The Dodson Flag 2 LbNA #29989 (ARCHIVED)
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Add Location| Owner: | Lone Star Quilter  |
|---|---|
| Plant date: | Apr 11, 2007 |
| Location: | |
| City: | Washington |
| County: | Washington |
| State: | Texas |
| Boxes: | 1 |
| Found by: | Yertle |
|---|---|
| Last found: | Aug 8, 2013 |
| Status: | FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFr |
| Last edited: | Apr 11, 2007 |
I am placing this box to replace my original “The Dodson Flag”, which has gone missing. It’s a new box and a new location within the park.
The first Constitutional Convention met at Washington-on-the-Brazos on March 1, 1836. Most of the delegates were under 40 years old, and all had been elected for the express purpose of declaring the independence of Texas from Mexico and forming a government for the new republic. No one knew when they all might have to leave to fight the advancing Mexican army. On the opening day a “Norther” blew through and the temperature inside the meeting hall, a wooden building with scraps of cloth for windows and doors, was 33 degrees. Flying over the hall was the flag designed and made by Sarah Rudolph Bradley Dodson.
Recognized as the first “Lone Star” flag, she originally created it for her husband Archelaus, a member of the Robinson company of army volunteers formed in September, 1835, at Harrisburg, Texas. After serving at Gonzales, this company marched under the Dodson flag to San Antonio to lay siege to the Alamo.
There is some disagreement about the placement of the star on the Dodson flag. In 1896, Mr. Dodson, who was living in Nueces County, told an historian that the flag was made up of three squares of red, white and blue with the white star in the field of blue next to the staff. However, Guy Bryan, in a speech before the Texas Veterans Association I 1873, stated, “The first Lone Star flag that I can find account of was made at Harrisburg….The Lone Star was white, five-pointed, and set in a ground of red.” Historian John Henry Brown states that this banner was one of two flags flown at the Texas Independence Convention at Washington-on-the-Brazos beginning 1 March 1836 before the fall of the Alamo. This flag, employing red, white and blue vertical stripes with the single star is the earliest flag most similar in color and number of stripes to the Lone Star flag of today while retaining the broad vertical stripes similar to the motif of the Mexican tri-color. We think Mr. Dodson should know, so the star is in the blue field.
Directions:
This letterbox is located in Washington-on-the-Brazos State Historic Site. Take Highway 105 west from Navasota for 7 miles. Turn left on FM 115 to the park.
To the Box:
Park at the Visitor Center, go in and look around, then get a map (no fee for just hiking). Exit the back doors and follow the path to Independence Hall (about 100 yards). After looking the hall over, continue on the path to the nearby intersection of paths. Don’t turn, just keep on going, counting 200 steps from the intersection as the path bears right. When you’re finished counting, look to the right off trail for a couple of large slab rocks (actually concrete). The letterbox is behind and under the back rock, covered with a smaller rock. There are other letterboxes inside this park, including Boots Tex’s “The Last President” and my “Legend of the Bluebonnet” series.
The first Constitutional Convention met at Washington-on-the-Brazos on March 1, 1836. Most of the delegates were under 40 years old, and all had been elected for the express purpose of declaring the independence of Texas from Mexico and forming a government for the new republic. No one knew when they all might have to leave to fight the advancing Mexican army. On the opening day a “Norther” blew through and the temperature inside the meeting hall, a wooden building with scraps of cloth for windows and doors, was 33 degrees. Flying over the hall was the flag designed and made by Sarah Rudolph Bradley Dodson.
Recognized as the first “Lone Star” flag, she originally created it for her husband Archelaus, a member of the Robinson company of army volunteers formed in September, 1835, at Harrisburg, Texas. After serving at Gonzales, this company marched under the Dodson flag to San Antonio to lay siege to the Alamo.
There is some disagreement about the placement of the star on the Dodson flag. In 1896, Mr. Dodson, who was living in Nueces County, told an historian that the flag was made up of three squares of red, white and blue with the white star in the field of blue next to the staff. However, Guy Bryan, in a speech before the Texas Veterans Association I 1873, stated, “The first Lone Star flag that I can find account of was made at Harrisburg….The Lone Star was white, five-pointed, and set in a ground of red.” Historian John Henry Brown states that this banner was one of two flags flown at the Texas Independence Convention at Washington-on-the-Brazos beginning 1 March 1836 before the fall of the Alamo. This flag, employing red, white and blue vertical stripes with the single star is the earliest flag most similar in color and number of stripes to the Lone Star flag of today while retaining the broad vertical stripes similar to the motif of the Mexican tri-color. We think Mr. Dodson should know, so the star is in the blue field.
Directions:
This letterbox is located in Washington-on-the-Brazos State Historic Site. Take Highway 105 west from Navasota for 7 miles. Turn left on FM 115 to the park.
To the Box:
Park at the Visitor Center, go in and look around, then get a map (no fee for just hiking). Exit the back doors and follow the path to Independence Hall (about 100 yards). After looking the hall over, continue on the path to the nearby intersection of paths. Don’t turn, just keep on going, counting 200 steps from the intersection as the path bears right. When you’re finished counting, look to the right off trail for a couple of large slab rocks (actually concrete). The letterbox is behind and under the back rock, covered with a smaller rock. There are other letterboxes inside this park, including Boots Tex’s “The Last President” and my “Legend of the Bluebonnet” series.