1916

Indiana Centennial Fort Wayne Flag

For the state centennial celebration in 1916, the Fort Wayne Centennial Association planned an exposi-tion celebrating the city's industry, featuring displays by two hundred local businesses, parades, displays and a grand pageant at Reservoir Park. Originally scheduled for 5 to 10 June, Centennial Week festivities were extended through 17 June due to rain.

In April 1916 Guy Drewett won a contest sponsored by the Journal Gazette for the design of the Fort Wayne flag using a white Y on a blue field representing the St. Joseph and St. Mary's Rivers merging to form the Maumee. Two white stars on either side denote Fort Wayne as the second city in the state. White was chosen to represent civic purity and blue, citizen loyalty. Drewett, a laborer at S. F. Bowser & Company, was awarded a fifty-dollar prize for his work, the winner among scores of other contestants. During the centennial celebration, Drewett went door-to-door selling the flag in a successful distribution campaign using the slogan "Buy it from the Guy that Drew It-Guy Drewett, Designer of the Fort Wayne Flag."