Heritage, Volume 18, Number 1, Winter 2000 Page: 18
39 p. : ill. ; 28 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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as the national flag from December 10,
1836, to the adoption of the Lone Star Flag
on January 25, 1839. The Texas naval
ensign was also adopted as a part of the
same bill. The ensign was the same design
as the United States flag, except it had only
one star in the blue union (see image on
page 20).
The Lone Star Flag
The Lone Star Flag was adopted by the
Texas Congress in 1839, replacing both the
David G. Burnett flag and the naval ensign:
"[T]he national flag of Texas shall
consist of a blue perpendicular stripe of the
width of one third of the whole length of
the flag, with a white star of five points in
the centre thereof, and two horizontal
stripes of equal breadth, the upper stripe
white, the lower red, of the length of two
thirds of the whole length of the flag" (see
image on page 16). Senator Wharton introduced
a bill on December 28, 1838, containing
the flag's design, and the bill was
referred to a committee consisting of Senator
Oliver Jones and two unnamed senators.
This committee reported a substitute
bill containing the same flag design introduced
by Wharton. Congress passed the
substitute bill on January 21, 1839, and
President Mirabeau B. Lamar approved it
on January 25, 1839. The bill also modified
the Texas seal into its present form, a
lone star encircled by olive and live oak
branches. Official art for the Lone Star
Flag and seal was drawn by Peter Krag, and
this art was approved and signed (upside
down) on January 25, 1839, by President
Lamar; John M. Hansford, speaker of the
House of Representatives; and David G.
Burnett, president of the Senate. It is noteworthy
that Krag's flag and seal art were
approved and signed with the same legislative
formality as the text of the bill.
The Stewart Claim
So how does this relate to the claim that
Charles B. Stewart designed the Lone Star
Flag? Stewart came to Texas in 1830 and
was actively involved in Texas politics.
Among other things, he was a delegate to
the 1836 convention, signed the Texas
Declaration of Independence, practiced
medicine in the town of Montgomery, and
served three terms as a member of the
House of Representatives after statehood.
Stewart clearly was an influential man with
friends in high office, but none of this links
him to the Lone Star Flag.HERITAGE * 18 * WINTER 2000
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Texas Historical Foundation. Heritage, Volume 18, Number 1, Winter 2000, periodical, Winter 2000; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth45388/m1/18/: accessed April 27, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas Historical Foundation.