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Birth
Clarissa Harlowe Barton was born on December 25, 1821. She was the 5th and youngest child of Sarah Stone and Stephen Barton. Clara, as she liked to be called, was born in North Oxford, Massachusetts. Her siblings' names were Stephen, David, Sally, and Dorothy.
http://sellerby.com/good_7110_462271116-Nurse-Baby-Costume.htm -
Mexico Becomes a Republic
On October 4, 1824, Mexico gained its independence from Spain and became a republic. The national government was led by a president and a two-house Congress, and governors and legislatures led the states. Guadalupe Victoria became the first president. This event was the culmination of many conflicts regarding distrust, rebellions, and overtaxing over a number of years prior to the separation.
http://www.xtimeline.com/evt/view.aspx?id=103514 -
World's First Photograph Taken
In 1826, after 10 years of experimentation, Joseph Nicéphore Niépce took the world's first photograph. He did so in the upper-story window of his workroom at his Saint-Loup-de-Varennes country house. He set up a camera obscura, placed within it a polished pewter plate coated with an asphalt derived from petroleum, and uncapped the lens. After exposure of eight hours, he removed the plate. The image of the window view was made visible by an elaborate washing process.
www.hrc.utexas.edu -
Became a Teacher
At age 17, Clara began working as a teacher at schools in Oxford, N. Oxford, Charlton, and West Millbury. Her experience there made her become less shy, and very strong. Her students respected her immensely. Barton also established her own school in Bordentown, New Jersey. Exact date unknown.
http://www.clarabartonbirthplace.org/life/instrutor_teacher.html -
Trail of Tears
In 1838, the United States government removed more than 16,000 Cherokee Indian people from their homelands in Tennessee, Alabama, North Carolina, and Georgia, and sent them to Indian Territory (today known as Oklahoma). This was devastating to the Cherokee People. Thousands died either on the journey west or because of the relocation. This banishment is referred to as the Trail of Tears, culminating the Indian Removal Act of 1830.ExDateUnk.
http://www.thearchetypalconnection.com/SHADOW%20.htm -
Upper and Lower Canada Unite
Passed on July 1840, and proclaimed on 10 February 1841 as a British act of Parliament, Upper Canada and Lower Canada were united under one government. The reunification was a recommendation of the 1839 Durham Report. The legislation needed to establish the new Province of Canada was proposed in the British Commons in May of 1839. Canadian consent was acquired in November and December of 1839. They agreed to work within the act, although some requirements made both parties unhappy.
www.cbc.ca -
Mass Migration on Oregan Trail
The Oregan trail was the route many Americans took to the western part of their nation in the 1840s. It started in Independence, Missouri, then followed the Platte River westward, eventually crossed the Rocky Mountains, then crossed Wyoming and finally ended the Willamette Valley in Oregon. The popularity of the trail was commonly called "Oregan Fever". The U.S. secured Oregan by treaty with Britain in 1849. Exact date unknown.
http://http://www.historyglobe.com/ot/otmap1.htm -
Civil War Service Begins
Barton began working to aid servicemen in the civil war. This was just 8 days after the war began. She was residing in Washington, DC as a recording clerk in the U.S. Patent Office when units of federal troops first poured into the city. She saw an immediate need in the chaos to "providing personal assistance to the men in uniform, some of whom were already wounded, many hungry, and some without bedding or any clothing except what they had on their backs."
http://www.canterbury.ac.nz/imperial -
Emancipation Proclamation
President Abraham Lincoln gave the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, as the U.S. saw coming its third year of civil war. The proclamation announced "that all persons held as slaves" within certain states "are, and henceforward shall be free." Applying only to states that had left the Union, it left slavery remaining in the loyal states. The freedom it promised was only upon Union military victory. Although it didn't end slavery, it left hope and promise for the future.
www.neh.gov -
American Civil War Ends
This date is widely considered as the date of the ending of the Civil War in America. On this day, General Robert E. Lee surrendered the Northern Confederate Army. Other parts of the Confederate Army surrendered in the months following. African Americans didn't fully receive equal freedom until the late 1960s.
http://www.lookandlearn.com/blog/6128/the-american-civil-war-ends/ -
Searching For Prisoners of War
At the end of the war, Clara wrote letters to families of men inquiring about their loves ones that had been reported missing. Acting upon their concerns, she established the Office of Correspondence with Friends of the Missing Men of the United States Army. It was in operation out of her rooms in Washington for 4 years. She and her assistants received and answered over 63,000 letters and identified over 22, 000 missing men. Later, a tracing service was created by the Red Cross.
www.nps.gov -
Forms American Red Cross
Barton's unofficial volunteering with the International Red Cross while in France made her want to start something like this in the United States, Upon returning home, she set up a proposal which introduced the idea of the U.S. joining the Geneva Treaty, which included the 31 European Nations involved in the International Red Cross. This proposal was accepted by President Chester Arthur in 1882, but the original American Association of the Red Cross was formed in 1881.
http://www.nps.gov/clba -
Aids Victims at Johnstown Flood
In June of 1889, Clara Barton and 50 American Red Cross volunteers assisted the survivors in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, after a massive flood killed over 2,000 residents. The response to this disaster was one of the first major relief efforts organized by the American Red Cross. It was a success, and more and more people became supporters of the organization. http://history1800s.about.com/od/thegildedage/tp/johnstown01.htm -
Helps Russian Famine
Barton alongside Julian Hubbell supervised the Russian Famine Relief operation in March of 1892. This was the American Red Cross's first overseas project. The shipments of food included 500 railroad cars of Iowa cornmeal and flour that helped to feed 7,000 Russians. Exact date unknown.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/famine/ -
Helps Victims of Flood and Hurricane in South Carolina
In 1893 and 1894 the American Red Cross again led by Barton helped a huge number of people affected by a hurricane and tidal wave in the Sea Islands of South Carolina. The immediate damage left over 5,000 dead. The organization labored for ten months to aid the predominantly African American population of these barrier islands. Exact date unknown.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1893_Sea_Islands_hurricane -
Spanish American War
On April 25, 1898 the United States declared war on Spain after they sunk the American's Battleship Maine in Havana Harbor on February 15, 1898. This war took place in Spanish territories such as the Philippines Islands, Guam, Cuba, and Puerto Rico. Representatives of Spain and the United States signed the Treaty of Paris on December 10, 1898. This established the independence of Cuba, gave Puerto Rico and Guam to the U.S. and allowed purchase of the Philippines Islands from Spain.
www.loc.gov -
Provides Financial Aid to Survivors of Destruction in Galveston
In Galveston, Texas, a hurricane as well as a tidal wave left 6,000 citizens dead. Based out of Galveston and Houston, Clara Barton directed her last major field relief effort in the American Red Cross. Within a two-month period, the operation distributed $120,000 worth of money as well as supplies, as well as 1.5 million strawberry plants to survivors.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Carrying_bodies,_Galveston_hurricane,_1900.jpg -
Retires as President of The American National Red Cross
At age 83 and after leading the organization of 23 years, Clara Barton retired as the president of The American National Red Cross. Mrs. John A. Logan was named as her successor. Shortly after leaving the organization she created, Barton established the National First Aid Association of America and served as its honorary president for five years. This small organization emphasized basic first aid instruction, emergency preparedness, and the development of first aid kits.
www.redcross.org/ -
Death
Clara Barton died on April 12, 1912 in Glen Echo, Maryland. At her death she was a figure of international fame. She had created excellent programs and set stellar precedents for many who intended to follow in this influential woman's footsteps.
http://www.awm.lee.army.mil/research_pages/clara_barton.htm
