History of North Oxford, (Worcester County) Massachusetts United States of America

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Clarissa Harlowe (Clara Barton) Barton, philanthropist, was born at North Oxford, Mass., Dec. 25, 1821; daughter of Captain Stevens and Dolly (Stone) Barton. Her father fought under "Mad Anthony Wayne" against the Indians in the West, and her mother was a daughter of Captain Stone of Oxford. After her academic education acquired at Clinton, N.Y., she became a teacher. At her own risk Miss Barton founded the first free school in New Jersey, which she opened with six pupils at Bordentown, and by the end of the first year her pupils had increased from six to six hundred, and she had erected a new schoolhouse, costing four thousand dollars. Failing health compelled a relinquishment of her school, and in 1854 she became a clerk in the U.S. patent office, which position she held until the breaking out of the civil war, when she devoted herself to caring for wounded soldiers on the battle field and in camp and hospital. Personal solicitation brought to her supplies in abundance, and when the army moved in 1862, she took the field, and in her quiet, self-contained way, among hospitals and camps prosecuted her work. Military trains, and hospital and camp appointments were at her service. She was present at the battles of Cedar Mountain, second Bull Run, Antietam and Fredericksburg, was eight months at the siege of Charleston, was in the hospital on Morris Island, at Fort Wagner, and afterwards in front of Petersburg and in the Wilderness, and in hospitals about Richmond. Her labors were not over when the war ended. Under the authority and at the request of President Lincoln she undertook the task of searching for the 80,000 men marked "missing" on the muster rolls of the army. She went to Andersonville to aid in supervising the identification of the dead and the erection of tablets over their graves. She saw gravestones placed over the bodies of 12,920 men, and tablets marked with the word "unknown"over four hundred. She devoted four years to this work and to telling to hundreds of thousands of interested listeners the story of her army life and work, and then, with health broken by overwork, she in 1869 visited Europe for rest and recuperation. While in Switzerland in 1869 she learned of the society of the Red Cross, established under a treaty signed by every power of Europe, making its members noncombatant and neutral, and licensing them to care for the wounded of whatever creed or nationality, whether friend or enemy. She promptly joined this society, and under its emblem did much volunteer hospital work during her five years abroad. In recognition of her services in the Franco-Prussian war she was decorated with the golden cross of Baden and the Iron cross of Germany. After the capitulation of Strasbourg she entered that city with the German army and assisted materially in relieving the destitution of the thousands of starving and homeless people; materials were found for thousands of garments, and women who were hungry and suffering from lack of clothing were set to work to make them and were paid for their labor. During the days of the commune she labored to assist the needy by the distribution of food and clothing. She returned to America in 1873 and secured from Congress a ratification of the European treaty, which established the society of the Red Cross in the United States in 1881. The same year President Garfield appointed Miss Barton president of the American association of the Red Cross, under the treaty of Geneva. Fore-seeing an era of peace for this country, she proposed the famous "American amendment," which allowed the Red Cross society to work when fire, flood, famine, pestilence, or any other disaster sufficient to call for public relief, should occur. Hitherto the society had had but one object, the relief of the wounded in time of war, but her amendment, which also granted protection to Red Cross agents, was agreed to by the conference at Berne, was signed March 16, 1882, and gave the American branch a much broader field of usefulness. Miss Barton personally directed the relief work of the Red Cross at the scene of the Michigan forest fires and of the Mississippi and Ohio floods in 1882 and 1883; and again in 1884, of the Louisiana and Mr. Vernon cyclones; of the Charleston earthquake, and of the Texas drought. At the Johnstown, Pa., flood she was on the ground on the first train, and with a force of fifty men and women she remained there for five months, administering relief to the destitute. Her work on the Sea Islands of South Carolina, after the terrible ravages of the cyclone and tidal wave, was one of the most difficult and extensive of her many relief operations. The "American amendment" has not been adopted by any other country, though into foreign lands the blessedness of its ministrations has been convincingly demonstrated. In the famine in Russia in 1891-'92 the American Red Cross society took an active part, under the direction of Miss Barton, in the great work of relief, collecting and distributing supplies of food and clothing. In January, 1896, Miss Barton, after making a personal appeal to the people of the United States and England for funds, sailed for the scene of the Armenian outrages. Reaching Constantinople in February, she, with her five assistants, immediately began work, the Sultan having yielded a reluctant consent to her request that the Red Cross society be permitted to do what it could to relieve the distress existing in his empire. She was required to place the crescent above the cross on the badge worn by herself and her associates, and having acceded to this demand, she met with prompt and courteous assistance from the Turkish government. Her task ended, she left Turkey and proceeded on a visit to Germany, returning to America in October, 1896. In June, 1896, she was decorated with the Order of Melusine by his Royal Highness, Guy de Lusignan, Prince of Jerusalem, Cyprus and Armenia. Miss Barton accumulated a collection of rich jewels presented in token of appreciation of her noble efforts. She received a handsome jewel from the Duchess of Baden, a medal and jewel from the Empress of Germany, a decoration of gems from the Queen of Servia, and a brooch and pendant of diamonds given as a loving tribute by the grateful people of Johnstown for her assistance in their time of need: She represented the United States in international conferences held in Europe to discuss measures of relief in war. She was prominent in the war with Spain, taking charge of hospitals and nurses in Cuba, 1898, and conducted the relief work at Galveston, Texas, in 1900. She is the author of "History of the Red Cross Association"(1883); "American Relief Expedition to Asia Minor" (1896); "History of the Red Cross in Peace and War" (1898).

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

History of North Oxford, (Worcester County) Massachusetts

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