Happy Birthday USA

The Declaration of Independence
Our nation was born on July 4, 1776, with the Declaration of Independence which formally severed our political ties with England. (The fact that England did not accept it turned out to be irrelevant.) Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, the primary author of the Declaration, was one of a “Committee of Five” appointed by the Second Continental Congress. The other members included John Adams of Massachusetts, Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania, Robert R. Livingston of New York, and Roger Sherman of Connecticut. Jefferson proposed John Adams to draft the document. However, Adams deferred to Jefferson stating that a Virginian should head the effort and, besides, he felt that Jefferson was a much better writer.

In a twist of fate, Congress had originally pressed for Richard Henry Lee of Virginia. Lee had drafted the Lee Resolution (also known as "The Resolution for Independence") which resolved that the thirteen colonies were free and independent states. This resolution was passed on July 2, 1776. However, Lee had already been appointed to the committee to write the Articles of Confederation.

Though the Declaration consists of a mere 1,458 words, probably the most memorable, if not the most often quoted, are the thirty-six words that head the second paragraph.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.


To read the Declaration of Independence in its original form, click here.

Our Constitution

in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.


The Preamble to the Constitution sets the basis for the words that follow. After 245 years, we have found only twenty-seven reasons to modify (or Amend) the original document. Ten of these, known as the Bill of Rights, were enacted by Congress in 1791, partly to correct deficiencies pointed out by anti-federalists.

The Constitution itself was ratified by Congress on June 21, 1788, when the ninth state (the minimum number required under Article VII), New Hampshire, formally ratified it. Prior to the Constitution, the former colonies had operated under the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union which had been enacted in early 1781. And prior to that, the Continental Congress had functioned as the provisional government.

To read the Constitution in its original form, click here.
My Cousins who were
It’s pretty obvious that the Flew side of the family were not Patriots of the American Revolution. After all they were languishing in Long Ashton, England, probably only nominally aware of what was going on in the Americas. However, relatives through my Curtis line going back to my 22nd great grandfather, William de Ros, were intimately involved in the founding of our country. The following were all major participants in the birth of our nation...and my cousins!
Presidents of the United States
George Washington, 1<sup>st</sup> U.S. President Thomas Jefferson, 3<sup>rd</sup> U.S. President and Author and Signer of the Declaration of Independence James Madison, 4<sup>th</sup> U.S. President
Signers of the Declaration of Independence
John Hancock Thomas Nelson Benjamin Harrison V Robert Treat Paine
Charles Carroll Caesar Rodney Richard Henry Lee William Floyd
Signers of the U. S. Constitution
John Langdon Nicholas Gilman
Father of the Bill of Rights
Author of the “Star Spangled Banner”
George Mason Francis Scott Key

Ancestors serving in the Revolutionary War

While the above were major architects of the new 13 United States, I had others who were holding the line against our English opponents.
  • Sampson Powers was my 5th great grandfather. Born in 1750 in Mecklinburg Co, VA, he served as an Ensign in the Hillsborough Militia. He died in 1813 at age 60 years.
  • Joseph Thacher was my 6th great grandfather. Born in 1755 in Yarmouth, Barnstable Co, MA, he served in several units during the war including Col. Nathaniel Freeman's 1st Barnstable County Regiment, Capt. Lamont's Company and Col Bradford's Regiment. He died in October of 1778. It is not clear if he died in action.
  • William Thacher was my 1st cousin 8x removed. He was born in 1743 in Yarmouth, Barnstable Co, MA. He served in Capt. Lot Crowell's Company and Col Nathaniel Freeman's regiment. He was reported lost on Cape Cod in November of 1778.
  • John Pittman, born in 1726 in Buckingham County, Virginia, was my 6th great grandfather. He served in Capt. Harmon Davis' Company, 4th Artillery Regiment, South Carolina. He survived the war dying in 1785.
  • John Icabod Pittman Jr was born 1752 in Amelia County, Virginia. My 5th great grandfather, the son of John Pittman. He served as a matross in Capt. Harmon Davis' Company, 4th Artillery Regiment, South Carolina. He died in 1831 in Gwinnett County, Georgia.


Other Ancestor Veterans

Our ancestors have participated in nearly every war fought in this country. Here is a list by conflict.

The War of 1812
  • Robert Blunkall served as a private in Gray's 7th Regiment Virginia Militia.
  • Zachariah Curtis, born 1775, was my 4th great grandfather. He served as a Corporal in Gray's 7th Regiment Virginia Militia.
  • Churchwell Curtis was my 4th great granduncle, brother to Zachariah. Born in 1779, he served along side his brother, Zachariah, as a Sargeamt in Gray's 7th Regiment Virginia Militia.
  • John Pittman, born in 1726 in Buckingham County, Virginia, was my 6th great grandfather. He served in Capt. Harmon Davis'
Civil War (Union)
  • Daniel S. Judd, born 1837 in Ohio, was my 3rd great granduncle. He enlisted in 1861 as a Private in the 59th New York Infantry Regiment. He mustered out in 1864 in Nashville, TN.
  • Alonzo Lorenzo Judd, born 1840, was my 3rd great granduncle and brother to Daniel. He enlisted in the 196th Ohio Infantry, Company K, as Coporal in 1865.
  • Samuel R. Judd, born 1838, was my 3rd great granduncle, and oldest of the three Judd brothers. He enlisted in 1865 as Private in the 196th Ohio Infantry, Company K.
World War I
  • John Thomas Stuart, Jr, born 1861, in Mississippi, probably Jackson, was my granduncle. He was inducted into military service on 8 Aug 1918 and sent to Camp Shelby, MS for training. However, I could find no record of active duty. Perhaps this was because he was age 57 at the time.
  • Edward Blunkall, born 1888, in Mississippi, probably Jackson, was my granduncle. While I found his draft card, I wasn't able to ascertain whether he actually served.
World War II
  • Frank Thomas Flew, born in 1908, my father enlisted in the Army in 1942 at Ft Oglethorpe GA. He did his basic training at Camp Shelby MS. He was assigned to the 177th Ordance Depot Company where he rose to the rank of Tec 5. He spent the war in the Pacific theater in the various islands of the Philippines.
  • Jesse Eric Curtis, Jr, my granduncle was born in 1921. He enlisted at Ft Olgethorpe GA in Aug of 1942 and did his basic training in Camp Shelby GA. He was assigned to the 562st Field Artillery Battalion, Battery A, landed at Utah Beach on D+24. His unit was entrenched at the Battle of the Bulge. On April 16, 1945, just three months shy of his 24th birthday and weeks away from VE day, Uncle Jesse was killed in action by a German dive bomber. He was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart.
  • James Lester Landress, my 1st cousin 2x removed, was born in 1901. While I found a draft card for him I was not able to locate any other information. It is doubtful that, at his age, he would have been sent into combat.
  • Clarence Raymond Landress, my 1st cousin 2x removed, was born in 1904. While I found a draft card for him I was not able to locate any other information. It is doubtful that, at his age, he would have been sent into combat.
  • Leonard Randolph Landress, my 1st cousin 2x removed, was born in 1907. While I found a draft card for him I was not able to locate any other information.
  • Ralph Jackson Curtis, my 1st cousin 2x removed, was born in 1918. He enlisted in the Army in 1941 at Ft Oglethorpe GA.
  • Oren Zelner Waters, my 1st cousin 2x removed, was born in 1914. He enlisted in the Army in 1941 in Dallas TX.
Our National Anthem


The song we know today as our National Anthem, “The Star-Spangled Banner”, was not adopted as such until 1931 when the U.S. Congress passed a joint resolution making it the official national anthem of the United States. Prior to that there was no official anthem.

"Hail, Columbia”

Composed by Philip Phile in 1789 for the first inauguration of George Washington and titled "The President's March", it became the song “Hail, Columbia” in 1798 when it was combined with lyrics by Joseph Hopkin. Used as a de facto national anthem through the 19th century, it lost popularity after WWI. For many years it was used to announce the arrival of the President but was ultimately replaced by “Hail to the Chief”. It is now the official Vice President's personal anthem. To hear a rendition of “Hail, Columbia”, click here.

Francis Scott Key and the “Defence of Fort M’Henry”

Francis Scott Key was an American Lawyer and Patriot and amateur poet. On September 13, 1814, amid the War of 1812 with England and but a month after they had torched the White House, Key found himself aboard the HMS Surprise where he had negotiated the release of several prisoners of war. When they attempted to return to shore, they were detained because they had learned too much regarding the upcoming attack on Fort McHenry in Baltimore Harbor.

Because of the formidable guns of the fort, the British fleet was forced to fire from their maximum range. The Star Spangled BannerOver the next 25 hours, the British fired over 700 rockets and up to 1800 bombs, included air burst shells, on Fort McHenry. Hampered by the weather and because of the distance and resulting inaccuracy of the British guns, the Americans suffered only 28 casualties, including four killed in action. As night closed on Key, he observed that the small “storm flag”, a 17 by 25 foot banner continued to fly above the fort.

Through the night Key observed the red glare of the rockets launching as well as the bursting shells above the fort. On the morning of the 14th, he arose to find that the storm flag had been lowered and the large 30 by 42 foot garrison flag had been raised with the dawn. This flag, later to be known as the Star-Spangled Banner, had been made by Mary Young Pickersgill and consisted of 15 stars on a blue field with fifteen red and white stripes. (Later the official American flag was defined as a blue field with one star for each State and 13 stripes to represent the original Thirteen States ratifying the Constitution.)

Key was so inspired by the sight of the flag flying above the fort that he immediately began to pen the lyrics to his tribute poem on the back of a letter that he had kept in his pocket. Late in the afternoon of September 16, he and his POWs were released by the British. They arrived in Baltimore and that evening took a room at the Indian Queen Hotel where he completed the untitled poem.

"The Anacreontic Song"

Key handed his poem to this brother-in-law, Joseph H Nicholson. The next day, September 17, Nicholson took the poem to a Baltimore printer where it was printed the as a broadside and was given the title "Defence of Fort M'Henry". The Star Spangled Banner BroadsideToday only two copies of the broadside are known to exist. The song was first published nationally in The Analectic Magazine.

It was Nicholson who put the words to the popular melody "The Anacreontic Song". Written by English composer John Stafford Smith, the song was the official song of the Anacreontic Society, an 18th-century gentlemen's club of amateur musicians in London. Although it was described as a “drinking song”, it was not a barroom ballad as is commonly repeated. In the early 20th century, President Woodrow Wilson asked the US Bureau of Education to provide an official version of the song. This version, that we know today, first premiered at Carnegie Hall on December 5, 1917.

"The Star-Spangled Banner"

In 1889, the U.S. Navy officially adopted "The Star-Spangled Banner". The "The Star-Spangled Banner" was first proposed as our national anthem by Col Caleb Carlton at Fort Meade, South Dakota, in 1892 and in 1916, President Woodrow Wilson ordered that it be played at military and other appropriate occasions. The anthem was first played at a baseball game during the seventh-inning stretch of Game One of the 1918 World Series. Between 1918 and 1929, John Charles Linthicum, the U.S. congressman from Maryland at the time, introduced a series of six unsuccessful bills to officially recognize "The Star-Spangled Banner" as the national anthem and on November 3, 1929, Robert Ripley published a cartoon in Ripley's Believe it or Not!, saying "Believe It or Not, America has no national anthem".

In 1930, the Veterans of Foreign Wars initiated a petition for the United States to officially recognize "The Star-Spangled Banner" as the national anthem and received five million signatures! Finally, the US House of Representatives passed the bill later that year and on March 3, 1931 Senate passed the bill. On March 4, President Herbert Hoover signed the bill officially adopting "The Star-Spangled Banner" as the National Anthem of the United States of America.

In recent years, some “Americans” have called for replacing our blessed anthem for a number of reasons including its war-oriented imagery and its perceived elitism, sexism and racism. Unfortunately, our country was conceived in the bosom of war; after all, England was not about to give up the resources and promise of this great land without a fight. As for the other, while our early foundations included social norms that are no longer acceptable, the words still define our nation and the fact that, despite all of our shortcomings, this is still the freest and most promising nation to ever exist on this earth.

When I hear "The Star-Spangled Banner" played I'm proud to say that I still get a lump in my throat and goose bumps on my arms. And when played at the Olympic Games, I do not find that any other country’s anthem contains the dignity and grandeur of our National Anthem.

In the following video, the U.S. Army Field Band and Chorus presents the “The Star-Spangled Banner” on the Battlements and Field of Fort McHenry.
High Tech - 1776 Style

The following is reprinted from 8 Hottest Tech Trends in 1776 by Shelly Palmer, CEO, The Palmer Group:

A little more than ago, our forefathers used the best technology available to inspire colonial proto-Americans to revolt against King George. At that time, the “best” technology available was the printing press and the “best” social network required the use of “word of mouth” in Public Houses. Grog was the lubricant that facilitated this communication and the rest, as they say, is history.

But while all this was going on, there were a bunch of entrepreneurs and a few startups that changed the world. In the 1770s, America was a relatively low tech, agrarian society, but as you can see from the list below, all that was about to change. So here, for your Independence Day reading pleasure, are the eight hottest tech trends circa 1776.

1. Underwater Warfare

The Submarine – A ship called “The Turtle” was invented by David Bushnell to secretly attach explosives to the undersides of British ships without being noticed. George Washington wasn’t a fan of The Turtle (he thought it was “ungentlemanly”), but still okay’d its use – only to see it unsuccessful in its three attempts to destroy British ships. While “The Turtle” wasn’t a success in and of itself, it was promising enough to lead to further research and development that would one day yield effective underwater vessels.

2. Telling Accurate Time

The Chronometer – One major invention of the 18th century was the marine chronometer – a clock that was accurate enough to use as a portable time standard “to determine longitude by means of celestial navigation.” Although the chronometer was first invented in 1737 by John Harrison, who spent more than 30 years of his life on its design, a few Europeans: Pierre Le Roy, Thomas Earnshaw and John Arnold brought it to market. In 1775, Arnold was working on improvements for the device, and took out his first patent for improvements to the device on December 30, 1775.

3. Underwater Exploration

Scuba – Englishman Andrew Becker created a leather-covered diving suit, complete with a helmet that featured a window and a series of tubes for breathing. Becker showed off his device in the River Thames in London, where he was able to breathe underwater for an hour. Around the same time, a French inventor named Fréminet had designed a compressed air reservoir as part of a breathing machine that dragged along behind a diver or mounted on his back. Becker and Fréminet’s inventions were examples of the earliest scuba gear. At the same time, Charles Spalding (of Scotland) developed an improvement to the diving bell by adding a system of balance-weights to make raising and lowering the bell easier.

4. Indoor Plumbing

The Toilet – The modern flush toilet was first proposed in 1596 by Sir John Harrington, but it never truly caught on. However, thanks to the Industrial Revolution, the flushable toilet began to emerge in the late 18th century. Alexander Cummings of Scotland invented the S-trap in 1775, which we still use in our toilets today. The S-trap uses standing water as a seal to prevent smelly air from escaping. Inventor Joseph Bramah (of England) used Cummings’ design when he installed toilets. Bramah improved on Cummings’ design by developing a slide valve with a hinged flap as part of a greater float valve system; Bramah’s model (first patented in 1778) was the “first practical flush toilet” and was used for another 100 years or so.

5. High Tech Major Appliances

The Kitchen Stove – The Franklin stove, a metal-lined fireplace designed by Benjamin Franklin, was all the rage! Its original purpose was to heat a home during especially brutal New England winters. But the Franklin stove revolutionized home cooking because it allowed families to cook over an open fire without dealing with the smoke that traditionally accompanied that process. Up until Franklin’s inventions, most meat was cooked on a turnspit.

Kitchens in the 18th century also saw a lot of improvements because of rolled sheet iron. Better utensils, fire grates, and the clockwork spit all became possible thanks to this “advanced” metalwork.

6. Electricity

The Lightning Rod – Another one of Franklin’s inventions from the same era would forever change the world of power and energy. In 1749, Franklin invented the lightning rod. Other scientists shared his theory about a link between electricity and lightning, but Franklin’s invention allowed him to be the first to test his hypothesis. His invention saved thousands of lives and millions of dollars worth of buildings. Back then, a lightning strike usually resulted in a conflagration.

7. Mechanical Motion

Steam Engines – While mankind has used boiling water to produce mechanical motion for thousands of years, the first steam engine wasn’t patented until 1606. Thomas Newcomen designed the first commercially successful steam engine in the early 1700s, but it was relatively inefficient and used mainly for pumping water. In 1769, James Watt developed an improved version of Newcomen’s engine by adding a separate condenser. Watt continued to work on his design over the next several years, ultimately improving it enough to turn it into a valuable device for manufacturing and helping advance the Industrial Revolution.

There are some who believe, myself included, that harnessing steam power was the single most impactful technological advancement in history – it allowed humans to multiply the power of their muscles by thousands of times. We are on the cusp of the next great transition as we teach machines to multiply the power of our brains by millions or billions of times.

8. Multitasking

Revolving Bookstand – Many of us think of multitasking as a recent trend, but at least one of our founding fathers, Thomas Jefferson, had a need to consume information from multiple sources at “breakneck” speed. According to the Monticello Classroom, “as many as five books could be placed on this bookstand, which was probably made at Monticello according to Jefferson’s design.”