By Tracy McCormick-Dishman
The Jacksonville chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution will host a flag retirement ceremony Feb. 15 at 3 p.m. at the Mandarin Community Club, 12447 Mandarin Road in Jacksonville.
The ceremony will be conducted in conjunction with a local Scout troop to properly retire worn or tattered American flags.
“Flags that are tattered and worn or just time to retire them are gathered,” said Chuck Salestrom, public information officer for the Jacksonville chapter. “The ceremony will talk about the history of the U.S. flag. We’ll present the number of flags and then retire them.”
The U.S. flag’s design was established July 14, 1777, when Congress resolved to have 13 stripes, alternating red and white, with the union featuring 13 stars in a blue background. As new states were added, a new star was added to the flag. Florida was the 14th state added to the union on March 3, 1845.
On April 4, 1818, Congress enacted that the flag would display stars representing all states but maintain only 13 stripes. Today’s flag has 50 stars and 13 stripes.
Salestrom is new to the organization himself, having been inducted just a few months ago. His connection to the American Revolution came through extensive genealogical research that traced his lineage back seven generations to Elijah Harlow, who served in the Continental Army from 1775 until his death in 1777.
“Elijah came into the Revolutionary War in 1775 and became a member of a number of different groups,” Salestrom said. “By this point, the organizations were real fluid, and so he served under two or three different colonels, ultimately ending up in the Continental Army.”
The search for revolutionary ancestors often proves challenging, according to Salestrom. Records before 1850 become increasingly difficult to verify.
“Getting that verifiable proof is kind of tricky actually,” Salestrom said. “Anything below 1850, it gets a lot more murky in terms of being able to verify the generational changes back and forth because the records were not kept that well.”
Salestrom’s research was aided by Daughters of the American Revolution, DAR, records. His wife, Christie, had already traced her family’s connection to the American Revolution and became a DAR member.
“We had traveled back to Geneseo, Illinois, where her family founded that town,” Salestrom said. “We were able to connect with a very distant relative who took us out to a cemetery in the town and we found headstones of Christie’s ancestors and within that there was a DAR plaque on one of the headstones.”
The Sons of the American Revolution was founded in 1889 and is headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky. The nonprofit, nonpartisan organization is dedicated to promoting patriotism, preserving American history and promoting education to future generations, according to Salestrom.
“It is completely volunteer,” Salestrom said. “It’s not like anything I’ve ever belonged to as far as a group. They’re real passionate about preserving that history and telling the stories, especially to the next generation.”
The Jacksonville chapter was started in 1926 and chartered by the Society in 1932, making it the third oldest chapter in Florida and the longest continuously operating chapter in the state.
Membership is open to males 18 years old and older who have verifiable proof that they had a patriot who served in the American Revolution.
The chapter has several additional events planned for spring and summer, including a Thomas Creek battle commemoration March 28, an Alligator Bridge commemoration at the Callahan Fairgrounds and a Liberty Tree dedication April 4 at Jesse Ball DuPont Park in downtown Jacksonville. The Liberty Tree dedication, conducted jointly with the Jacksonville chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, will honor the Treaty Oak, estimated to be 250 to 400 years old.
For information about the Sons of the American Revolution Jacksonville chapter, contact Chuck Salestrom at chucksalestrom02@gmail.com.
