Essay On Clara Barton

Clara Barton

Clarissa Harlowe Barton was born in North Oxford, Massachusetts on December 25, 1821, and died on April 12, 1912 at the age of 90 years old from tuberculosis. Her father, Stephen Barton was a community leader who served in the Indians combats or battles, and her mother Sarah had five children. She was the youngest of the five. She was educated at home by her older sisters, and at the age of 15 years old she started teaching school. She had a relationship with John J. Elwell, however she never married. She is remembered because of some of her accomplishments such as, being a teacher, being a nurse, and the most notable as the founder of the American Red Cross (“Clara Barton”).

Her parents of Clara Barton encourage her to become a teacher because she was extremely shy. Eventually, she liked the profession for the reason that she ended up directing a campaign that would help children to receive an education. Her profession as an educator started in 1838 when she

was 15 years old. After teaching, she wanted to further her education by following writing and languages at the Clinton Liberal Institute in New York, and after her studies there, she opened up a free school in New Jersey. She was successful and employed other women to help her teach other children (“Clara Barton”).
Clara Barton acquired her passion of helping others as the role of being a nurse when she helped his brother David to recover after “he fell from the roof of a barn and received a severe injury” (“Clara Barton”). She learned certain medical skills because she wanted to help his brother recover including the placing of leeches, and distributing prescribed medications. In addition, her father also motivated her to be a nurse. Before her father died, he influenced Clara Barton by telling her that “her duty as a Christian [was] to help the soldiers” (“Clara Barton”). Therefore, during the civil war, she helps the soldiers, and was called the “Angel of the Battlefield” because she cared for soldiers injured in the “Fredericksburg” and the “Antietam” Battles (Biography.com Editors.).
Clara Barton was president of the American National Red Cross in 1881, and as a leader, she set up the framework for the Red Cross to fit the needs of the United States during war and in peace times.

For example, in the early years of the Red Cross she helped victims of the floods of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers. She also created the National First Aid Society in 1904, and at the age of 83 she retired as president of the American Red Cross (“Clara Barton”).

In conclusion, Clara Barton was a well-known woman due to her contribution to the civil war and the creation of the American Red Cross. She supported many of the nineteenth-century reform movements that affect our lives today. For example, she supported the public school movement by teaching and creating free schools. She also supported Women’s Rights Movement when she began lecturing her experiences during the Civil War and met Susan B. Anthony one of her friends who work very hard for the cause of women’s rights. (Biography.com

Editors).