I chose Elizabeth Grimson also known as Betsy Ross because she is such an interesting lady.  She was chosen by the president in charge at the time to sew the first American flag.  He chose Betsy after her husband had died and right then Betsy was running the seam shop all alone and before that they were running a seam shop and were quite busy.  There were alot of seam shops in Philadelphia at that time so they had to work really hard to keep the small business running. If you would like to learn more about Betsy Ross please visit this website.

  http://womenshistory.about.com/library/bio/blross.htm

Listen to the latest FAST AND FURIOUS FAMOUS AMERICANS Podcast Interview with Betsy Ross 

 Did you ever imagine a life without a national flag to represent our well known country?  Without a very important person in the US we would not have a flag today.  Do you know who this person is? This famous American is Elizabeth Grison later known as Betsy Ross.  She was the first to sew the first American Flag.  This is only one of the women that helped this country in the way we live today.  My person for Famous Americans is Betsy Ross. She was born on January 1^st, 1752 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  At that time there were only the thirteen colonies and there was no America we all know and love.  Her mom’s name was Elizabeth Grimson and her dad’s name was Samuel Grison.  She first went to school at Rebecca Jones’s home for elementary schooling and later went to the Friends public school.  Her mom taught her how to sew when she was little and Betsy was soon sewing her own clothes.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          When She was in school she loved to sew and wanted to be a seamstress when she grew up.  She did not attend college but got a job at Mr. Webster’s seamstress business as an apprentice.  The hardships she faced as a child was that there was no time in the morning to waste because she had chores to do such as cleaning the fire place, helping with her brothers and sisters, and getting herself ready.  Quakers had a simple life because they didn’t play games, cards, or dance.  There was not much to choose from because all the clothes that she wore were all grey and white dresses.  On Thursdays and Sundays she had Quaker meetings and Monday through Friday and half day on Saturday she attended school.  She had 16 brothers and sisters and nine of them died when they were little.  There was another seamstress named John Ross that also worked at the seamstress business with her and Betsy soon fell in love with him and they soon started there own business.  Her father helped build the Liberty Tower where the Declaration of Independence was signed.  Her father also built a lot of the buildings in Philadelphia and was a carpenter and a builder.  As you can see Betsy’s childhood was interesting and I’m just getting started.                                                    

                                                                                                                                            During Betsy’s adulthood, she married John Ross on November 4, 1773 and was running a seam shop with him after that.  Since she married someone who was not a Quaker she had to be taken out of the Quaker meetings.  They took her out of the Quaker meetings on May 24, 1774.  John had to go to war and he got wounded from some explosives and Betsy cared for him the next few days and then he died. Soon after that she married again to Joseph Ashburn on June 15, 1777.  A few years later he died and soon after that she reconsidered marrying John Caypoole on May 8, 1783.  Betsy was now known as Elizabeth Grimson Ross Ashburn Caypoole.  She had 6 children and there names were Zilla, Eliza, Rebecca, Jane, Clarissa, and Suzan.  She continued to make flags for her customers and soon they went into war with great Britten.  They were up to the point where they had British solders coming and living in there houses.  They thought Betsy’s house was too small so they only had troop of soldiers slept in her Carpenter’s hall that her father made for her.  Soon after that, Betsy heard word from John Caypoole that her husband Joseph Ashburn had been captured and put into the British prison for the rest of his life.  She married John Caypoole soon after that and they lived together and ran the upholstery business together from then on.  Betsy was soon appointed to sew the first American Flag for General George Washington.  With the help from some other seamstress women who helped sew the lining for it she was the first person to sew the first American flag.  The first one to tell the story of the famous Betsy Ross was her grandson, William Canby. 

          Her contributions to society were that she was appointed by General George Washington to sew the first American flag. She also improved how we live today.  Without her we would not have a well designed flag that came from her inspirational idea.  The contributions to the world were that each country has there own flag that represents there country.  People were a lot happier when the first American flag was first made they had a flag that represented there country.  We are still affected by her contributions.  At school we still say the pledge of allegiance to the flag every day.  When she was first remembered the story was told by her grandson, William Canby.  After she had lost her sight Clarissa and Margret had taken over the business for her.  They had helped her make some of the flags for tons of people before so she knew that her shop was in good hands.