Betsy Ross was not only noted for her skill with the needle, but quite as well for her piety and patriotism. So widely was her extraordinary skill recognized that she adorned the parlors of the wealthy with draperies, the theatres with curtains, hotels with quilts and even state-rooms of the finest packet boats were fitted up by her. It is also said that she made the handsome ruffled shirt bosoms worn by General Washington, and not a few for other patriots who held high office in the young nation. At an early date, and before she made United States flags, she made Colonial flags for the army and navy and there is a minute dated May 29, 1777, “an order on William Webb to Elizabeth Ross for fourteen pounds twelve shillings and two pence, for making ships’ colors,” etc. In time Mrs. Ross married Joseph Ashburn, who was captured on the privateer Luzerene and died a prisoner of war in Mill Prison, England. By this marriage she had two children, Zillah, who died in infancy, and Eliza, who married a Mr. Sullivan. Ashburn sent a farewell message to his wife by a fellow-prisoner, John Claypoole, who later was exchanged for a British prisoner. On reaching Philadelphia he delivered his message and personal effects, and about a year later married Mrs. Elizabeth Ashburn. In April, 1783, the Stars and Stripes were put to their first national use in the demonstration for peace throughout the new nation. The Flag of Peace was the name given to it in this widespread employment of the ensign. Two weeks after this occasion Betsy Ross (Ashburn) and John Claypoole were married. By this marriage five children were born. One, Clarissa by name, the first child of this marriage, married a Mr. Wilson and succeeded to the business of upholstering and making American flags. Subsequently Mrs. Wilson became a member of the Society of Friends, and relinquished the business of making flags for the United States Army and Navy, and thus after many years, the making of the American flags passed from the house and family of Betsy Ross. Clarissa was thirty-one years old when her father died from war-inflicted diseases. After about eighty years of making American flags for the United States Government, the contracts passed from the Ross family, when Clarissa Claypoole Wilson made the following public declarations: “From conscientious motives ceased to furnish flags for military and naval purposes,” and “retired from the business on account of conscientious scruples.” Thus the Ross family discontinued to fill Government contracts a quarter of a century after the death of Betsy Ross. During all the eighty years women and girls were exclusively employed in making flags, mostly daughters and granddaughters of Betsy Ross and her neighbors, as the work grew in volume. So the tradition of Betsy Ross, as the maker of the first American flag, known as the Stars and Stripes, has quite as interesting a sequel in the action of her daughter.