Clara Barton

Clara Barton

 Born:
Dec. 25, 1821

Died:
April 12, 1912

 Biography:

Clara Barton was born December 25, 1921 in Oxford, Massachusetts. She was the youngest of 5 children, and was educated at home. By the age of 15 years old she was teaching school. One of her most notable achievements was the establishment of a free public school in Bordentown, New Jersey. Another achievement of Barton's is the founding of the American Red cross.

In 1861 Clara Barton was living in Washington, D.C., working for the United States Patent Office. After the Baltimore riots, Barton organized a relief effort for the soldiers of the 6th Massachusetts Regiment, thus beginning a lifetime of philanthropy for Barton.

When Clara learned that the wounded soldiers from the First Bull Run had suffered from a lack of medical supplies, she advertised for donations in the Worcester, Spy and began an independent organization to deliver the goods. The relief operation was a success, and the following year the United States Surgeon General, William A. Hammond, granted her a pass to travel with Army ambulances "for the purpose of distributing comforts for the sick and wounded, and nursing them."

She followed the Army operations throughout the Virginia theater and into the Charleston, S.C. area. In the Fredricksburg, Va. area she nursed wounded men from the Battle of the Wilderness. This is when she served as a superintendent of nurses in Maj. Gen. Butler's command.

By the end of the war, Barton had performed most of the services that would later be associated with the American Red Cross, which she founded in 1881. She resigned as head of the Red Cross in 1904 and retired to her home in Glen Echo, outside Washington, D.C. She died here on April 12, 1912.