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Birthday
Clara Barton was born on Christmas day in North Oxford, Massachusetts. -
Clara's childhood
Clara was a very shy child. She was afraid of snakes and thunder storms. -
Clara became interested in nursing
When Clara was 11 years old her brother David became ill and she nursed him back to health. It took 2 years for him to fully recover then Clara missed being a nurse. -
Clara became a teacher
Clara taught in different schools around North Oxford for the next ten years. -
Moves to Washington D.C.
Clara boarded a train for a better life in Washington D.C.
She got a job as a clerk for the US government. -
Civil War began
Clara wanted to be a soldier but women were not able to join the army. When Massachusetts troops arrived in D.C. Clara was shocked to see the wounded men. There were no Army hospitals and no one to care for the wounded. Clara took supplies to the wounded and tended to them. -
Clara heads to war
Nurses led by Dorothea Dix tended to the wounded. Clara did not want to join them because Miss Dix was too stern. Clara felt she could do more good on her own. When Clara heard men were dying in the battle fields and she went into action. She gathered 3 warehouses full of supplies and got permission to bring them right into the battle field! -
"lady in charge"
Clara ran the hospitals at the front of the Army of the James. Among her more harrowing experiences was an incident in which a bullet tore through the sleeve of her dress without striking her and killed a man to whom she was tending. -
American Red Cross
After the Civil War ended Clara continued to do work to help others. She founded and became President of the first American Red Cross on August 22, 1881 in Dansville, Livingston County, New York, where she had a country home. Clara continues to be a humanitarian for the rest of her life. -
Clara dies
Clara died at her home in Glen Echo, Maryland,at the age of 90 with all her friends by her side. Cause of death was tuberculosis which she contracted two years earlier and had been bedridden one month earlier. She was buried in the Barton family cemetery plot in Oxford, Massachusetts.
