In 1896, Marie Oliver moved once again, this time to nearby Cape Girardeau where her husband established his law firm. They built and lived in a home they named Oliver Heights. In 1904, Oliver joined the
Daughters of the American Revolution
The
Daughters of the American Revolution is a non-profit, women’s service organization for the descendants of individuals who aided in achieving American independence. The DAR was founded in 1890 and is dedicated to “promoting patriotism, preserving American history, and securing America’s future through better education for children.”
Marie Watkins Oliver joined the Nancy Hunter Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution in Cape Girardeau in 1904. In 1907 she was elected state DAR vice regent.
(DAR), a national organization with local chapters. In 1908, Oliver’s volunteer activities took an historically important turn. The state DAR noticed that Missouri did not have an official flag. Though the
state seal,
The Missouri State Seal.
The Great Seal of the State of Missouri was officially adopted by the General Assembly on January 11, 1822. Congressman and Judge Robert William Wells designed the seal. The center contains the bald eagle symbol of the nation on the right side and, on the left, symbols representing the state. A grizzly bear represents strength and bravery; a crescent moon represents the newness of statehood and the potential for growth. Surrounding these symbols is the motto “United we stand, divided we fall.” Two grizzly bears support the center shield. A scroll carries the state motto, “Salus Populi Suprema Lex Esto,” or “Let the welfare of the people be the supreme law.” Missouri’s date of statehood, 1820, is placed in Roman numerals below the scroll. The large star at the top, surrounded by twenty three smaller stars, stands for Missouri’s status as the twenty-fourth state. The cloud around the star represents the problems Missouri had in becoming a state.
[Office of the Missouri Secretary of State]
which contains the Missouri coat of arms, had been officially adopted in 1822, there was still no official flag. The DAR appointed Oliver chairperson of the committee to research and design a flag for Missouri.
The Oliver flag
The Oliver flag became the official flag of Missouri in 1913.
Marie Oliver described her flag design as follows: “The design I offer embraces all the colors of the national flag—red, white and blue—which recognizes that the State of Missouri is a part and parcel of the Federal Government. At the same time it represents the state as possessing a local independence, a local self-government, but in perfect harmony with the great national compact as shown by the mingling of the colors red, white and blue, on every side of it.
The coat-of-arms of the state is in the center of the national colors and represents Missouri as she is—the geographical center of the nation. The twenty-four stars on the blue band encircling the coat-of-arms signifies that Missouri was the twenty-fourth state admitted into the Union of States. The blue in the flag signifies vigilance, permanency and justice; the red, valor; and the white, purity.” [Dains, Show Me Missouri Women: Selected Biographies, v. 1, p. 258.]
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Devoted to her task, Oliver wrote to the secretaries of state of every state and territory in the union, seeking information about how other states had designed their flags and had them officially adopted. Once she had gathered enough information, Oliver designed a flag that she thought would represent Missouri. She worked her design around the Missouri coat of arms.
Mary Kochtitzky
Mary Wade Kochtitzky (1887–1973).
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Obituary of Mary Kochtitzky.
[Malden Press Merit, January 25, 1973, p.1]
Marie Oliver then asked her friend Mary Kochtitzky, an artist from Cape Girardeau, to paint a flag showing her design. This paper flag was brought to the State Capitol for viewing in 1908. After drafting a bill to have the flag made the official flag of Missouri, Robert Burett Oliver sent the bill to his nephew,
Senator Arthur L. Oliver,
Arthur L. Oliver (1879–1928).
Arthur L. Oliver, nephew of Robert Burett and Marie Watkins Oliver, was elected to serve as state representative for Pemiscot County in 1904 and 1906. He was elected senator for the Twenty-third District in 1908.
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who introduced it in the Missouri Senate on March 17, 1909. The bill passed in the Senate but failed to pass in the House of Representatives. Senator Oliver reintroduced the bill two years later. Again, it passed in the Senate but failed in the House because the General Assembly was considering another flag design. The competing flag, known as the “Holcomb flag,” was designed by Dr. G. H. Holcomb. Many people opposed the “Holcomb flag” because it looked too similar to the United States flag and did not show Missouri as an independent state.
Missouri State Capitol, burned
The Missouri State Capitol after the fire, February 1911.
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The State Capitol before the fire, circa 1902.
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Disaster struck in 1911. The Missouri State Capitol burned, destroying Oliver’s original paper flag. Oliver and another woman, Mrs. S. D. MacFarland, worked together to sew a second flag. This one was made of silk. On January 21, 1913, the Oliver Flag Bill was introduced in the House of Representatives. It passed on March 7 and was quickly signed by the Senate, which sent it directly to the governor.
Governor Elliott Woolfolk Major
Governor Elliott Woolfolk Major (1864–1949).
Elliott Woolfolk Major was a lawyer and a politician from Pike County, Missouri. He was born in Edgewood, Lincoln County, Missouri, on October 20, 1864. He was elected to the Missouri Senate in 1896 and served during the 1897 and 1899 sessions of the legislature. Major was the state’s attorney general from 1909–1913, and was elected governor on the Democratic ticket in 1912. He served one term and was instrumental in promoting construction of the new state capitol building. He died on July 9, 1949, in Eureka, Missouri, and is buried at the City Cemetery at Bowling Green, Missouri.
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signed the bill, making the Oliver flag the official flag of Missouri on March 22, 1913.
Allen Oliver presents the flag
Allen L. Oliver (right), son of Marie and Robert, presented his mother’s silk flag to Governor John Montgomery Dalton (center) in 1961. Also pictured at left is then Secretary of State Warren E. Hearnes, who followed Dalton as governor in 1965.
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For many years, Marie Oliver kept the silk flag in a drawer in her home. She would take it out and proudly show it to interested people. In 1961, her son Allen gave the silk flag to the State of Missouri. The flag was on public display for many years, until it began to show signs of disintegration and was put into storage. In 1988, on the flag's 75th birthday, elementary students from around the state raised enough money to restore the flag. The restored flag is now on display in the James C. Kirkpatrick State Information Center in Jefferson City.
