parks and Recreation, contacted the Rocky Hill Historical Society about an old flag that had been stored in the town vault for many years. We expected another 48-star flag to add to our collection but what we found was an even greater treasure.

The flag is of Civil War vintage. It has 34 stars arranged in a star pattern and measures 30 by 20 feet. The stars on the flag represent the states listed below. Southern states are represented because the U.S. never recognized their secession from the union as being legitimate.

These are the states and dates they entered the union.

• Delaware: Dec. 7, 1787

• Pennsylvania: Dec. 12, 1787

• New Jersey: Dec. 18, 1787

• Georgia: Jan. 2, 1788

• Connecticut: Jan. 9, 1788

• Massachusetts: Feb. 6, 1788

• Maryland: April 28, 1788

• South Carolina: May 23, 1788

• New Hampshire: June 21, 1788

• Virginia: June 25, 1788

• New York: July 26, 1788

• North Carolina: Nov. 21, 1789

• Rhode Island: May 29, 1790

• Vermont: March 4, 1791

• Kentucky: June 1, 1792

• Tennessee: June 1, 1796

• Ohio: March 1, 1803

• Louisiana: April 30, 1812

• Indiana: Dec. 11, 1816

• Mississippi: Dec. 10, 1817

• Illinois: Dec. 3, 1818

• Alabama: Dec. 14, 1819

• Maine: March 15, 1820

• Missouri: Aug. 10, 1821

• Arkansas: June 15, 1836

• Michigan: Jan. 26, 1837

• Florida: March 3, 1845

• Texas: Dec. 29, 1845

• Iowa: Dec. 28, 1846

• Wisconsin: May 29, 1848

• California: Sept. 9, 1850

• Minnesota: May 11, 1858

• Oregon: Feb. 14, 1859

• Kansas: Jan. 29, 1861

Note 34 star flag draped on flagstand

These states joined the Union after this flag was made.

• West Virginia: June 20, 1863

• Nevada: Oct. 31, 1864

• Nebraska: Mar. 1, 1867

• Colorado: Aug. 1, 1876

• North Dakota: Nov. 2, 1889

• South Dakota: Nov. 2, 1889

• Montana: Nov. 8, 1889

• Washington: Nov. 11, 1889

• Idaho: July 3, 1890

• Wyoming: July 10, 1890

•Utah: Jan. 4, 1896

• Oklahoma: Nov. 16, 1907

• New Mexico: Jan. 6, 1912

• Arizona: Feb. 14, 1912

• Alaska: Jan. 3, 1959

• Hawaii: Aug. 21, 1959

If you Google “34-star flags” you’ll find several different star configurations for 34-star American Flags but the configuration of our flag seems very rare.

Research shows that A.G. Parker raised funds for the flag for the town and acquired it for $70 In 1861. This translates to about $2,000 in 2020 dollars. Parker was postmaster of Rocky Hill at the time. The flag was originally made for another town but never claimed.

Parker may have purchased this flag as an act of patriotism in the early days of the Civil War. It may also have been an act to build goodwill and build his credibility in the town. He had recently been appointed postmaster and replaced Henry Webb.

This old American flag bearing only 34 stars is part of the collection at the Rocky Hill Historical Society.

The role of postmaster was under a cloud. A Hartford Courant article reported that during Mr. Webb’s tenure “many letters have been missed, it appears, and others received minus their valuable contents.” It went on “Webb, probably fearing arrest … suddenly left for parts unknown.”

The flag was flown on a 100-foot-high pole especially built to hold it and erected on the triangle-shaped green on the south side of the Rocky Hill Congregational Church. There is some confusion about this green since it is near and similar to what is now the Veterans Memorial Green.

Old newspaper articles describe the green as being south of the church. The land outside the Congregational Church has changed many times over the years as witnessed by the pictures in the historical society’s photo collection. The flag flew daily on the green for 10 years after the end of the Civil War until the flagpole was struck by lightning and destroyed.

Adeline Wright then took it. She gave it to the Order of American United Mechanics, a popular lodge at the time, and when this group ceased to exist the Griswold family took the flag. They ultimately gave the flag to the town clerk around 1931. It had been stored there ever since.

For many years the flag was displayed at patriotic events, usually by draping it since it was too old and worn to fly. Sadly, it had become so dilapidated that it was too fragile even to drape.

We know that a Griswold family took custody of the flag but there are conflicting reports about which one. A 1912 article in the Hartford Courant cites Rufus W. Griswold, the noted country doctor and historian, as taking custody of the flag. A 1931 article says the flag then went to William S. Griswold, proprietor of Sunnycrest Farm.

According to the 1931 article, Mrs. Griswold (also known as Grandma Griswold, William Griswold’s wife, Margaret) wrote a history of the flag, although we have yet to find this document.

The historical society plans to document, preserve and truly appreciate this piece of the town’s history. It is currently wrapped in a bedsheet on a rack on the second floor of the Academy Hall Museum.

We’d like to display it for the public, but given its age and fragile condition, it must be handled with great care. We would love to find a way of displaying it while preserving its integrity. RHL