Joanna Troutman Sewed a Flag

07/17/2021

She was a young girl, only 17 when she sewed a flag for her father and other volunteers to carry with them to Texas. They were going to help the Texans fight for their independence from Mexico. The flag they carried had one lone blue star, and the words Liberty or Death were stitched across the white silk background .
During the years that I worked for Austin schools, I often went on walking field trips with students to the Texas State Cemetery. This vast landscape dotted with markers of people who had roles in Texas history is a peaceful retreat in our large busy city. Upon arrival, we always stopped at the visitors center to watch interesting videos of Texas heroes, then with maps in hand, we were off to make our journey through winding paths shaded by groves of heritage live oaks.
One of the most prominent mounuments we visited during our walking tours was that of Joanna Troutman. Sometimes while standing there reading the plaque, I felt proud to tell the students about my great great paternal grandmother Dovie Troutman, of Troutman North Carolina, who is my connection to Joanna Troutman. The town of Troutman, where I grew up, and where Joanna's family has roots, is named for our ancestor, Johann Jacob Troutman. He immigrated from Germany with his family and settled in NC in the mid 1700s. Joanna's story is an interesting footnote in the history of this great state; but, for many of us proud Texans, our story may not be documented on a plaque for others to read. Our story may be a simple legacy that we worked hard to help our fellow Texans in whatever way we could; but, isn't that the same legacy as every story buried in the Texas State Cemetery?
Many of the volunteers who carried Joanna's flag died fighting for Texas, fighting for a cause they thought was noble. Today, as I look around the cemetery at the rows and rows of stone markers, my eyes rest on those of the confederate soldiers. I feel both pity and fear as I wonder about these tragic heroes. I feel pity that thousands of brave young Texans left their homes and families and sacrificed their lives for a cause they thought was noble; yet all the while they had been misled by an illusion. Their tragic sacrifice was less than noble, it was era in judgement. The fear that haunts me when I gaze on these rows of tragic heroes is that it keeps happening again and again.
Today the Lonestar Flag flies over a state that is still divided by many of the same conflicts that led to these graves that represent every aspect of human tragedy; but, look closely. That lone star on our flag is not alone. It is the collective spirit of every Texan who aspires to follow the noble cause that made Texas great!

07/16/2021

She was a young girl, only 17 when she sewed a flag for her father and other volunteers to carry with them to Texas. They were going to help the Texans fight for their independence from Mexico.
The flag they carried had one lone blue star with the words Liberty or Death stitched across the white silk background .

During the years that I worked for Austin schools, I often went on walking field trips with students to the Texas State Cemetery. This vast landscape dotted with markers of people who had roles in Texas history is a peaceful retreat in our large busy city. Upon arrival, we always stopped at the visitors center to watch interesting videos of Texas heroes, then with maps in hand, we were off to make our journey through winding paths shaded by groves of heritage live oaks.

One of the most prominent mounuments we visited during our walking tours was that of Joanna Troutman. Sometimes while standing there reading the plaque, I felt proud to tell the students about my great great paternal grandmother Dovie Troutman, of Troutman North Carolina, who is my connection to Joanna Troutman.

The town of Troutman, where I grew up, and where Joanna's family has roots, is named for our ancestor, Johann Jacob Troutman. He immigrated from Germany with his family and settled in NC in the mid 1700s. Joanna's story is an interesting footnote in the history of this great state; but, for many of us proud Texans, our story may not be documented on a plaque for others to read. Our story may be a simple legacy that we worked hard to help our fellow Texans in whatever way we could. Isn’t that the same legacy as every story buried in the Texas State Cemetery?

Many of the volunteers who carried Joanna's flag died fighting for Texas, fighting for a cause they thought was noble. How do we determine when a cause is “noble”, especially one that requires we give up our life?

Today, as I look around the cemetery at the rows and rows of stone markers, my eyes rest on those of the confederate soldiers. I feel both pity and fear as I wonder about those tragic heroes. I feel pity that thousands of brave young men left their homes and families and sacrificed their lives for a cause they thought was noble; yet all the while they had been misled.
Their tragic sacrifice was less than noble. It was an error in judgement. The fear that haunts me when I gaze on these rows of tragic heroes is that it keeps happening again and again.

Today the Lonestar Flag flies over a state that is still divided by many of the same conflicts that led to these graves that represent every aspect of human tragedy; but, look closely. That lone star on our flag is not alone. It is the collective spirit of every Texan who aspires to work together to keep our state healthy and strong, where all people are respected for their equality snd diversity. That is a noble cause that will keep Texas great!

Joanna was seventeen when she sewed a simple flag that later became our Texas state flag.

07/16/2021

www.thestoryoftexas.com

Welcome to the web site of the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum. Check out the interactive collection of artifacts and exhibits, educational resources and programs, upcoming events and movie show times on the state's largest IMAX.

04/18/2021

Mildred Lucille Sherrill Murdock, my mother, was born in 1916 on the Morrison Place in northern Iredell County, NC. That cotton farm where she grew up was the last remaining part of our Scottish immigrant ancestor William Morrison's colonial land grant of 1752. My older sister Jean was born there in 1939, and I was born there in 1942 during WWII. At that time, my young parents were living in a cottage on the Morrison Place and working in the war industry, up until my father was drafted. After the war when I was five, we moved to the country in Troutman to live on my dad's family farm. That's where I lived until I went off to college in 1960.

My mother was pretty and intelligent, and she was also a Cinderella. As the oldest of six children growing up on the Morrison Place during the depression years, she was accoustomed to taking care of others while sacrificing her own needs. From the time she was about age 12, she slept on a cot in a side room off the kitchen in the Morrison Place. Her morning chore was to get up early and start the fire in the wood stove in the kitchen, then go to the spring house to get milk and butter to start breakfast. Then after breakfast she would walk with her younger siblings to school along a dirt lane that led to the highway about a mile away, and then along the railroad tracks to Scots School. She was so gifted and would have made a great scientist or teacher, but as it was for many young people who grew up on cotton farms in the South during the Great Depression, and later having their young adult years drawn into a world war, opportunities for higher education were rare.

When I was young I knew nothing about her early life since she never talked to me or my siblings about her childhood. Then, when she was in her 80s and 90s and I would travel out to NC to visit her, she would often tell me stories about growing up on the Morrison Place. Sometime I will write her stories that she kept hidden away for so many years.

After my Dad died in 1990, Mother lived alone at Moss Cottage in Troutman until she died in May 2015 at the age of 99.5. She spent time in the garden, raised some chickens, and went to her Sunday School class up until she stopped driving in her 90s.

Now I can look back and understand that she struggled with depression much of her life; but, she suffered in silence. As was the nature of that time in a small town in the rural south, she would not ask for help, and so she kept up appearances, and no one noticed, or if they noticed they failed to reach out.

Goodbye Cinderella.

04/07/2021

http://www.sonsofdewittcolony.org//adp/history/bios/troutman/joannatroutman.html

Troutman is a small town in Iredell County, North Carolina

My great great grandmother was Dovie Lou Troutman (1831-1905), fourth daughter of Jacob Troutman (1797-1876) and Anne Woolford (Troutman). She was the grand daughter of the namesake of the Town of Troutman, John Jacob Trautman, who was eleven in 1778 when he and his mother Anne arrived in Iredell Co after his father died. (Trautman is German spelling).

Dovie married John Wallace Arthurs (1827-1904) and they had 14 children. My great grandfather, Jacob Sidney "Jake" Arthurs (1851-1923), was their second child. He married Lousia Julia Ann Plyler (Arthurs) (1857-1936) They lived on his family cotton farm in Troutman NC and had 12 children. My sweet grandmother, Bernice Louisa Arthurs (Murdock) (1897-1996) was their 10th child.

oanna (or Johanna) Troutman, designer of an early Texas Lone Star flag, was born on February 19, 1818, in Crawford County, Georgia, the daughter of Hiram Baldwin Troutman. In 1835, in response to an appeal for aid to the Texas cause, the Georgia Battalion, commanded by Col. William Ward, traveled to...