Statewide County CA Archives History - Books .....The Bear Flag: How Made, Etc. 1891
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@gmail.com November 28, 2005, 4:16 pm

Book Title: Memorial And Biographical History Of Northern California

THE BEAR FLAG: HOW MADE, ETC.

  R. A. Thompson published the following communication in the Sonoma County
Democrat of September 9, 1885:

  The Independents were very proud of their flag. The bear made an apt
illustration of their situation. The grizzly attended strictly to his own
business, and would go on munching his berries and acorns if you let him and his
cubs alone. If you undertook to crowd him out, or to make him go any other way
or any faster than he wanted to go he would show fight, and when once in a fight
he fought his way out or died in his tracks.

  The Independents were here, had come in good faith, and come to stay; were
quiet and peaceable if let alone. General Castro undertook to crowd them. His
grandiloquent proclamations were harmless, but vexatious. At last the crisis
came. The Independents, weary of threats and rumors of war, were forced, for the
sake of peace, to fight, and having "gone in," to use the identical words of one
of them, they did not intend to "back out." The bear was typical of that idea.

  The difference of opinion about the make-up of the bear flag arises from the
fact that there was more than one made. The first was a very rude affair. It is
described in Lieutenant Missroon's report to Captain Montgomery. Lieutenant
Missroon arrived in Sonoma Tuesday, the 16th of June, about forty eight hours
after the capture. He reports to Captain Montgomery on the 17th that "the
insurgent party had hoisted a flag with a white field, with a border or stripe
of red on the lower part, and having a bear and star upon it." The words
"California Republic" were not on it at this time, or of course so important a
feature would have been noted by Lieutenant Missroon, who was on a special and
exceedingly important mission from his commander. That these words were
afterwards added is undoubtedly true. It is a matter of very litile importance,
but if any one wishes an exact description of the flag as first raised, he can
satisfy himself by an examination of the above-mentioned report. The flag with
the bear standing is an after production, as is also the silk guerdon which
Lieutenant Revere presented to the pioneers. The description of the flag given
by Lieutenant Missroon accords with the account of several of the party whom the
writer has personally interviewed. Of course, as there were several flags made;
each differed from the other, in the material, from whom the material was
obtained, by whom the flag was made, and just how the figures were placed upon
it. Hence the confused and many diverse accounts of it. All are right as to what
they describe; but what they describe is not the flag first raised by the
Independents. That was rather a rude affair. In fact, the representation of the
bear upon it resembled the species porcus as much as it did the Ursus ferox or
horribilis.

  There were thirty-three men in the Bear Flag party, more than half of whom
came from the Sacramento Valley. Among the latter was the brave and gallant
blacksmith, Samuel Neal, and Ezekiel Merritt, the captain of the company.

  Following is the first list ever published of the names of all the party. A
number came into Sonoma the day after the capture, and they continued to come in
for some time. It is very difficult to separate these from the actual members of
the party who rode into Sonoma on the morning of June 14th. The accompanying
list has been a number of years making, and has been revised many times and
corrected from written records and by personal interviews. There are, doubtless,
still some errors, which may be corrected upon a satisfactory showing:

  SACRAMENTO VALLEY.—Ezekiel Merritt, R. Semple, William Fallon, W. B. Ide, H.
L. Ford, G. P. Swift, Samuel Neal, William Potter, Sergeant Gibson, W. M. Scott,
James Gibbs, H. Sanders, P. Storm.

  NAPA.—Samuel Kelsey, Benjamin Kelsey, John Grigsby, David Hudson, Will
Hargrave, Harrison Peirce, William Porterfield, Patrick McChristian, Elias
Barrett, C. Griffith, William L. Todd, Nathan Coombs, Lucien Maxwell.

  SONOMA.—Franklin Bid well, Thomas Cowie, ____Fowler, W. B. Elliott, Benjamin
Dewell, John Sears, "Old Red."


Additional Comments:
Extracted from

Memorial and Biographical History of Northern California.

Illustrated, Containing a History of this Important Section of the Pacific Coast
from the Earliest Period of its Occupancy to the Present Time, together with
Glimpses of its Prospective Future; Full-Page Steel Portraits of its most
Eminent Men, and Biographical Mention of many of its Pioneers and also of
Prominent Citizens of To-day.

"A people that takes no pride in the noble achievements of remote ancestors will
never achieve anything worthy to be remembered with pride by remote
descendents." – Macauley.

CHICAGO
THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY
1891.


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