Grace StummMr.
Miller7th Social StudiesJanuary 10, 2018Clara BartonClara Barton was born on December 25, 1821, in Oxford, Massachusetts. She lived until the age of 91, dying of old age, on April 12, 1912, in Glen Echo, Maryland. During the Civil War she was one of the first people to volunteer at the Washington Infirmary to care for wounded soldiers. She was best known for being an educator, nurse, and founder of the American Red Cross Organization. She lived in Massachusetts with her two parents, Stephen Barton and Sarah Stone Barton. She was the youngest of the five children in her family. She had two sisters, Dorothea Barton and Sarah Barton. She also had two brothers named David Barton and Stephen Barton.
In her early years she found her calling by helping her brother, Stephen Barton, out after an accident he had taken place in. In return, her brother taught her many skills such as carpentry. She worked for her oldest brother, David, by being a clerk and bookkeeper. With little education, Clara’s mother encouraged her to share her teaching ability with others. So, at fifteen years old, she opened up a public school in New Jersey. Because many children could not afford a public education, she agreed to work for no salary at all, but instead give children the education they needed.Clara Barton was working for the patent office in Washington D.C.
, when she volunteered to help in the Civil War when it broke out in 1861. She served the troops by providing them with the supplies given to the troops by people wanting to help. In 1865, Barton began helping locate missing soldiers. During the Franco-Prussian, in 1870, she helped organize military hospitals.
She also came up with the idea to have poor women in Strasbourg, France and Lyons, France, to sew clothing for the troops for pay. In 1873, she was awarded the Iron Cross of Merit by the German emperor. It was one of many achievements and awards for Barton.Barton then came back to the United States and moved to Danville, New York. In 1877, she wrote to a founder of the International Red Cross and asked if she could lead a branch of the organization in America. So, at the age of fifty-six she began a new career. In 1881 she mad the organization a legal coperization.
She served as president of the company, whose goal was to help wounded soldiers, just as she had done during the Civil and Persian Wars. The organization helped people who had been injured by earthquakes, floods, and fires. They also served the needy at times.
Clara Barton led a life devoted to others always putting them before herself and her own troubles. She had a passion to serve others, in which many people do not contain.Conflicts and public pressures within her organization led to be too much for Barton, so she resigned in 1904. After a life full of serving others, she retired in Glen Echo, Maryland, and died there on April 12, 1912. Clara Barton’s heroic actions have been an inspiration to all women around the world even today, and continue to prove how powerful women truly are.
Works Cited”Clara Barton.” Civil War Trust, Civil War Trust, www.civilwar.org/learn/biographies/clara-barton.
“Clara Barton.” Biography.com, A&E Networks Television, 28 Apr. 2017, www.biography.com/people/clara-barton-9200960.”Clara Barton.” Clara Barton – Family, nhdclarabarton.weebly.com/family.html.”Clara Barton Biography.” Encyclopedia of World Biography, www.notablebiographies.com/Ba-Be/Barton-Clara.html.
