Clara Barton: A Brief Biography
It is well-known that Clara Barton founded 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 a picture of the person whose spirit continues to resonate today as strongly as it did in 1881.
Clara Barton, the youngest child of Sarah Stone and Stephen Barton, was born on Christmas Day 1821 in Oxford, Massachusetts. Her childhood was quite a difficult one, but even at an early age she demonstrated signs of the future. In her late teens her parents, on the advice of a doctor, suggested that Clara become a teacher in order to overcome her shyness. She took on forty boys and girls at a district school. After her school got an award for discipline, Clara experienced many job offers, and asked for (and received) the same pay as male teachers.
On April 19, 1861 military personnel came to 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 seriously 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, instructing the women on 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 associated with the newly formed International Red Cross in Europe when the Franco-Prussian War started. She set up 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 establishment struggled financially for a long time but provided great assistance wherever Chapters were established. 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.
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