The Pledge_ A History of the Pledge of Allegiance - Jeffrey Owen Jones [47]
Soon enough, however, Miller found herself confronted with a letter from David Bellamy of Rochester, New York. This was Francis’s son. He told her that she was wrong about Upham, and that he remembered clearly his father writing the Pledge.
Miller sought a higher authority before the Job’s Daughters memorial could be built. She went back to Colonel Moss at the U.S. Flag Association to get him to restate in unqualified terms the Upham claim. Now questioned in this manner, Moss gave the matter an official bearing by having the association appoint a committee of three renowned academic historians—department heads from Fordham, Georgetown, and Washington universities—to review all available documents and render a definitive decision. They concluded in 1939 that it was in fact Francis Bellamy who wrote the Pledge and Colonel Moss reversed his previous declaration. Time magazine, reporting on Colonel Moss’s reversal, said: “Caution probably cost Patriot Upham a sumptuous monument. Last week Colonel Moss penitently announced that Francis Bellamy wrote The Pledge.”
Margarette Miller, who would go on to refer to herself as Dr. Miller after she was given an honorary doctorate from Upper Iowa University for her efforts in clarifying the Pledge authorship issue, chronicled her quest in a 1946 book entitled Twenty-Three Words.*
The authorship battle didn’t end there, however. The U.S. Flag Association’s conclusion came under renewed attack in the mid-1950s. The Upham Family Association again gathered evidence they said proved the case for James Upham. They revived the claim with help from David Brickman, editor, and Archie Birtwell, staff reporter, of the Malden Evening News.
In a series of five articles, Birtwell presented the Upham case in a step-by-step recounting of the story and the evidence he uncovered. Part of the documented proof that the Upham family gathered (and which Birtwell used in his articles) were sworn affidavits from members of the staff of the Companion who were working at the publication at the time of the drafting of the Pledge. The affidavits were emphatic in favor of the Upham claim, if not precise with the details. One former staff member said: “I can recall his [Upham] reading it and explaining it to me, and his enthusiasm concerning it as combined with the flag-on-every-schoolhouse campaign.” Another staff member, a former editor who was close to Upham, was more specific: “Mr. Upham wrote it; it was handed to each of the editors and partners in turn for comment, criticism and suggestion.” Another former editor echoed this memory: “The idea and the original draft of the Flag Pledge came from Mr. James B. Upham. . . . some minor polishing was contributed by other members of the Companion Group. . . . All those who have knowledge of the matter insist emphatically that it is highly erroneous to describe anyone except Mr. James B. Upham as the ‘author’ of the Pledge.”
The Evening News series also repeated the details of a face-to-face interview between an Upham family member and Francis Bellamy that was conducted in Tampa and used to get the nod for the Upham claim from the U.S. Flag Association in 1930. During the interview, the Upham representative pressed Bellamy for copies of any original notes or proofs of the Pledge from the time when it was written. Bellamy had nothing. In fact, as the Upham supporters were quick to point out, Bellamy had no evidentiary materials relating to the Pledge until after Upham’s death in 1905. A Tampa lawyer who witnessed the 1929 exchange would later write: “From the result of the interview I became thoroughly convinced that Mr. Bellamy was not the author of the ‘Pledge to the Flag.’ His conduct was that of a gentleman throughout during the interview, but somewhat theatrical, and I formed the distinct impression that he was a lover of publicity and not opposed to seeking