Ella Louise Lawrence

Daughter of George S Park and Mary Louise Holmes Park. George S Park founder of Park college and Parkville, Platte County, Missouri

She is considered the mother of the Illinois State Flag. During her tenure as State Regent of the Illinois Daughters of the American Revolution (1910-13), she became aware that there was no Illinois flag hanging in Memorial Continental Hall, the national headquarters of the society in Washington, D.C. Mrs. Lawrence wrote hundreds of letters to state legislators, DAR members, and public officials to interest them in the adoption of a state flag. She even sponsored a contest for the best design offering a $25 prize to the chapter submitting the chosen one. Her goal was accomplished on July 6, 1915, when Senate Bill 446 became law. It provided for the display of the state seal on a white background.

https://www.galesburg.com/news/20170216/kleines-complete-renovation...

Lawrence-Park
The Henry Republican, Henry, IL, October 19, 1882
Married at Magnolia, October 18, at the residence of the bride's parents, George A. Lawrence and Ella, daughter of George S. Park.

Henry Republican, Henry, IL, Thursday, October 26, 1882
The Lawrence-Park Wedding
On the evening of the 18th inst., relatives and intimate friends assembled at the residence, near Magnolia, of Mr. and Mrs. Geo. S. Park to witness the marriage of their daughter, Miss Ella to Mr. Geo. W. Lawrence, a rising young lawyer of Galesburg. The guest felt that the union of these two was so fitting that the merry voices in the parlors tastily wreathed with vines and brightened with flowers, made Old Time stop his hand on the dial, till the silvery chorus of the wedding march, played by Miss Jessie Wiley of Troy Grove, told that 7 o'clock had come and turned the eyes to the bridal party entering. Rev. George Woodward of Leavenworth, Kansas and Prof.. McAfee of Park College, Mo., came first and in the order named, Miss Emma Woodward of Leavenworth, bridesmaid and Mr. E. Bancroft of Galesburg, groomsman, the bride's mother with the groom, the bride and her father. Two little pages, Mitchell Monteville of Kansas City, Mo., and Hallie Parsons of Wenona, placed choice flowers at the feet of the bridal pair as they stood beneath the marriage bell of tuberoses and white carnations. Rev. George Woodward who performed the marriage ceremony, assisted by Prof McAfee, has known the bride from infancy to womanhood. He prefaced the ceremony with such tender words as can only fall from the lips of a reverend pastor and loving friend. He alluded to his baptismal of Ella when she took the vows of the church. The bride, dressed in a beautiful white dress trimmed with point lace, orange flowers at the throat and waist, not a piece of jewelry till the wedding ring was placed upon her finger, looked herself, lovely and true and the groom looked worthy of her.
The following morning the pair took the cars for their furnished home with its fires lighted awaiting them in Galesburg. With them into that new home our best wishes go. Geneologytrails, putnam county