Clara Barton

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Clarissa Harlowe Barton was born on Christmas Day, 1821, in North Oxford, Massachusetts. She was the fifth child of Stephen and Sarah Barton. Her father was a farmer and state legislator and had served in the Revolutionary War. Her mother was a homemaker, though Clara was often under the care of her older brothers and sisters. As a young girl, Barton cared for her brother who suffered an injury and neighbors who contracted smallpox. While still a teenager, she began teaching in nearby schools and moved to Bordentown, New Jersey, for a teaching position in 1850. She later established the first free school in New Jersey, raising enrollment from an initial six students to six hundred. She left New Jersey when town officials bypassed her for…show more content…
She discussed the peacetime work of the American Red Cross helping victims of natural disasters; her organization's mission was to fill the gap immediately after the disaster, before government was able to respond, providing victims with food, shelter, and clothing. After Barton's speech, an amendment to the treaty was made stating "Red Cross societies engage in time of peace in humanitarian work—such as taking care of the sick and rendering relief in extraordinary calamities where, as in war, prompt and organized relief is demanded." In tribute to Clara Barton, this is known as the American…show more content…
Based on an unsuccessful first aid program she had initiated within the Red Cross, the National First Aid Society did succeed. The society developed the original "First Aid Kits" used in homes, schools and businesses; it also distributed information and supervised first aid classes. Clara Barton served primarily in a public role and left the finances and operations to other staff members. In 1905, she published A Story of the Red Cross, and, two years later, The Story of My Childhood. Her health began to slowly decline and she was saddened by the loss of many friends. In 1910, even though eighty-eight years old and in fragile health, she traveled alone from Massachusetts to Chicago, Illinois, to attend a social science conference. Upon returning, weakened by the trip, Barton suffered two bouts of pneumonia. She died in 1912, at the age of 90, in her home in Glen Echo,
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