The Penn's Grove record., 1920-11-19
CLARA BARTON SCHOOL
Dedication Date Set For NOvem-
Der 23d

place Tuesday, November %. lnclud-
ed in the ceremonies will be addresses
by Governor Edwards, Senator Blanch-
ard H. White, of Burlington; Calvin N.
Kendall, commissioner of the depart
ment of public instruction, and other
school officials.
At the instance of Commissioner
Kendall a campaign was launched
among the pupils and teachers of the
public schools throughout the State
for the purpose of preserving the
schoolhouse in which Miss Barton
taught more than a half century ago.
The children were asked to contribute
a cent and the teachers five cents each.
Miss Barton was the founder of the
American Red Cross.
Not always has the little red school
house been a symbol of barefoot
democracy and cheerful childhood.
Less than a hundred years ago it was
considered either almost s~acrilegious
or really not the thing. For ought
we to send our children to a place that
made no difference in religions or to
one of those "free schools"-the
phrase with which earlier aristocrats
condemned them?
"a public school is impossible" the
good folk of Bordentown, N. j., told
Clara Barton, the greatest woman
teacher of her time and one of the
best friends to children in all time.
at has been tried and always it has
failed"
81 need three months" said the vol
unteer schoolma'am, and unpacked her
few books. Her ardors always took
an active form. She lever deplored,
and her ready compassion became in
stantly dynamic-a characteristic that
brought another as its necessary com
panion; she was one of the most I'M
sentimental persons who eve lived.
Instead of writing or preaching in the
neutrality-suspicious. vein she did
things herself.
She had taught at Hightstown in
1858 and the fame of her conquests
of expertly bad boys had spread. Her
pupils were her companions, and wher-
ever their enthusiasm could reach
some of the general prejudices against
public schools were shaken. But Bor-
dentown was ten miles away.
An Educational Landmark
The new teacher took a tumble
down, unoccupied building, with six
pupils, and in six weeks the place was
too small to hold half of the little
Bordentowners who wanted, at least,
to go to school. 1t had become
though no one knew it then-an
American educational landmark. So
Clara Barton Day is being celebrated
on November 23d, and with pennies
and nickels freely given, the old
structure where she proved that there
was life in public schools will be taken
care of for the future.
Since Clara Barton was the founder
of the Red Cross in America, that or
g%anization took the responsibility of
buying the school when it was in dan
ger of destruction, but they could not
buy the site. Now the building has
been moved, and the land on which it
stands has ben donated by Thomas j.
Rattigan, of Bordentown. The object
of Clara Barton Day is to collect
enough to repay the Red Cross the
$500 which was the price of the school
and to get a little money ahead for
upkeep. Dividing the expense COM
fortably among the prosperous coun-
ties of Jersey, a fund of more than
$1,000 has been raised already.
Burlington County teachers have re-
stored the interior so skilfully that it
is almost exactly as it was when Miss
Barton taught there. They are plant
ing ~fowerbeds and hedges, and of
course some one must be on hand to
show motorists and other visitors the
Clara Barton School. But in order to
raise this money the children are to
contribute more than a penny
each nor the teachers more than a
nickel The Bordentown Committee
Miss Minnie V. Flynn, Mrs. Harold B.
Wells and George w. Swift, Jr.-has
been busy all fall rej~uvenating the
roof and chimney.
How She Became a Nurse
The world beyond Bordentown has
its thousand reasons for remembering
Clara Barton. She was devoted to
public schools because she had to go
WlIllOuI oCllOOilllS iCloCh, IlIcISCly
though she wanted it. A brother fell
ill, and her busy mother had no time
or strength for this extra care, so for
two years the little girl played nurse,
but the disappointment and response
bility did not sadden her. Instead,
her tenderness was deepened, her de-
light in taking care of people first
found scope.
Later it was the helpless wounded
of the Civil War that she cared for,
riding late over muddy roads to bat
tlefelds near Washington and work.
ing there half the night, after she was
through with her government job"
She came back and told Lincoln and
the members of his Cabineet, with bit
ter vividness, the things she saw
soldiers left f~orty-eight hours with
bleeding wounds, left without food fol
more than a day.
She told them how she had had to
borrow an old iron kettle to make
cruel for the starving wounded. She
forced resolutely upon official notice
the concrete human tragedy of wal
as she rode back to Washington 9
mud-stained courier. Of course. after