Free
Clara Barton knew that to live on her own she had to find a way to support herself.
At first, she was nervous about becoming a teacher. Yet the more she thought about it, the more the idea appealed to her. She decided to try teaching and found that she liked it. And, she was good at it. Her concern for the poor led her to establish one of New Jersey’s first free public schools, in Bordentown.
In 1854, Barton looked for new challenges. She moved to Washington, D.C., and left the teaching profession. In Washington, she was appointed to a job at the U.S. Patent Office. (A patent is a document giving a person ownership of an invention.) Barton was one of the few women employed by the U.S. government. Breaking new ground for women was getting to be a habit for Clara Barton.
◀ In 1839, at age 17, Clara Barton went to the Oxford school committee to apply for a teaching job. At that time, many teachers did not have college degrees. Few women even went to college. Barton was required to pass an examination given by the committee. Her application was accepted, and Barton passed the exam. Her teaching career had begun.
While Barton taught, she lived at home with her elderly parents and saved her money. In 1851, Barton’s mother died, and her father went to live with her brother David. Barton was ready for a change. When a friend in New Jersey invited her to come for a visit, she agreed to go. While there, she accepted a new teaching job. ▶
◀ Clara Barton’s first teaching job was in a one-room schoolhouse in North Oxford. Her class consisted of 40 children ages 4 to 13. Barton had some unruly students. But she had a talent for keeping them in order without hitting them with a ruler or spanking them. (These were common ways of keeping students in line at that time.)
◀ Clara Barton learned that although New Jersey had laws allowing free public schools, few were established. Poor parents were ashamed to admit that they could not pay for their children’s education. Teachers at paid schools fought against free schools. They feared they might lose their jobs. Barton went to the Bordentown school committee with an unusual proposal. She offered to open a school for all children and teach for three months with no pay. In exchange, she asked the school board to give her a run-down building for her free school. This photograph shows Barton around the time she started her school.
▲ On the opening day of Barton’s Bordentown school, only six students came to class. After a short time, the number grew to 600. People who had fought against the free school now agreed to raise public school teachers’ salaries. They also agreed to build a new eight-room schoolhouse.
Clara Barton’s happiness over the new school’s success did not last. Soon after the school opened in the fall of 1853, Barton was shocked to learn that she would not be its principal. At that time, few women held positions of authority. School committee members had decided that the school had become too big and important to be run by a woman. Few could imagine paying a woman such a large salary. The committee gave the job to a man. He was offered twice as much money as Barton received. Clara Barton was to be his “female assistant.”
In Washington, Barton got a job as a clerk at the U.S. Patent Office. In 1854, few women worked for the federal government. Many people thought hiring women took jobs away from men. Others thought it wasn’t right for women to mix with men in an office. Barton was unique: She earned the same pay as the men in her office. ▶
◀ Barton was frustrated with this unfair treatment. So she resigned. After 15 years as a teacher, she began looking for a new career and a new home. She chose Washington, D.C. This is how the city looked in the mid-1800s, when Barton moved there.
