Clara Barton; Angel of the battlefield.COLUMN: LIFE & TIMES: AN OCCASIONAL SERIES ON CENTRAL MASSACHUSETTS PEOPLE WITH ENDURING FAME Vital statistics Born Clarissa Harlowe Clarissa Harlowe longest novel in the English language, total-ling one million words. [Br. Lit.: Benét, 203] See : Verbosity Barton on Dec. 25, 1821, at 68 Clara Barton Clarissa Harlowe Barton (December 25, 1821 – April 12, 1912), better known as Clara Barton, was a pioneer American teacher, nurse, and humanitarian. She has been described as having had an "indomitable spirit" and is best remembered for organizing the American Road, North Oxford; died at age 90 from double pneumonia double pneumonia n. Pneumonia affecting both lungs. double pneumonia 1. An obsolete term for bilateral lobar pneumonia, a now rare condition 2. in Glen Echo, Md., on April 12, 1912. She is buried in North Cemetery in Oxford. What she did In 1862, during the Civil War, Miss Barton received permission to serve as a nurse for Union soldiers at the battlefronts of Antietam in Maryland and Fredericksburg in Virginia. After the war she set up her Office of Correspondence with Friends of the Missing Men of the U.S. Army to search for missing soldiers. In less than four years, she found more than 22,000 soldiers. Working in both Prussia and France during their war in 1870-71, Miss Barton gave needed supplies and help to the suffering poor and stressed the importance of rehabilitation, which became the guiding principle of the American Red Cross American Red Cross: see Red Cross. . She established the American National Red Cross Society on May 21, 1881, introducing the idea of disaster or peacetime relief. A tremendous forest fire in Michigan in the fall of 1881 left 57,000 homeless and others injured. New local Red Cross chapters were ready to help out. In 1891, famine swept across Russia, and Miss Barton helped direct shipments of grain to the needy. Grateful Americans wanted to help because Russia had put pressure on France and Britain not to recognize the Confederate South during the Civil War. This introduced to Americans the concept of foreign aid. The first time the American Red Cross gave medical aid in wartime was during the Spanish-American War Spanish-American War, 1898, brief conflict between Spain and the United States arising out of Spanish policies in Cuba. It was, to a large degree, brought about by the efforts of U.S. expansionists. of 1898. Miss Barton treated the wounded Rough Riders Rough Riders, popular name for the 1st Regiment of U.S. Cavalry Volunteers, organized largely by Theodore Roosevelt in the Spanish-American War (1898). Its members were mostly ranchers and cowboys from the West, with a sprinkling of adventurous blue bloods from the , who were led by Theodore Roosevelt. Miss Barton always had her detractors and hostility flared between her and the rich Mabel Boardman of the New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of Chapter of the Red Cross. Miss Barton feared the New York chapter would take over the nation's relief work. She held on to the presidency until she was 83 in 1904, then resigned. Miss Barton spent her last years at her home in Glen Echo, which also had served as the national headquarters for the Red Cross. Facts you may not know She taught for nearly 10 years in Oxford and surrounding towns. She learned how to ride bareback bare·back also bare·backed adv. & adj. On a horse or other animal with no saddle: rode bareback; a bareback rider. from her older brother, David, when she was 5. The skill came in handy during the Civil War. She was called the "Angel of the Battlefield" by a surgeon on a Civil War battlefield who was out of supplies, when she appeared out of nowhere to help - almost like an angel. Miss Barton suffered bouts of depression throughout her adult life. She would be roused from a depression by the challenge of helping the wounded in wartime and civilians in peacetime natural disasters. Miss Barton never married, although she had many admirers. When she was older, she was infatuated in·fat·u·at·ed adj. Possessed by an unreasoning passion or attraction. in·fat  u·at with George Pullman, her financial
secretary and nearly 50 years her junior. Mr. Pullman's uncle was
industrialist George Pullman, who developed the Pullman sleeping car.
Her nephew, Stephen E. Barton, said, "She felt she had been more
useful to the world by being free from matrimonial mat·ri·mo·ny n. pl. mat·ri·mo·nies The act or state of being married; marriage. [Middle English, from Old French matrimoine, from Latin m ties." A Clairol woman Miss Barton never wanted to look old; and even into her 70s dyed her hair black. She was young at heart, and kept a sense of humor Noun 1. sense of humor - the trait of appreciating (and being able to express) the humorous; "she didn't appreciate my humor"; "you can't survive in the army without a sense of humor" sense of humour, humor, humour . Event that shaped her life Miss Barton was 11 years old when she helped nurse her brother David back to health after he fell from the ridgepole ridge·pole n. 1. A horizontal beam at the ridge of a roof to which the rafters are attached. Also called ridgeboard. 2. The horizontal pole at the top of a tent. of a barn being raised. For two years, she stayed at home to nurse him. It is thought she got her desire for nursing from this experience. What others said about her "She was a small woman, but a very strong woman, and very intelligent," said her great-grandniece, May Olney White of Oxford, who celebrated her 100th birthday July 8. "She was quite a person, and had her own ideas, and they were generally right. When something came up, we would say, `Aunt Clara would settle it this way.' When she saw something that had to be done, she did it." Where you can visit Miss Barton's birthplace is a museum at 68 Clara Barton Road, North Oxford. Hours are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesdays through Sundays from June 1 through the Columbus Day holiday weekend. For more information, call (508) 987-2056, ext. 213, or go to www.clarabartonbirthplace.org Compiled by: Mairgread Gray Sources: "Clara Barton: Professional Angel," by Elizabeth Brown Pryor; "Clara Barton Founder, American Red Cross," by Leni Hamilton; "Clara Barton: Founder of the American Red Cross," by Cynthia Klingel and Robert B. Noyed; Emily Thomas, museum manager of the Clara Barton Birthplace Museum. ART: PHOTOS CUTLINE: (1) American Red Cross founder Clara Barton is shown in 1902, when she went to St. Petersburg, Russia, to attend the Seventh International Red Cross Conference. (2) Now a museum, the house where Clara Barton was born on Dec. 25, 1821, is at 68 Clara Barton Road, North Oxford. PHOTOG pho·tog n. Informal A person who takes photographs, especially as a profession; a photographer. : PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE CLARA BARTON BIRTHPLACE MUSEUM |
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