The house in North Oxford, Massachusetts, in which Clara Barton, founder of the American Red Cross, was born on Christmas Day, 1821. PITTSBURGH CARNEGIE LIBRARY Lawrenceville Branch, 279 Fisk Street West End Branch, Wabash and Neptune Streets Hazelwood Branch, 4748 Monongahela Street East Liberty Branch, Station Street and Larimer Avenue South Side Branch, Carson and Twenty-second Streets Homewood Branch, Hamilton and Lang Avenues Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh Monthly Bulletin Published monthly, except in August and September, by the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, Forbes Street and Bellefield Avenue, Schenley Park, Pittsburgh, Pa. President, S. H. Church, Carnegie Library, Forbes Street and Bellefield Avenue; Secretary, J. D. Hailman; Treasurer, James H. Reed, 1027 Carnegie Building; Director, John H. Leete, Carnegie Library, Forbes Street and Bellefield Avenue. From Ida Husted Harper's "The Life and Work of Clara Barton" There passed away at the age of ninety-one one who is justly entitled to an honored place among America's great women-Clara Barton, founder of the Red Cross in the United States. All her life after she reached maturity was a preparation for this, its crowning achievement, and biographical history has no more eloquent record of self sacrifice, courage, and devotion to noble causes than that of this brave, tender, and true woman. Clara Barton was a Christmas gift, in 1821, to her parents, Captain Stephen and Dolly (Stone) Barton, who resided in North Oxford, Massachusetts. She came of "fighting stock," for her father was a valiant soldier under "Mad Anthony" Wayne in 1812...and her maternal grandfather was one of the heroes of Bennington in the Revolutionary War. It is a beautiful antithesis that, while the ancestors helped to carry on war, their descendant gave her life to mitigating its horrors. Girls had few opportunities for education eighty years ago, but she made the best of these, and at sixteen was herself a teacher. She was ambitious, however, and carefully saved her small earnings until she had enough to take a course at Clinton, New Jersey, which had one of the best seminaries of that time for young women. Going from here to Hightstown, New Jersey, she taught for some time |