Clarissa
Harlowe
(Clara)
Barton
 
Born December 25, 1821 in Oxford, Massachusetts
[spouse(s) unknown]
[children unknown]
Died April 12, 1912 in Glen Echo, Maryland
Clarissa (Clara) Barton is widely known as the founder of the American Red Cross and her duties on the battlefield during the Civil War. But how she accomplished these great feats is no doubt not an easy task. To become great one must start very small. And it all started during her childhood in Oxford, Massachusetts.
Born December 25, 1821, in North Oxford, Massachusetts, Clara Barton was the daughter of Captain Stephen Barton, a farmer and horse breeder. Her mother, Sarah Barton was a housewife. As a child Clara was tiny, shy and youngest in her family. She was a kind, caring, lovable person. She liked to horseback ride and she loved farm animals. She cared for ducks, chickens, cats and dogs. Clara's instinctual gift of nursing started at the age of 11, when she nursed her brother through a serious injury.
Clara Barton's education was mostly taught by her older brothers and sisters, and while still a teenager at the age of 17 she started to teach in Massachusetts. In 1850, Clara took a break to attend the Liberal Institute of Clinton, New York, an advanced school for women educators. She continued her teaching career in New Jersey where, in 1852, she founded one of that state’s first public schools in Bordentown. She started this school with six students, and by the close of the year there were 600 attending. From then on she taught for 15 years.
In 1854, her home town Congressman helped her obtain an appointment by Clarles Mason, Commissioner of Patents, to work as a copyist in the Patent Office in Washington, DC. She was the first woman in the United States to hold such a government appointment. She copied secret papers during her time in this job. During 1857 - 1860, with an administration that supported slavery which she opposed, she left Washington, but worked at her copyist job by mail. She returned to Washington after the election of President Lincoln.
In 1865 Barton decided to begin the project of locating missing soldiers. With President Lincoln's approval, she set up the Bureau of Records in Washington and traced perhaps twenty thousand men. Through interviews with Federals returning from Southern prisons, she was often able to determine the status of some of the missing and notify families. Barton was working for the patent office in Washington, D.C., when the Civil War began in 1861. She decided to serve the Federal troops by personally collecting and storing supplies that people had given freely in support of the troops. In Washington she collected and stored food and medical supplies that could be distributed to the troops. In 1862 she was permitted to travel to places where the fighting was taking place. Barton was with Federal forces during the siege of Charleston, South Carolina, and also at battles in other areas.
Though Clara Barton was remarkably successful in using her personal efforts to organize Red Cross campaigns, she was less successful in administering a growing organization. Barton volunteered for the International Red Cross while on a trip to Europe in 1870. She helped refugees of the Franco-Prussian War in Paris and other cities. She returned to America in 1873, and in 1877 IRC authorities invited her to establish an American Red Cross. For the next 23 years, Barton organized and led the Red Cross, personally leading many relief expeditions to victims of forest fire, flood, hurricane and war.
Clara Barton finally resigned as president of the American Red Cross in 1904 and retired to Glen Echo, Maryland. She passed away on April 12, 1912 at the age of 91. She was buried at her birth place, North Oxford.
Clara Barton was a pioneer American teacher, nurse, and humanitarian. Clara was described as having a "strong and independent spirit."
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On November 4,
Janessa Tupas
wrote:
On October 21,
victoria unetic
wrote:
On October 19,
victoria unetic
wrote:
On October 19,
victoria unetic
wrote:
On October 19,
victoria unetic
wrote:
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