Clara Barton

My life is full of many different heroes. Most the people who I meet and get to know are heroes in my life. Every person I know has a different heroic trait about them. Although I know many heroes, there is one from the past that I admire most. She was courageous, brave, smart and much more. Who is she you ask? Clara Barton. Clara accomplished a lot in her lifetime. She was a teacher, a nurse, an author, the founder of the American Red Cross and she did many fundraisers to help raise food, money, and many other needed things for war. All the way around, Clara Barton was a great person. She is my hero because of her heroic efforts in war and in her life. From teaching to opening schools to getting the American Red Cross off its feet, she did so much. I admire her for her heroic efforts in everything that she did.

Clara Barton’s life was full of many different accomplishments. She was born on December 25, 1821, in North Oxford, Massachusetts. Clarissa Harlowe Barton was her full name. Clara’s parents were Captain Stephen and Sarah (Stone) Barton. She was the youngest of five children and she was home schooled. When she was eleven years old, she nursed her brother back to health after he fell off the roof of his house. This is when she fell in love with nursing.

Although she loved nursing, those dreams faded in her eyes, so she decided to start a new career, teaching. When she turned 15, she became a teacher. Six years after starting her teaching career, she opened up a free public school in Bordentown, New Jersey. The school's attendance grew to about 600 children when she was there, but instead of hiring Clara to be the head of the school, the school board hired a man. Clara was infuriated at the school board's decision to not hire her to be the head of the school just because she was a woman. She moved to Washington, D.C. and began to work in the U.S. Patent Office.

Once the Civil War began, she thought that this would be the perfect time to put her nursing skills to work. She organized a relief program for all of the soldiers and helped them in many aspects of the war. Clara found out that many soldiers were dying because of the lack of medical supplies. She decided to do something about the shortage of medical supplies. She began another organization to distribute medical supplies to those who needed them. Her relief operation succeeded. Because her relief operation succeeded, Surgeon General William A. Hammond granted her a pass to travel with the army and nurse the soldiers. She followed the army for three years and nursed many soldiers back to health. Because of her heroic efforts, she became known as the "Angel of the Battlefield."

In 1869, she traveled to Europe for some well needed rest. There she became educated about the thought of the Red Cross. She went back to America and put the Red Cross in action. Clara was the President of the American Red Cross for 22 years. She died on April 12, 1912, in Glen Echo, Maryland. In her lifetime she helped thousands of people, and now that you have read her story I hope you will agree with me that she is a true hero.