What was Clara Barton’s life like?

Asked by: Heidi Landgrebe

Born on December 25, 1821 in Oxford, Massachusetts, Barton was the youngest of Stephen and Sarah Barton’s five children. Her father was a prosperous farmer. As a teenager, Barton helped care for her seriously ill brother David—her first experience as a nurse.

What was Clara Barton’s early life like?

Early Life
A shy child, she first found her calling when she tended to her brother David after an accident. Barton later found another outlet for her desire to be helpful as a teenager. She became a teacher at age 15 and later opened a free public school in New Jersey.

What was Clara Barton’s life like before the Civil War?

Born in Massachusetts in 1821, Clara Harlowe Barton was the youngest of five children. Barton supplemented her early education with practical experience, working as a clerk and book keeper for her oldest brother. She worked for several years as a teacher, even starting her own school in Bordentown, New Jersey in 1853.

What did Clara Barton do for a living?

Clarissa Harlowe Barton, known as Clara, is one of the most honored women in American history. Barton risked her life to bring supplies and support to soldiers in the field during the Civil War. She founded the American Red Cross in 1881, at age 59, and led it for the next 23 years.

What are Clara Barton’s traits?

Through her life’s work, Clara Barton became a powerful politician, negotiator, public personality, humanitarian, and American legend. She was not perfect. Her determination, tenacity and single-mindedness often offended others. But, she was charming and persuasive, too.

What are some fun facts about Clara Barton?

Fun Facts About Clara Barton
Clara loved all animals, especially cats. During the Civil War, Senator Schuyler Colfax sent her a kitten, with a bow around its neck, in appreciation for her work during the Battle of Antietam. Clara Barton was honored by parties on both sides for her work during the Franco-Prussian War.

Who began the Red Cross and why?

The Red Cross came into being at the initiative of a man named Henry Dunant, who helped wounded soldiers at the battle of Solferino in 1859 and then lobbied political leaders to take more action to protect war victims.

What was Clara Barton’s leadership style?

Leadership Style
Thought Clara Barton was right in the mix with all of the projects the American Red Cross helped in she was known to be a very authoritarian type of leader. She made all of the decisions and did not listen to the insight and ideas of other members of the group.

How was Clara Barton a good leader?

She cared little for personal comforts and strove to comfort and support others, always. Clara Barton was brave: she chose to go to sites of battles and civilian disasters, saw chaos and devastation all around her, and yet had the temerity to stay.

Why was Barton called the angel of the battlefield?

Restless with her limited role and undeterred by War Department regulations and prevailing stereotypes, Barton (1821-1912) became known as the “Angel of the Battlefield” as she distributed supplies and tended to the wounded and dying.

What did Clara do in the Civil War?

An educator and humanitarian, Clarissa “Clara” Harlowe Barton helped distribute needed supplies to the Union Army during the Civil War and later founded the disaster relief organization, the American Red Cross.

What is a famous quote from Clara Barton?

“I may sometimes be willing to teach for nothing, but if paid at all, I shall never do a man’s work for less than a man’s pay.”