In the beginning, there was one flag. It was the biggest in the state, perhaps the biggest in the country — or at least close to it. And its 1997 installation in the center of Winnsboro led to an identity, something that previously evaded the small northeast Louisiana city. Before that, Winnsboro simply was known as the governmental seat for the Louisiana parish named for American Founding Father Benjamin Franklin. That fact, alone, is a patriotic mark of distinction.