interesting fact that has never been given publicity before,
and I simply relate it as told me by Sarah Connell, the daughter of the
man that carried it.

"Mr. D. S. Haskell, manager of the express and banking business of Adams
& Co., conceiving the patriotic idea of having an American flag carried
in the division of which his firm was to be a part, endeavored to
procure an American flag, but found that nothing but flags of the size
for ships or poles were to be had. He then started to find material from
which to have one made, but in this he was unsuccessful also. So,
undaunted, he at last found a dressmaker who lived somewhere in the
neighborhood of Washington and Dupont streets, who found in her
'piece-bag' that she had brought from New York, enough pieces of silk
and satin (they were not all alike) to make a flag three feet by two
feet. He was so delighted with her handiwork that he gave her a $50 slug
for her work[6].

"Thus it was that Adams & Co. were able to parade under the stars and
stripes in that memorable parade of October 28, 1850, in celebration of
the admission of California as a state into the union. After the parade
Mr. Haskell presented the flag to their chief messenger, my father, Mr.
Thomas Connell, and it has been in our possession since."

Mr. Thomas Connell.

Mr. Connell was one of the few of the early comers who never went to the
mines, though of course, that was his intention. He started, but
somewhere on the Contra Costa side--it was all Contra Costa then--he
fell ill of malaria fever. There was no one with time to bother with a
sick man and he was unable to proceed or return so he expected to end
his life there. When the disease abated he concluded that he had no
desire to penetrate further into the wilderness, so he turned his face
towards San Francisco again. He was a shipwright by trade and though
there was nothing doing in his line, he saw the possibilities of a
boating business when there were no wharves, piers or other
accommodations for freight or passengers. One of the curious uses to
which his boats were put was the carrying of a water supply. They were
chartered by a company and fitted with copper tanks which were filled
from springs near Sausalito. On this side of the bay the water was
transferred to wagons like those now used for street sprinkling and the
precious fluid was supplied to householders at a remunerative rate of
twenty-five cents a pail, every family having one