people & me!

The Story of Clara Barton

Excerpts from the story...
"Hang on tight to the mane!" Clara heard her brother call as she galloped bareback across the field. Clara was only five years old, but already her older brothers and sisters had taught her to do more than most five-year-olds did -- especially in 1826! She was the baby of the family, and she loved to read, spell, and do arithmetic. Clara lived with her family on a farm in North Oxford, Massachusetts.

Every Sunday, Clara's family drove five miles in a horse and carriage to the Universalist church. Clara's father had helped to build that church and Clara never forgot the Universalist teachings she learned there. She learned that God is love, and that all lives are precious gifts that should not be destroyed.

A Nurse at 11
When Clara was 11, her brother David fell from the top of their new barn and was badly hurt. The doctor said he might die. "Please," begged Clara, "let me be David's nurse! I'll take very good care of him!" Her parents agreed to let Clara try, so she stopped going to school. This was Clara's first job as a nurse and she did it cheerfully every day for two years!

A Teacher at 17
When she was 17, Clara took her first job outside of home. She taught a class of 40 children, from four years old to 13 years old -- all in one room! Clara heard that some of the boys liked to make trouble for the teacher, so on the first day at recess, she offered to play baseball with them. They were surprised to see that she could throw a ball just as hard as they could, and run just as fast!

Clara Goes to the Front

Clara was living and working in Washington, DC, when the Civil War broke out. She saw that soldiers who were coming home from the war were hungry and they needed clothes and bandages for their wounds. The government was not able to help so many soldiers. Clara saw what they needed and she used her own money to buy food and clothes for the soldiers. She wrote to the newspapers and asked them to tell people what the soldiers needed. People gave blankets, medicines, and other supplies.

Then news came from the battlefields that medicine and food did not get to the soldiers. Wounded soldiers fell to the ground and lay there without food or water. Many died of thirst or cold because there was no one to take them to the army hospitals. There were no women nurses to help them. In those days people thought that women were not strong enough to take care of soldiers or be near a war!

But Clara knew she must do exactly what most people thought no woman could do. At first the Army laughed at the idea, but Clara kept right on asking until she got permission to go to the front lines of the battle. With a wagon full of supplies pulled by four mules, she came to a battlefield in Virginia at midnight. The army doctor who was in charge was very tired and he had completely run out of supplies. Clara went to work cooking and taking care of the wounded right away. She even learned to take bullets out of wounded soldiers with a penknife! Later the army surgeon wrote, "If heaven ever sent out a holy angel, she must be the one!" After that, Clara was known as "The Angel of the Battlefield."