The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1918-06-08
CLARA BARTON, FOUNDER
OF AMERICAS RED CROSS

Of AmEhIVRS hEO OhOSo.
HOnOred on two continents, her
name a revered household word
over half century, called a sis
ter-in-Deed" to the beloved Flor
ence Nightingale, Clara Barton, the
American nurse who glorified her
profession on many battle fields
was founder of the Association OF
the Ameciran Red Cross.
Someone once asked Miss Barton
about her mission in life. She re-
piled:
Il never had a mission. But l
always had more work than could
do lying around my feet, and ! try
hard to get it out of the way so as
to go on and do the next" And
that was Clara Barton's mission
always to work to do the world the
best service she could.
In the little New England town
of Oxford, Mass, where she was
born, Miss Barton as girl was
known as the best student and
horseWoman in town. She had to
support herself, and when Is, be-
came a school teacher. A free
school, founded at Bordentown, N.
j., brought Miss Barton consider
able attention, and in spite Of VIC
lent opposition, was a great sue
cess.
Her Work in the Civil War.
School teaching did not appeal
to her, however, and anxious as she
said, ito achieve something, and be
somebody" she went to Washing
ton as a clerk in the patent office.
That was then an unheard OF thing
for woman to do, and according to
society's logic rather indecent"
thing. Miss Barton succeeded
there-succeeded in winning the re-
spect and regard of every man with
whom ste worked, and making 1t
easier for other women to take up
the same line Of work.
When the Civil War broke out
she resigned her place. She in
serted an advertisement in the pa
pers Offering to receive cOntribu-
lions Of food, supplies and money
for the relief of wounded soldiers.
and her appeal met with ready re-
Spouse. She did her first active
nursing in connection with the
Sixth Massachusetts Regiment, that
had been fired on while marching
through Baltimore at the beginning
Of the war. She went down to the
wharves each day with an ambu-
lance loaded with dressings and re-
storatives, and there, amid the tur-
MOL and the dirt, she gave unstint-
edly of her woman's tenderness.
The volunteer nurse went south
with the Union Army, and although
she received little encouragement
at first, she nursed on seventeen
different battle fields, and in 1864
was placed in charge of the army
field hospitals in front of the James
River. At Fredericksburg she at
tended to all wounded that were
brought to her, whether they wore
the blue or gray. One Southern
officer, whose death agonies she
soothed, besought her not to cross
the river, betraying to her in his
gratitude that the movements OF
the Confederates were only a ruse
to draw the Union troops on to de-
struction.
Nursed in Europe.
After the Civil War, Miss Barton
went abroad, where she assisted
the Duchess of Baden in the Fran
co-Prussian War. On the walls OF
her home hung certificates and tes-
timonials from the European coun-
tries to which her mission took
her
1t was while in Europe that Miss
Barton became interested in the
Red Cross Society, which had been
organized in Geneva, in 1865. 1t
was project dear to the Civil
War nurses heart, and in 1882 Miss
Barton established the American
Red Cross Society. She was elect
ed as its first president.
The American chapter contained
radical differences from the socie-
ties OF the old world. There it had
been limited to caring for the sick
and wounded in war. But in the