Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1911-04-21
Our Grand Old Lady" Cheer
full Though Ninety.

Clara Barton, at 80. is the
Grand Old Woman of America.
She IS as bright and as cheerful
as ever, although she just passed
through a severe illness brought
on by attempting personally to
keep up with her large cores
pOndence. Work" she says." is
"a sort of religion with me. 1t
has been my greatest JOY. With
out plenty of congenial work.
complete happiness seems impos-
Sible.
Glen Echo Park, where Miss
Barton, is spending the last years
Of her life, is about two miles
from Washington. Its projectors
intended it to be a great pleas
ure resort, but from the quietude
that relgns there at the present
time their expectations have evi-
IDENTIFY not been realized. Miss
BartOn's home is within sight of
the station. 1t is a large, three
story structure, which, seen thru
the forest of trees in the vicin-
lty reminds one of some medic
val castle. There is a wide. old
fashioned Southern veranda
where the founder of the Red
Cross takes the sun on bright
days says the Philadelphia Ledger
Miss Barton is a real Daughter
OF the Revolution. She was born
at Oxford, Mass, in 1921. her
father being Judge Stephen Bar
ton, who fought under Mad An
thOny Wayne. She taught school
for awhile, worked as a cloth
trimmer, established the Borden
town free school, and finally went
to Washington. President Buchan
an appointed her to a clerkship
In the poStOffice, which, it is
said, was the first regular gov
eminent position of the kind ever
given a woman.
When the Civil War broke out
she gave up this position in order
to work in the field. From April
1861 to the close of the Civil War
Miss Barton was with the Union
army. She was there by the au-
thOrity of President Lincoln and
Sec. of War Stanton. Among the
various fields of battle and re-
lief on which she. served were
those of Cedar Mountain. second
Bull Run, Fort Wagner, SpOtisyl-
vania, Antietam, Fredericksburg.
the Wilderness and Petersburg.
In the summer of 1865 she un-
dertOOk the task of identifying
the unknown dead in and around
AndersOnville, and in laying out
the first national cemetery. Fol
lowing the Civil War she began
the work of searching for the
missing men Of the army. The
president gave her authority for
this work in the following char
acteriStic document:
To the Friends of Missing Pris-
Oners: Miss Clara Barton has
kindly offered to search for the
missing prisoners of war. Please
address her at Annapolis. Nd.
giving name, regiment and com
pany of any missing prisoner.
A. LINCOLN.
This brought the heartbrOken
correspondence of all missing col
dlerS to her, and placed on the
records Of the government the
names of $4,000 men who other
wise had no record of DEATH.
After that Miss Barton went
abroad and took part in the re-
lief work of the FrancO-German
war and at hospitals. She was
at Metz, Strasburg, Belfort. Ba-
den and Paris. She reached the
French capital after the fall of
the Commune and helped to dis
tribute food to the half starved
and half crazed people of that
city.
After her return to Ameica
Miss Barton Immediately entered
upon a new era of usefulness. To
recount the services she rendered
to humanity would include the
Michigan forest fires, the Miss
issippi and Ohio river floods the
Texas famine, the Mount Vernon,
ILL.,, cyclone, the Johnstown dam
disaster, the South Carolina sea
island tidal wave, the Cuban re.
concentrate policy, the Galvest.