clara barton a brief look at her life
It is well-known that Clara Barton planted the first seeds for The American Red Cross, however not many of us know that much about her. It is not the intention of this article to provide a detailed biography, but to provide an image of the person whose spirit continues to resonate today as strongly as it did in 1881. Clara Barton, the first child of Sarah Stone and Stephen Barton, was born on Christmas Day 1821 in Oxford, Massachusetts. She had a pretty tough childhood, but even at an early age she expressed signs of what was to come. In her late teens her parents, on the advice of a doctor, advised Clara to become a teacher in order to overcome her shyness. She took on forty boys and girls at a district school. After her school acquired an award for discipline, Clara experienced many job offers, and demanded (and received) the same compensation as male teachers. On April 19, 1861 military personnel arrived in Washington in disarray, having been routed by the secessionists. Barton and her sister met the men, some of whom she had taught, at the train station. The city had no facilities for the soldiers, and so Clara and her sister took the most severely injured to her sister’s house and looked after them. Finding that the men’s baggage had been lost in the fighting at Baltimore, Clara solicited local merchants to round up clothing, food, and supplies. Barton became the recipient of supplies sent to Washington in reply to letters the men had sent home. When large numbers of wounded soldiers arrived in the city following the first battle of Manassas, she collected supplies from groups such as the Worcester Ladies’ Relief Committee, teaching the women what to pack and how to pack it. Following the war, President Lincoln put Barton in charge of locating Prisoners of War. She answered hundreds of letters that poured in, giving or requesting information about the dead and missing. Clara first became linked to the newly formed International Red Cross in Europe when the Franco-Prussian War broke out. She assembled a number of aid centers in several war torn cities. The American Red Cross was organized on May 12, 1881 following four years of lobbying in Washington. The organization struggled financially for many years but provided great assistance wherever Chapters were set up. Clara Barton made The American Red Cross presence felt in emergencies such as the Johnstown flood, the Sea Island and Galveston hurricanes, and typhoid outbreaks in Butte, Pennsylvania. Clarissa Harlowe Barton passed away due to pneumonia at Glen Echo on April 12, 1912. Looking to make a big positive impact on your local community? Consider vehicle donation as a means. The process of donating your vehicle is made easy when you follow the instructions at .charitydispatch.com/redcross_donation/
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