you and to see you again. There is much to do and to say in the
future. I shall need the good advice and guidance of such friends as
your good self and one of my Aunt’s last requests was that I invite
you with a few other such friends to compose a committee to advise
with me in the future.
Very truly yours,
(Signed) STEPHEN E. BARTON.
EXCERPTS FROM OTHER LETTERS
Concerning the biography of my Aunt, she desired that I call to my
assistance several of her good friends, including your dear self.
STEPHEN E. BARTON.
From a letter to the author, and dated November 18, 1912.
I judge from your letter that you may not be aware that a preliminary
biography of my Aunt has been written by Reverend Percy H. Epler, of
Worcester, and published by the Macmillans.
I have organized a literary committee composed of Reverend William E.
Barton of Oak Park, Illinois, Reverend Percy H. Epler of Worcester,
Massachusetts, Honorable Francis Atwater of New Haven, Connecticut,
Dr. Julian B. Hubbell of Glen Echo, Maryland, and myself.
STEPHEN E. BARTON.
From a letter to the author, and dated February 29, 1916.
AUTHORIZED
Charles Sumner Young was authorized by Clara Barton to write the
history of her life and so far as I know the only person so
authorized.
JULIAN B. HUBBELL.
Clara Barton’s General Field Agent for the twenty-three years she was
President of the American Red Cross.
Glen Echo, Maryland,
July 8, 1922.
XCVIII
Last words of Clara Barton: Father, forgive them, for they know not
what they do. Let me go! Let me go!
PERCY H. EPLER, Author.
A diagnosis of Clara Barton’s illness was made a few months before she
passed. The report of the Doctors was that every organ in her body was
perfect—heart, lungs, stomach—every organ functioning as in her youth.
THE AUTHOR.
This morning’s papers (Tuesday, April 23, 1912) are filled with
startling stories to the effect that Miss Barton died of a broken
heart, caused by a clique of Washington politicians and ambitious
society people. That she died of a broken heart, so caused, is a fact.
W. H. SEARS, Secretary to Clara Barton.
Considerable comment was caused at the funeral of Clara Barton by the
absence of any representative of ——, or of the American National Red
Cross, the organization which Miss Barton founded; neither were there
any flowers from either the organization nor the White House in
evidence. Rockford (Ills.) _Register Gazette_.
Governments are but the voice of the people. CLARA BARTON.
The Government of my country _is_ my country, and the people of my
country are the government of my country as nearly as a representative
system will allow. CLARA BARTON.
The Government which I thought I loved, and loyally tried to serve,
has shut every door in my face, and stared at me insultingly through
its windows. CLARA BARTON.
The humanity of peoples is beyond that of Governments.
CLARA BARTON.
Ingratitude! Thou marble-hearted fiend, more hideous when thou showest
thee in a child than the sea monster.
SHAKESPEARE.
Of all the anguish our Heavenly Father calls us to endure—none pierces
more keenly, nor wounds more deeply, than the sting of ingratitude.
CLARA BARTON.
Dear Clara Barton! I hope that somewhere she is reaping a glorious
reward of her life-long heroism and self-sacrifice. MRS. LA SALLE
CORBELL PICKETT.
Clara Barton will still live as a potential force for good, and coming
centuries will see her labors carried on even as they were carried on
while she directed them in person.
Springfield (Illinois) _News_.
Sublime, O Life, when in Easter balms did cease,
When shadows of thy sunset hour bore thee “peace.”
E. May Glenn Toon.
A RECORD HISTORY AT THE FUNERAL
The funeral exercises for Clara Barton, who had served for 23 years as
President of the Red Cross, were held in her Red Cross home in Glen
Echo, Maryland. Flowers in profusion were there; her personal and _real_
friends, with moistened eyes and aching hearts, were there; hundreds of
telegrams of sympathy from all over the country were there; millions of
humanity-loving American men and women, in spirit, were there; her
devoted friend and immediate successor as President of the Red Cross,
Mrs. General John A. Logan, was there.
History will record that certain then acting officials of the Red Cross,
either personally or in sympathy, were _not_ there; that not a flower,
not a word of sympathy, from any Red Cross official was there; that not
national honors, not even Red Cross honors, were then bestowed lovingly
or at all upon the great and good Red Cross Mother, that made possible
officially the very existence of the then Red Cross officers.
And history will record that no good reason could be given why these
certain Red Cross officials were _not_ there; and history will further
record that the reason must be understood as that in the case of Another
when, on a similar occasion, no Pontius Pilate and no politicians were
there, but “many women were there beholding from afar.” And finally
history will again record that, centuries after the doer of “petty
politics” shall have been forgotten, the doer of humane deeds will shine
as a fixed star in humanity’s firmament, diffusing her beneficent rays
upon the millions, in generations as they successive come and go.
XCIX
Clara Barton saved too many lives to count.
Worcester (Mass.) _Telegram_.
The lives he had saved were enough to gain Heaven’s chiefest diadem.
CLARA BARTON.
God’s plans are known only to Himself. He alone knows what plan He is
working out. CLARA BARTON.
The grave is but a covered bridge, leading from light to light through
a brief darkness. LONGFELLOW.
The paths of glory lead but to the grave. GREY.
FROM LINCOLN’S FAVORITE POEM
Oh, why should the spirit of mortal be proud?
Like a swift-fleeing meteor, a fast flying cloud,
A flash of the lightning, a break of the wave,
He passeth from life to his rest in the grave.
WILLIAM COLLINS.
CLARA BARTON’S LAST RIDE
On her last ride from Glen Echo, Maryland, to Oxford, Massachusetts,
Clara Barton went by the Federal Express. She was accompanied by her
three friends, Stephen E. Barton, Doctor Julian B. Hubbell and Doctor
Eugene Underhill. Every consideration was shown her by her personal
friends and the railway company. Because of the fog on New York Bay and
certain formalities to be imposed by the New York City authorities, an
embarrassing delay was menacing the party. To circumvent the delay the
party ignored the advice of the railway authorities to take another
route from Jersey City, and continued on to New York.
At New York, to make connections with the outgoing train, the party
transferred themselves to a covered express wagon. It was nearly
midnight. The streets were wet and slippery from the fog. The busy
throng of human beings were in their slumbers. The streets were bereft
of all things living, save now and then a belated traveler; and silent,
except the tread of his footsteps on the sidewalk.
The party’s destination, Oxford, must be reached at a certain hour.
There must be no delay. The driver was urged to hurry. He became
impatient and, turning to one member of the party, asked: “Whom have you
got in this box anyway?” Then came the reply: “It’s the body of Miss
Clara Barton.” “You don’t mean the Civil War Nurse, the Red Cross
woman!” “Yes, that’s the one.”
Then there followed a scene pathetic, and most dramatic. Dropping his
lines and throwing up his hands the driver exclaimed: “My God! is it
possible? My father was a Confederate soldier and, at the battle of
Antietam, was wounded in the neck. Miss Barton found him on the
battlefield and bound up his wounds in time to save his life. And just
to think ‘the likes o’ me,’ a poor driver, is hauling her body across
the city tonight.”
C
Clara Barton has to her credit 72 achievements, every one of which
entitles her to a page in history.
W. H. SEARS, Secretary to Miss Barton.
Clara Barton,—this woman’s immortal work.
_Boston Transcript._
Not all the noblest songs are worth one noble deed.
ALFRED AUSTIN.
Clara Barton,—her work and her achievements,—wonders wrought by that
noble woman of New England.
Oakland (Cal.) _Tribune_.
Clara Barton,—no other whose achievements even approximate hers; her
allegiance ran the whole race of mankind.
Sacramento (Cal.) _Union_.
Clara Barton,—measured by any scale you may choose, was the most
useful woman of her day and generation.
Bangor (Me.) _News_.
By our deeds, and by our deeds alone—
God judges us—if righteous God there be,
Creeds are as thistle-down, wind-tossed and blown,
But deeds abide throughout eternity. GEORGE BARLOW.
All who work beneath its glorious folds (Red Cross) are coworkers not
only with the noblest spirits of all ages and all countries but, even
reverently be it spoken, co-workers with the Divine beneficence whose
blessed task we know will one day wipe every tear from every eye.
CLARA BARTON.
ACHIEVEMENT—WORLD RECOGNITION
Clara Barton was the recipient of twenty-seven decorations, medals of
honor, diplomas of honor, badges, jewels, flags, resolutions, votes of
thanks, and commendations from rulers of nations, legislative bodies,
Red Cross decorations, relief committees, and distinguished, or
titled, personages,—as testimonials of her great work for humanity.
THE AUTHOR.
Some day the full and complete history of Clara Barton and her
unparalleled achievements will be given to the world, and no library
on the face of the earth will be complete without a set of the volumes
of that history.
W. H. SEARS,
J. B. HUBBELL,
Ex-Secretaries to Clara Barton.
CHRONOLOGY OF THE LEADING ACHIEVEMENTS IN THE LIFE OF MISS CLARA BARTON
(Especially prepared for this volume by her ex-secretary, W. H. Sears)
ACHIEVEMENTS
1. Organized, conducted and popularized Free School System, Bordentown,
N. J., at her own expense. Commenced her school with six pupils, all
boys, and in one year had six hundred; secured five teachers to assist
and had promises of a new building, if she would continue. It was built
for her and is still in use. “Pauper Schools,” that is, Public Schools
at public expense, were ridiculed by the people. The six boys were
renegades from private schools. Third week, room filled and assistant
required. Such was the success that the private schools were
discontinued and a four thousand dollar school house, three stories of
brick, was built and Miss Barton inaugurated the _Free Public School of
Bordentown, N. J._ With six hundred pupils and eight teachers, impetus
was given to the cause of free education over the State, 1852–4.
2. First Woman Clerk in Government Office, Washington, D. C. A place of
trust at $1,400 per year, in charge of caveats, Patent Office, which
position she gave up at the opening of the Civil War to work in the
field. 1854–’61, under Mr. Charles Mason, Commissioner of Patents.
Discharged when Buchanan came in; but recalled under Lincoln; resigned
when war came on.
THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR
3. Met and furnished relief at “Old Infirmary,” where Judiciary Square
Hospital now stands; first day and next day at Capitol, in Senate
Chamber (Senate not in session) to wounded soldiers of the 6th Mass.
Volunteers in Washington, on arrival from the Baltimore attack by mob,
April 19, 1861. _First Civil War Field._
4. Met and furnished relief to sick and wounded soldiers, brought from
the front on trains and boats to Washington, D. C., May 1, 1861 to July,
1862.
Afterwards she was on the following fields of battle and relief:
5. James Island, battlefield, July 7, 1862.
6. Cedar Mountain, battlefield, August 9, 1862, 3,700 killed and
wounded.
7. Second Bull Run, battlefield, August 30 to September 1, 1862. Found
seven of her old pupils, Massachusetts schools, in this field and each
had lost an arm or leg.
8. Chantilly, battlefield, August 31 to September 1, 1862.
9. Point of Rocks, Md., battlefield, September 4, 1862.
10. Point of Rocks, Md., battlefield, September, 1862.
11. Antietam, battlefield, September 16 and 17, 1862.
12. Falmouth battlefield, December 11 and 12, 1862.
13. Fredericksburg, battlefield, December 12 and 13, 1862. 18,000 killed
and wounded.
14. Folly Island, battlefield, April 10, 1863.
15. Morris Island, battlefield, July 10 to September 7, 1863.
16. Fort Wagner, battlefield, September 7, 1863.
17. Charleston, S. C., battlefield, September 8, 1863.
18. The Wilderness, battlefield, May 6–7, 1864.
19. Spotsylvania, battlefield, May 8 to 21, 1864.
20. Petersburg, battlefield, June 15 to 18, 1864.
21. Petersburg Mine, battlefield, July 30 to August 5, 1864.
22. Deep Bottom, battlefield, August and September, 1864.
23. Richmond Campaign, battlefield, January 1 to April 3, 1865.
24. Annapolis Hospital, 1865, met starving, sick and wounded returning
Federal prisoners and furnished relief.
[Illustration:
Lieutenant-General Nelson A. Miles, the chairman of the ceremonies,
with
the first shovel of dirt.
(The Chairman of the National Advisory Board, National First Aid
Association
of America)
]
THE MEMORIAL TREE PLANTING TO THE MEMORY OF CLARA BARTON
by the American Forestry Association at Glen Echo, Md., 3 P. M., Easter
Sunday, April 16, 1922. The occasion—to commemorate the tenth
anniversary of the passing of Clara Barton.
[Illustration:
Mrs. John A. Logan, with second shovel of dirt. Author of the
Congressional
measure creating May 30th a national holiday, known as Decoration
Day; and sponsored in Congress by U. S. Senator John A. Logan.
]
He who plants an oak looks forward to future ages, and plants for
posterity.
WASHINGTON IRVING.
[Illustration:
THE CLARA BARTON OAK
Registered in the Hall of Fame for Trees, Washington, D. C.
]
The American Flag
The Glen Echo Service Flag
The Red Cross Flag
The Clara Barton Red Cross Home
Pin Oak (Quercus Palustris), 8½ feet high, 5½ inches in circumference
at the base; 3½ inches in circumference, 4½ feet from the ground.
CLARA BARTON AND THE OAK
_The Memorial Address_
The tree is the longest lived of all the lives of earth. Trees are in
existence whose birth antedates that of our Christian civilization. The
Cedar of Lebanon of the Old World is a part of the religious sentiment
of the human race. The General Sherman Sequoia of the New World had
battled against the warring elements of Nature for thousands of years
before existed the warring forces of the Anglo-Saxons, on this
continent. If there “be tongues in trees” every historic tree might say:
“What I have seen and known is identified with the human race.”
Every country has its trees, historic, sacred through association with
an individual or with some great national event. Of the tree, historic,
the historian writes, the poet sings, and in delineating its beauties
the painter exhausts his art. He who plants an historic tree transmits
history and poetry and art to posterity. The tree becomes a part of a
country’s history.
England has her Parliament Oak, under whose branches King John held his
parliament; her Pilgrim Oak, associated with Lord Byron, her Falstaff
Tree, her Shakespeare Tree. The United States has her Penn Treaty Elm,
under whose possible inspiration, for once at least, faith was kept with
the North American Indian; her Charter Oak that became the guardian of
the parchment that held the liberties of the Puritans; her Cambridge Elm
within whose cooling shades George Washington took command of the
Colonial forces in the struggle for human liberty; her Liberty Tree,
whose very soil wherein it grew, said Lafayette, should be cherished
forever by the American people.
At the nation’s capital there are trees historic. On Capitol Hill there
is the great elm, said to have been planted by George Washington in
1794. On the grounds of the Woman’s National Foundation, near Dupont
Circle, is the tree known as the Treaty Oak. Its history is of pathos,
possibly in part of fiction, but whether of fact or of fiction, like the
wanderings of Ulysses the tree is of never-ceasing interest. In the
Botanic Gardens is the Peace Oak, said to have been planted by a
Southerner who tried desperately to prevent the Civil War, and died
broken-hearted over his failure. And near by this historic tree is the
picturesque oak that came from an acorn picked up by the grave of
Confucius, in far away Shantung.
Of all the trees of ancient and modern times the oak is the most
historic. The Ancient Greeks and Romans thought that the oak was
Jupiter’s own tree; the Ancient Britons, that it belonged to the God of
Thunder—groves of oaks were their temples. Among the Celts the oak was
an object of worship; the Yule log was invariably of oak.
We plant an oak to commemorate a career, sacred, sacred to one who loved
the world—to one whom all the world loves. As in Japan a certain tree is
sacred, in America every tree is sacred that is love-planted. Our act,
and sentiment, is in consonance with hers whose almost last wish was
that an oak sapling be planted at the shrine of her beloved horse; that
it might be his monument, and with the hope that the children would love
and protect it as Baba’s Tree.
“Sing low, green oak, thy summer rune,
Sing valor, love, and truth.”
In no other atmosphere of her native land as here is a place so
appropriate to plant this historic tree. Through this atmosphere, into
yonder edifice, came the cry “Come and Help Us”;—from Cuba that cruelty,
pestilence and starvation were the portions of thousands; from Galveston
that still other thousands of men, women and children had become victims
of disaster, on her storm-swept coast. In every instance to the cry for
help was there response, and on wings of love the Angel of Mercy sped
forth to minister with her own hands to suffering humanity.
It was here that she basked in the sunset rays, as they dipped gently
towards the west. Yonder are the trees which she planted with her own
hands; yonder the soil wherein grew her beautiful flowers; yonder
humanity’s centre from which flowed her charities to almost every part
of the known world; yonder the chamber from whose bed of sorrow she
cried: “Let me go; let me go”; yonder the window through whose casement
on Easter Morn, in 1912, her spirit flew to the Great Unknown.
Nature that springs from the soil decays and dies; deeds that spring
from the soul never die. Nature’s foliage that ornaments is destroyed by
the frosts of winter; the spiritual foliage that ornaments is perennial.
The American Red Cross whose bud, in 1881, opened to the sunlight in the
forests of Michigan is now the sheltering tree for the world’s millions;
the woman that planted the seed and nourished it with her tears, as
later she planted that other tree known as THE NATIONAL FIRST AID, is
now the spirit that stands sponsor for certain charities, charities the
most widely known of all the charities of earth.
Neither marble nor canvas is so venerated as the tree, from out of GOD’S
FIRST TEMPLES—a tree to commemorate the individual is the most venerated
memorial in the world. The world will little care, or note not at all,
what we say and do here and yet the spirit of these environments may
become the inspiration of future ages. The mound that soon must shut out
from view our mortality will be leveled and covered with earth’s
foliage, only to be forgotten or marked “UNKNOWN.” But let us pray that
the tree, whose sentiment is world-humanity, may take highest rank among
the world’s other historic trees; that through the centuries the
children of successive generations will love and protect THE CLARA
BARTON OAK, NATURE’S EASTER-TRIBUTE TO IMMORTALITY.
[Illustration:
Planting the “Clara Barton Rose”—Miss Carrie Harrison, Chairman Clara
Barton Centennial Committee of the National Woman’s Party.
]
MEMORIAL TREE PLANTING TO THE MEMORY OF CLARA BARTON
[Illustration:
Charles Sumner Young, while delivering the memorial address.
]
25. Summer of 1865 at Andersonville identifying the dead, and laying out
the first National Cemetery, by request of the Government. Raised the
first United States flag over Andersonville.
26. 1865–67 Searching for the 80,000 missing men of the army. Found
19,920 of them at an expense to herself without pay of $17,000. The
Government reimbursed $15,000 of this sum.
27. The Lecture Field. Delivered 300 at $100 per lecture on the
battlefields of the Civil War, 1867–8.
THE FRANCO-GERMAN WAR
Was on the following battlefield and relief fields during this war:—
28. Hagenau, battlefield.
29. Metz, battlefield.
30. Strasburg, battlefield (8 months) siege, and relief after siege.
31. Belfort, relief.
32. Woerth, relief.
33. Baden Hospitals.
34. Sedan, battlefields.
35. Montbelard, relief.
36. Paris, Fall of the Commune; relief.
37. Organizing and managing relief for sick and wounded soldiers and
sick and destitute people in France at close of war, 1871.
RED CROSS WORK
38. With the International Red Cross Committee in Europe, Switzerland,
Germany and France. 1869–71. 1872–73, ill in London.
39. Seven years’ effort to make Red Cross known to the United States and
asking for the treaty; 1875–1882. Secured adhesion of the United States
to the Treaty of Geneva, March 1, 1882, having organized the American
National Red Cross Association the year before, and was nominated to
first presidency by President Garfield, 1882; was the President for
twenty-three years; 1881–1904.
40. Author of American Amendment authorizing Red Cross to administer
relief in time of great National disasters, which was adopted by all
treaty nations.
41. Organized First Aid Department within the Red Cross; but when she
resigned in 1904 as President, it was discontinued by her successors,
1903.
42. Organized The National First Aid Association of America, independent
of the Red Cross, similar in its scope and object to the St. John
Ambulance Association of England. Five hundred and twenty-two classes
have been organized with ten thousand students and five thousand four
hundred graduates—January 1, 1922.
43. Conceived idea of a Rest Cure and School where people should be
taught to keep well.
(The cost of distributing the funds and other contributions entrusted to
Clara Barton, as President of the American Red Cross during her
twenty-three years of administration, did not exceed two per cent. of
the amounts contributed for the twenty fields of relief in this country
and the four fields in foreign countries. Signed: Julian B. Hubbell,
General Field Agent of the Red Cross during the twenty-three years of
Clara Barton’s Presidency.)
RED CROSS FIELDS
44. Michigan Forest Fire, 1881, expended $80,000.00
45. Mississippi River Floods, 1882, expended 8,000.00
46. Mississippi Cyclone, 1883, expended 1,000.00
47. Mississippi River Floods, 1883, expended 18,000.00
48. Balkan War; relief, 1883, expended 500.00
49. Ohio and Miss. River Floods, 1884, expended 175,000.00
50. Texas Famine, 1885, expended 100,000.00
51. Charleston Earthquake, 1886, expended 85,500.00
52. Mt. Vernon Illinois Cyclone, 1886, expended 85,000.00
53. Florida Yellow Fever, 1888, expended 15,000.00
54. Johnstown Flood, 1889, expended 250,000.00
55. Russian Famine, 1892, expended 125,000.00
56. Pomeroy, Iowa, Cyclone, 1893, expended 2,700.00
57. S. C. Islands Hurricane and Tidal Waves, 1893, 65,000.00
expended
58. Armenian Massacres, Turkey, Asia Minor, 1896, 116,325.00
expended
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
59. Cuban Reconcentrado relief, Spring of 1898, expended 1,300,000.00
60. Spanish-American War at San Juan, battlefield, 1898
61. Cuban Orphan Asylums, Summer and Fall of 1898
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
62. Galveston Storm, 1900, expended 130,000.00
63. Typhoid Fever Epidemic, Butler, Pa., 1904
—————————————
Total $2,557,025.00
64. Superintendent of the Massachusetts Reformatory for Criminal Women.
One year; appointed by General Butler, then governor of Massachusetts,
1884. _Represented United States Government at International Red Cross
Conferences, as follows_:—
65. At Geneva, Switzerland, in 1884.
66. At Carlsruhe, Germany, in 1887.
67. At Rome, Italy, in 1890.
68. At Vienna, Austria, in 1897.
69. At St. Petersburg, Russia, in 1902.
70. Author of books.
71. Author of lectures.
72. Author of poems.
CI
The press is the representative of the people.