Artifacts linked to Betsy Ross reunite family arkansasonline.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from arkansasonline.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Betsy Ross descendants give flagmaker her due
By Stephan Salisbury Philadelphia Inquirer July 3, 2021 4:37pm Text size Copy shortlink:
PHILADELPHIA – When her mom died last summer, Aileen Edge and her husband, Dave, made the long, sad drive down from Washington state to settle affairs. Claire Canby Keleher lived outside of San Francisco.
Beyond her grief, Aileen had quite a task ahead. Her mom was a lover of the family legacy, which means, when you are a descendant of Betsy Ross and her third husband, John Claypoole, you have lots of stories, lots of letters and papers, and lots of gathered-in stuff going way, way back.
Discovered in a shoebox in a Northern California garage, the long-lost Revolutionary War diary of John Claypoole is now on display at the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia. Claypoole was the third husband of Betsy Ross, the seamstress and upholsterer who has long been celebrated by many as the creator of the first American flag.
Claypoole’s handwritten diary, which includes letters and songs he transcribed, was written during the years 1781 and 1782 and later published in the late 1800s, but its location has been unknown to scholars for nearly a century. That is, until Aileen Edge and her husband David discovered it last year as they cleaned the garage of Aileen’s mother, Claire Canby Keleher, a descendant of Ross and Claypoole, who passed away last summer. The small, unassuming book was wrapped in beige paper and tucked into a box beneath bundles of family letters from the 1950s.
Long-lost diary of John Claypoole, husband of Betsy Ross, discovered and donated to museum
(L-R) Dr. Philip Mead, Aileen Edge, and David Edge examine the Claypoole Bible. Credit MoAR.
PHILADELPHIA, PA
.- Discovered in a shoebox in a Northern California garage, the long-lost Revolutionary War diary of John Claypoole is now on display at the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia. Claypoole was the third husband of Betsy Ross, the seamstress and upholsterer who has long been celebrated by many as the creator of the first American flag.
Claypooles handwritten diary, which includes letters and songs he transcribed, was written during the years 1781 and 1782 and later published in the late 1800s, but its location has been unknown to scholars for nearly a century. That is, until Aileen Edge and her husband David discovered it last year as they cleaned the garage of Aileens mother, Claire Canby Keleher, a descendant of Ross and Claypoole, who passed away last summer. Th
Betsy Ross descendants reunite over artifacts dnews.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from dnews.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.