Where human beings throng, and men and women suffer, Clara Barton built a structure and ornamented it with a RED CROSS on a white ground—the emblem of service to the suffering. With unusual earning capacity for seventy-five years, and at all times practicing greatest economy, Clara Barton’s ownership at her passing was but $21,000. The Glen Echo Red Cross home that had been used, free of cost to the RED CROSS, was valued at $5,000. While the owner lived she continued to keep it as a charity center—a home for the homeless and indigent—ex-soldiers, civilians, children.
In her closing years she had, therefore, for her own personal and exclusive use in money and realty, not to exceed $21,000. This was nine thousand dollars less than the value of her property when she first became interested in Red Cross work. “Mere money,” she said, “never separates me from my friends. I don’t care for money; I wish only not to become an object of charity, and to be a burden to my friends when I am unable to work for others.”
BIRTHPLACE OF CLARA BARTON, NEAR OXFORD, MASSACHUSETTS
On March 14, 1921, the title to the Barton Homestead was transferred by Carl O. Carlson to The Woman’s National Missionary Society of the Universalist Church. It is now known as The Clara Barton Memorial Home. Mementoes, Red Cross literature and all else possible to obtain that appertain to Clara Barton’s life work will be assembled here and become a part of the Memorial. The homestead consists of the house where Clara Barton was born, and eighty-five acres of land. It was dedicated as a shrine for the public, October 12, 1921.
Arrow points to the room where Clara Barton was born. Size of the room 8 × 10 feet. Ceiling 8 feet high. Clothes closet 5 feet 2 inches × 2 feet 5 inches. Two windows each 4 feet 5 inches high × 2 feet 3 inches wide. Two sashes in each window; six panes of glass in each sash.
OFFICERS OF THE W. N. M. A. PRESENT AT THE DEDICATION OF THE CLARA BARTON MEMORIAL ON OCTOBER 12, 1921.
Left to Right: Mrs. Bertram O. Blaisdell, Trustee; Mrs. Ethel M. Allen, Rec. Sec’y (now President); Mrs. Marietta B. Wilkins, President; Mrs. Fred A. Moore, Literature Secretary; Miss Susan M. Andrew, Trustee (Chairman Clara Barton Guild).
VIII
Every child in the country has known of Clara Barton.
Oakland (Calif.) Tribune.
Pestalozzi was the Father of the Public School; Washington the Father of his Country; Lincoln, the Father of a Race; Clara Barton, the Mother of the Red Cross. The Author.