When Clara was eight years old her sister Ann, six years her
senior, joined the Methodist Church, and this made a great
impression on her youthful mind. The consistent life of this
sister and the sweet and simple religious life of her mother gave
her many thoughtful hours, and she asked one day, "Why am I not a
Christian? I want to be good, too." Just before she was ten years
old, under the influence of a powerful sermon, she felt that she
must give herself to the Lord to be his child forever. There were
hours of darkness when she felt that she was too great a sinner to
be forgiven, but light came at last and she was happy in the
consciousness that she was an accepted child of God.
From her father's family she inherited a fund of Irish humor,
while her mother, of good old New England blood, inclined to
quietness of spirit with earnestness of purpose; and this blending
of fun and sobriety caused the young Christian much perturbation
of spirit. Conscientious in the extreme, she had many an hour of
self-questioning when she feared that, in the exuberance of
youthful merriment, she had cast a shadow on her Christian
profession and caused sorrow to the heart of her loving Master.
Then it was that the wise and tender mother helped her to see that
it was the duty of a Christian, though only a child, to be
cheerful and joyous, and that it was possible to please God in her
play hours as well as in attendance at church or Sunday school or
prayer meeting,--just to be the happy child that he meant her to
be, and to ask his help to keep her good and true.
Her school books did not satisfy her mind, and one who knew her
at that time says she frequently visited the neighbors and
borrowed books, some of which she read over and over again.
Her love for children led her, when she was about twelve years
old, to accept the proposal of the wife of the village merchant
that she assist her in the care of her baby, and the money thus
earned was used to help her with her studies.
In 1848, Clara's sister Ann went to Michigan to teach, making her
home with the Aunt Post who had been so dear to the children of
the Swain family. After two years of teaching she was married from
her aunt's home to a worthy man who still survives her. Before
Ann's marriage Clara had gone to visit this aunt and was persuaded
to stay, and eventually she took a small school near the farm and
taught for a year. "While she was teaching," wrote one of her
cousins, "my mother broke her ankle and Clara cared for her almost
a year. She was a grand nurse, even at that age, and was a great
comfort to us all; she was so bright and cheerful that we were
unwilling to have her leave us."
Her talent for nursing was called into requisition soon after her
return to Castile when the children of the Presbyterian minister,
the Rev. Mr. Hurlburt, became ill with typhoid fever and she was
called to assist in caring for them. It was an anxious time for
the nurse as well as the parents, as one child after another fell
ill. Two of the children died, and later the father succumbed to
the fatal illness. The faithful nurse remained with the distracted
widow and the remaining children can cared for them tenderly as
long as they needed her services. In an old and well-worn Bible is
this inscription in her handwriting: "This is the first Bible I
ever owned. It was presented to me by Rev. and Mrs. Hurlburt."
The sumer of 1855 found Miss Swain, then twenty-one years of age,
teaching a few private pupils in the village. One of her scholars
of that summer recently spoke of her loving interest in her pupils
and her care for their welfare. The following year she went to
live with some cousins in Pike and attend the school there.
Mr. Swain had a sister living in Canandaigua, who, knowing of
Clara's strong desire for self-improvement, invited her to come
there for a year of study in the seminary, an invitation which she
gladly accepted; and after a year of close study she obtained a
position as teacher in the primary department of one of the public
schools. "Clara was determined to get an education and make use of
it if she could," wrote one of her cousins.