first organized immigration of Anglo-Americans to Texas.
state, to the independent Republic of Texas, and finally, to a U.S. state--she shaped history as the designer of its first
tricolor, lone star f lag. Just four months after Sarah married Archelaus Dodson in May 1835 and moved to Harris-
burg, in present-day Harris County, Stephen F. Austin raised a "Texian army" of citizen volunteers to quell escalating
tensions with Mexico.
f lag: a narrow rectangle of blue, white and red cotton squares, with a white five-pointed star centered in the blue
portion, nearest the f lagstaff. The idea for the star reportedly came from a button off an old military coat, and was
meant to represent Texas as the only Mexican state in which the star of liberty was rising.
nated). A few days later, Austin assumed command of the Texan army and Sarah's f lag. When the f lag was f lown
thereafter is unknown. Austin reportedly considered it "revolutionary," and requested that it not be f lown, perhaps
due to its similarity to the tricolor f lag of the enemy.
dependence. After Gonzales, the Harrisburg Company took part in the siege
of Béxar, the first major campaign in the Texas Revolution, and its longest.
By the time it ended in December 1835, the stage was being set for the
battle of the Alamo about 10 weeks later. When state leaders con-
vened at Washington-on-the-Brazos beginning on a bitterly cold
March 1, 1836, to take steps toward independence, Sarah's
f lag was there.
she and Archelaus, like thousands of others, endured
disease, hunger, and cold, rainy weather while f leeing
Santa Anna's army. Their Harrisburg home in ruins,
the family first moved to Fort Bend County, and in
1844, to the Bedias community in Grimes County.
ied on Dodson family property that today is Bethel
Cemetery.
creator will forever be remembered as the trailblazer
who envisioned a Lone Star State.