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On Christmas Day, 1821, Clarissa Harlowe Barton was born in North Oxford, Massachusetts.
Ten years separated Barton in age from her two older sisters and two older brothers. As a child, she had few children her own age to play with. The family dog, Button, was often her only playmate.
When Clara Barton was 11, her brother David suffered a serious injury. Barton helped nurse him back to health. Caring for David gave Barton a sense of purpose. After he recovered, Barton nursed several families during a smallpox epidemic, until she herself got sick. Her helping heart and determination were developing and starting to show.
▲ The Bartons were an old New England family. Clara Barton’s ancestors were among the earliest European settlers in North America. Her grandfather fought in the American Revolution.
▲ Captain Stephen Barton refused to let his youngest daughter learn to skate or dance. Like many Americans at that time, he believed such activities were not proper for a girl.
Clara Barton took care of her brother David after he fell off a barn roof and was seriously injured. For two years, she didn’t go to school but spent all her time at David’s bedside. In time, and with the help of a doctor, David regained his health. ▼
◀ Clara Barton’s parents sent her away to boarding school when she was nine. They hoped that if she was forced to make new friends, she would become more outgoing. Instead, in the strange new school, Clara Barton grew quieter and more nervous. Perhaps that was because children teased her about her lisp. One day, after some students laughed at her, she ran out of the class and refused to return. Her parents came to get her. Clara Barton’s boarding-school days were over.
A Barton Family Album
Every member of the Barton family added to Clara Barton’s early education. She recalled, “I had no playmates, but . . . six fathers and mothers. They were a family of schoolteachers. All took charge of me, all educated me . . . .”
▲ Stephen Barton Sr.
Clara Barton’s father fought in the land struggles between settlers and Native Americans. The struggles were known as the Indian Wars. Her father taught her that “next to Heaven our highest duty was to love and serve our country.”
▲ Sarah Barton
Clara Barton’s mother and sisters taught young Clara how to cook, sew, garden, and make soap.
▲ Stephen Barton Jr.
Clara Barton’s oldest brother enjoyed mathematics and taught his sister arithmetic.
▲ David Barton
Clara Barton’s other brother loved to ride horses. He taught her how to ride horseback when she was three. This skill would later come in handy. Barton said it saved her life during the Civil War.
Sometimes in later years, when I found myself suddenly on a strange horse in a trooper’s saddle, flying for life or liberty . . . I blessed the baby lessons of the wild gallops among the beautiful colts.
