The basic idea of the present flag was evolved by a committee composed of George Washington, Robert Morris, and Col. George Ross with the assistance of Betsy Ross. The flag made by Mrs. Ross, though it is sometimes referred to as the first U.S. flag, was actually prepared as a tentative design or pattern for submission to Congress. On the 14th of June, 1777, Congress resolved "that the flag of the U.S. be thirteen stripes, alternates red and white, that the Union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation." This was the original of the national flag. The flag at Ft. Stanwix was a hasty makeshift put together under direction of Col. Marinus Willet, who found it difficult to obtain materials because the fort was hemmed in by the British. In his diary Col. Willet relates that "white stripes were cut out of an ammunition shirt; the blue out of a camlet cloak taken from the enemy at Peekskill, while the red stripes were made of different pieces of stuff procured from one and another of the garrison." After the War of Independence, three commissioners for the U.S. made a new treaty with the chiefs of the Six Nations at Ft. Schuyler (1784). In 1796 a canal was built across the old portage between Wood Creek and the Mohawk. In the same year the township of Rome was formed, receiving its name, says Schoolcraft, "from the heroic defence of the republic made here." The country surrounding Rome is devoted largely to farming, especially vegetables, gardening and to dairying. Among the manufactures are brass and copper products, wire for electrical uses, foundry and machine-shop products, locomotives, knit goods, tin cans and canned goods (especially vegetables). 264 M. ONEIDA, Pop. 10,541. (Train 51 passes 1:53p; No. 3, 3:05p; No. 41, 7:25p; No. 25, 8:12p; No. 19, 11:42p. Eastbound: No. 6 passes 3:15a; No. 26, 4:02a; No. 16, 9:11a; No. 22, 11:10a.) The city of Oneida is comparatively modern, but the village of Oneida Castle across the river to the south dates back to the time when this was the chief settlement of the Oneida Indians, who moved here about 1600 from the site of what is now Stockbridge in the same county.