JEFFERSON - - A flag dispute has pitted Civil War buffs and Ohio Army National Guard officials against the Ashtabula County commissioners and the Ashtabula County Historical Society over relinquishing three historic flags to government officials.
The flags have been in the commissioners' possession since 1994, when the Ohio National Guard closed the Ashtabula Armory.
The flags then were given to the Ashtabula County Historical Society for safekeeping when the armory closed, said ACHS member Julie Miller. At the time, Miller was the county commissioners' clerk.
"The historical society really had no proper place or museum to place the flags in. So they ended up in the commissioners-office section in the Old Courthouse," Miller said. "They were given to the commissioners and identified as property of the historical society. They should really be on display in the large commissioners chambers but are tucked back in a hallway," she said.
In late 2006, ACHS was contacted by the Ohio Adjutant General, who contends the historic flags were removed from the armory without permission. Several more letters were sent, requesting the flags be returned to ONG. Then the commissioners got involved.
A meeting slated for today between county officials and ONG representatives to turn over all three flags was postponed, said Commissioner Daniel Claypool.
"We have possession of the flags, but I want a face-to-face meeting with the state adjutant general to discuss the issues. I talked with Staff Sgt. Joshua Mann of the Ohio National Guard, Tuesday, about the matter," he said.
The three flags include a 48-star U.S. flag flown during World War II, a handmade Confederate battle flag with three stripes and nine white stars on a blue field, and the color flag of the 137th U.S. Army Tank Battalion, flown from 1949 to 1967. The tank battalion unit crest was redesigned and the unit redesignated as First Battalion, 137th Armor, according to ACHS President Cheryl Shepard.
Shepard's father, the late James Webb, served in the 137th, along with several other Ashtabula Army buddies. Webb was attached to ONG after the war. Several of Webb's Army friends also were active for years with the Ashtabula Armory, where the flags hung inside the building, Shepard said.
"This whole thing has taken on a life of itself. I can remember seeing those flags in the Ashtabula Armory forever, until the ONG closed the building. We (historical society) did not remove those flags from the armory. They were given to us for safekeeping, after the state guard took everything but the flags from the building," Shepard said.
"I would like to see the flags stay here (in Ashtabula County). Nobody missed those flags all these years. Why now? My concern is for proof of who should get them and how they will be displayed for public viewing," she said.
Steve Anzells of Conneaut, a member of the Sons of Confederacy, contacted Shepard on Tuesday. Anzells wants the Civil War-era flag to be placed in a Virginia historical flag museum.
Shepard said she's willing to release the flags if proof is shown as to who really should get them.
"I'd like to keep the 137th Battalion flag here, however, as it's part of county history," she added.
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