Erie Maritime Museum Honors the Flag Makers

On this global month of celebration marking the achievements of women, let’s take a moment to remember the small group of Erie women who, in 1813, created an icon. 

The women whose hands sewed Oliver Hazard Perry’s “Don’t Give Up the Ship” flag remained steadfast to their task amidst the fears and tension of a town preparing for war.   

During that chaotic Summer of 1813, many women and children in the frontier town of Erie had been sent south to Waterford for their safety.  At the very least, they were shielded there from the indelicacies of life in a military encampment.  The size of Erie’s population temporarily exploded with ship builders, then sailors and soldiers, and a less-refined lifestyle.  At worst, they were safe from finding themselves casualties of a war that sat on their doorstep.  The threat of British attack on Perry’s shipyards throughout the Summer was very real, and if Buffalo would fall to an attack, British soldiers were just a few days’ march away. 

These women stayed in Erie and gladly put aside their families’ immediate needs when asked to make Perry’s battle flag.  While they hoped their work would inspire Perry’s men, they could not have known that the flag they made in 1813 would continue to speak through centuries, inspiring generations of U.S. Navy officers and men, as well as anyone who needs to stand persistent to win the day.  While their work is preserved and exhibited at the U.S. Naval Academy Museum, their names are not remembered there.  It is only through the Pennsylvania Historical Marker behind the Erie Maritime Museum that any monument to them and the work of their hands has been made.  

The flag makers were:  Margaret Forster Steuart, her sister Dorcas Forster Bell, and her nieces Jane Bell, Elizabeth Bell, Elizabeth Rachel Forster, Mary Theodosia Forster, and Catherine Ann Forster. 

Dedication of the “Making of the Flag ‘Don’t Give Up the Ship’” marker was part of the Erie Maritime Museum’s annual commemoration of the Battle of Lake Erie on September 10th, 2015.  While the service itself was solemn, there certainly was a sense of joy when the marker honoring the flag makers was unveiled.  Several Forster family descendants were in attendance, and two of them, N. Lane Nelson and Rebecca Forster, unveiled the marker, along with Sabina Shields Freeman and then PHMC Commissioner Jean Craige Pepper.