According to local legend, the flag was hoisted when the
Declaration of Independence was publicly read in
Easton, Pennsylvania by Robert Levers on July 8, 1776, two days before a copy of the Declaration reached
New York City. Its history is closely connected to the local Beidleman family who worshiped at Pennsylvania German Reformed and Lutheran churches in Easton and the Straw Church near Phillipsburg, New Jersey. The Beidlemans were originally from
Assenheim in the
Rhineland-Palatinate. The flag was used as a company flag under Captain Abraham Horn in the
War of 1812, and some suspect that the design may only date from this era. It was presented to the infantry by Rosanna (Rosina) Beidleman Wagener (1775-1848) who married a local
Schwenkfelder descendant prominent in
Northampton County commerce and finance, and there is speculation that the now-uncommon arrangement of components of the design may have been because the Beidlemans did not use English and may have used German prepositions to understand proposals for an American flag. The existence of the flag before the War of 1812 is considered unlikely by some, but flags of that period would have had 15 stars and stripes rather than the 13 of 1776 as present on the Flag of Easton. The flag was given in 1821 to the Easton library for safe-keeping when the company returned. The
Easton Area Public Library still holds the flag. ==References==