Clara Barton: Founder of the Red Cross

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“For my soldiers I will stay. For I am one of them as well and by their side I will remain.” I wonder if Clara Barton spoke to herself in that very same way…Get your eyes ready to take a journey through the life of one of the great women who aided our soldiers; far back before we were born. Clarrisa Harlowe Barton, later known as Clara, was born on Christmas day in 1821. She was the fifth and youngest child of Sarah Stone and Stephen Barton in Oxford, Massachusetts. Her father was well known because of the local Universalist church. She remembered the church as austere, with tall box pews and high narrow seats (Goodwin, 1).

Clara enjoyed being an attentive listener when it came to her father’s reminisces about the revolutionary war experience in the army under General “mad” Anthony Wayne. She was relatively small and had the down fall of having a lisp. Though you might say she had it the best out of everyone else in her family. Her mother, Sarah, was emotionally and mentally unbalanced and wasn’t in any state to be raising a kid. After her mother broke down, her sister Dolly tried to fill in, she later followed after her mother and had a mental breakdown. Sally picked up the duty of raising little Clara while her sister Dolly lay locked up in the top room.

Clara learned to make the best out of every situation when she was dealt a bad hand; this was something that paid off extremely when Clara took on the career as an army nurse later on in life. Clara’s education was taught to her at a very young age. Almost to the point where she couldn’t remember knowing it; she just knew that she knew it. Sister’s Dolly and Sally taught her to read, Brother David taught her to ride bareback, while brother...

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...n response she wrote The Story of my childhood. Which was published in 1907? Clara Barton died of pneumonia in Glen Echo. Clara Barton left behind a great legacy, and is still one of the main topics in American History class’s and health to this day. The work that she did and her dedication really paid off. She had left her mark in the American History(Founder Clara Barton).

Works Cited

Goodwin, Joan. Clara Barton. November 5, 2003. Web. 21 Nov. 2015.

http://uudb.org/articles/clarabarton.html

Wilson, James Grant; Fiske, John, eds. (1900). "Barton, Clara". Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography. New York: D. Appleton. Web. 21 Nov. 2015.

https://archive.org/stream/appletonscyclopa05wils/appletonscyclopa05wils_djvu.txt

"Founder Clara Barton" The American National Red Cross. Web. 20 Nov. 2015.

http://www.redcross.org/about-us/history/clara-barton

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