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JOURNAL OF GREAT WATERS ASSOCIATION OF VEXILLOLOGY

December 2008                                                   Vol. XIII,  No. 2, Issue 26

 

WOOSTER, OHIO, ADOPTS BICENTENNIAL FLAG

            Although a Bicentennial flag was recommended to the City of Wooster by its Bicentennial Committee in January, 2008, to commemorate the city’s founding in 1808, the flag was not officially adopted by the city council until March 17, 2008.  The flag is a burgee, in imitation of the shape of Ohio’s state flag.  The field is divided into 5 horizontal stripes, from the top, blue, white, yellow, white, and red. They are mostly equal in width except the center yellow stripe is a bit wider at the hoist than the others and a bit narrower at the fly. On the red stripe the words WOOSTER, OHIO EST. 1808 appear in white capitals.  A five-pointed star, in yellow separates “OHIO” from “EST.”   Superimposed across the flag’s field in the center, between the blue and red stripes are large circular depictions of the two sides of the city seal.  The obverse of the seal has a narrow yellow fimbriation around the circumference.  The scene on the seal recalls the State of Ohio seal, showing a rising yellow sun with rays extending into a dark blue sky, which form the upper half of the seal.  About a fourth of the way  down  on  the  seal  from  the  top  is “Wooster” in  Arial-font  white  letters.  The  lower  half of the seal is  a dark  green, with two  yellow corn shocks centered on the field.  Below the shocks is “1808" in black. Curved around the hoist side of the seal is a yellow wheat stalk; on the fly side are a portion of two gears in black, the upper one slightly smaller than the lower one.

Bicentennial Flag

City Seal

            The obverse of the seal (and it is rare for seals to have two sides), is also fimbriated in yellow.  The field is entirely dark green.  Centered at the bottom of the field is an ancient Grecian lamp in yellow with a red flame burning.   Above the lamp in white capital letters are AGRICULTURE (top) INDUSTRY (center)  EDUCATION (bottom), aligned to a straight left margin, one above the other.  Curved in smaller black capitals from the top center around the fly edge is the motto A COMMUNITY OF PROGRESS.  Centered and curved at the bottom under the lamp are the words, also in black capitals, TRUST IN GOD.

            There has been a movement to make this flag the official city flag after the Bicentennial is over.  However, resident Heidi Boord has objected, claiming that a design she presented to the city in 1993 when she was a Girl Scout should be considered to be the city’s official flag, although apparently it was never officially adopted.  To complicate matters further, the city evidently had an earlier flag, also unofficial. (See Richard Monahan’s article on these two flags in Flagwaver, Vol. II, No. 2, Issue 4, December, 1997, p. 4.)  So the issue of whether the Bicentennial flag will become the new city flag is currently undecided.   (JP) From The Daily Record (Wooster), January 20, 2008, and Wooster City Resolution No. 2008-41, March 17, 2008. Thanks also to Richard Monahan.

 

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