March 24, 2023
This month Utah’s legislature voted to approve a new flag for the state. According to the legislators, the new design is more representative of the diverse nature of the state. That’s probably true, but it won’t have the personal connection for me that Utah’s first flag did.
In 1903, preparations were underway for the St. Louis World’s Fair. Utah, along with all of other states, was invited to participate in a parade of states. As a fairly new state, Utah hadn’t gotten around to designing a state flag. The governor asked the state chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution to design and make a flag for the exposition.
The DAR hired a local artist to design the flag and commissioned the art department of the ZCMI (Zion’s Co-Operative Mercantile Institution) Department Store to make the flag. Agnes Teudt Fernelius, an employee of ZCMI, was chosen to embroider the state seal onto the flag.
Agnes Fernelius was the wife of my grandfather’s double cousin, Charles John Fernelius. Charles was a small-time farmer from northern Utah. Agnes wasn’t satisfied with the role of a poor farmer’s wife. Unusually, for the time, she did something about the situation. As an excellent needlewoman, Agnes obtained a position in the art department of ZCMI. Agnes’ talents with an embroidery needle must have been exceptional since she was chosen to make the flag for the World’s Fair.
Agnes produced a single-color white embroidery design on a royal blue background in time for the fair, and Utah’s flag joined all of the others in St. Louis. Despite this, the flag was only in use for a short time until a more colorful version of the state seal on the flag became standard.
Agnes’ flag was packed away and eventually sent to the Utah State Historical Society Museum where it dropped out of sight. No one remembered where it was. In 2010, the Deseret News newspaper published an article describing how Agnes’ flag had been relocated (Deseret News, March 8, 2010).
The article described the flag itself as somewhat tattered and needing restoration. The body of the flag was made from Utah-produced silk and hadn’t stood the passage of time well. However, the intricate embroidery itself was still in excellent condition, just as Agnes had left it over a hundred years before.
I don’t know whether Agnes considered making the flag as just a routine part of her job at ZCMI or not. I suspect that she was proud of her work since the story of the flag has been passed down in the Fernelius Family. Agnes’ story is a footnote to Utah’s history, but for my family, it’s a special contribution made by a woman who was considered “only a farmer’s wife.”
Carol Stetser
Researcher