As a student in Cherryvale Central High School, Frank Bellamy authored the Pledge of Allegiance and brought it into national focus as a winner in a 1892 national student contest. The pledge was first officially used in a national celebration coinciding with the opening of the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. A veteran of the Spanish-American War, he is buried in Cherryvale’s Fairview Cemetery where an American flag honors his grave site. Montgomery county has declared the old section that runs through Cherryvale as a Memorial Highway in honor of “Frank Bellamy, author of the Pledge of Allegiance.”
President Benjamin Harrison conceived the idea of a nationwide celebration to honor the 400th anniversary of the discovery of America by Columbus. The President called upon James B. Upham, publisher of the Youth’s Companion magazine. Upham suggested a pledge to the American Flag be recited by every American school child on the day of the celebration, October 21, 1892.
