Sister Marge Fogarty completes the last star on a hand-sewn replica of the first American flag to reach Michigan Territory, honoring the nation’s 250th anniversary and a remarkable local milestone.
By Deborah Saul, Archives
Sister Marge Fogarty has just sewn the last star on the first flag.
It’s a semiquincentennial project of the Monroe County Museum System: to recreate the first American flag to make it to Michigan Territory.
While the America250 celebrations focus on the 1776 signing of the Declaration of Independence, this project recalls another milestone that happened 20 years later in 1796.
Although England recognized American independence in 1783, the British garrison in Detroit didn’t leave. In 1796, a U.S. military unit came through, took possession of Fort Lernoult in Detroit, and raised the American flag there on July 11. “The Spirit of the American Revolution finally came to people around here,” Jeffrey J. (JJ) Przewozniak, deputy director of the museum system (pictured above in orange), said.
No one knows what happened to that original flag, so the museum staff decided to make a new one as close in materials, style and spirit as they could get. More than 90 individuals and groups have worked for weeks sewing an estimated 27,000 stitches on the 9-feet-by-13-feet replica. On Thursday, June 25, Sister Marge hand-sewed the last star on the blue canton.
Mr. Przewozniak delivered the hand-stitched flag to the Motherhouse for Sister Marge to finish. She had been scheduled to work at the community sewing bee weeks earlier but when the day arrived, she was unable to go. They left the last star for her.
The material is wool bunting made in Pennsylvania and North Carolina. It’s made especially for flags and it has a loose weave that allows wind to pass through it.
The flag had – and the replica has – 15 stars and 15 stripes. Two new states – Vermont and Kentucky – had been added before the American flag got to Michigan. Later, it was decided that going forward, each state would be represented by one star, and 13 stripes would represent the original 13 colonies.
Sister Marge was happy to be part of the project. She said it took about four hours to decide how to tackle the assignment, make a tiny hem around the star, sew it on and cut away the backing and secure it so that the star can be seen from both sides. The heavy linen thread was a bit challenging to work with, too.
The flag now goes to the Monroe County Courthouse in downtown Loranger Square, where it will fly July 1 through July 8. It will be raised every day at sunrise and lowered at sunset. After the 250th celebrations, the flag will be taken to Detroit on July 11 to re-enact the original journey north. The flag will then become part of the Monroe Historical Museum’s permanent collection.
Postscript
IHM Sisters working on community flags is not new. In 1864, the Monroe Ladies Aid Society asked the IHM to help with a Seventh Regiment flag. The Sisters had a sewing machine, which was a marvel at the time. The machine was used for some of the flag, but nine Sisters also did hand sewing and embroidery. The flag is displayed at the Monroe County Historical Museum.