The Agriculture Department’s business and industry development program has made a loan to support Annin Flagmakers, a company that produces American flags at a plant in rural Coshocton, Ohio, which employs approximately 225 peopple, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack noted in a newspaper column distributed to newspapers Thursday.

“Alexander Annin’s sail-making shop, established in the 1820s, has evolved into the oldest and largest flag company in the United States and is still in operation today,” Vilsack wrote.

“Commencing with Zachary Taylor’s 1849 presidential inauguration; to the flag-draped coffin of President Abraham Lincoln in 1865; onward to the iconic image of U.S. Marines hoisting the flag on Iwo Jima’s Mount Suribachi in 1945; to the flag planted by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the moon in 1969 — all were Annin-made flags.

“Today Annin Flagmakers is still family-owned and fiercely committed to using only U.S. labor and materials to produce an average of 35,000 flags each week. From start to finish, Annin flag makers oversee every stitch in more than 15 million flags every year,” Vilsack said.

▪ Annin Flagmakers
▪ USDA Rural Development — Business and Industry Guaranteed Loans