Clara Barton

To this day my seat on a saddle or on the back of a horse is as secure and tireless as in a rocking chair, and far more pleasurable.

Clarissa Harlowe Barton (December 25, 1821 – April 12, 1912) was a pioneering nurse who founded the American Red Cross. She was a hospital nurse in the American Civil War, a teacher, and patent clerk.

Quotes

• To this day my seat on a saddle or on the back of a horse is as secure and tireless as in a rocking chair, and far more pleasurable. Sometimes, in later years, when I found myself suddenly on a strange horse in a trooper's saddle, flying for life or liberty in front of pursuit, I blessed the baby lessons of the wild gallops among the beautiful colts.
  • Barton, Clara H. The Story of My Childhood. New York: Baker & Taylor Company, 1907. Reprinted by Arno Press in 1980.
• You are getting the reward, dear Bessie for the simple nature devoid of vaulting ambition which you have always had. Keep it, I pray you. Personal ambition is a demon of unrest. Let those who want to strive to rise above themselves; but you dear Bessie, keep to your simple ways and you will always be a happy woman.Letter from Clara Barton
  • Letter to Mrs. Elizabeth Jennings Pitkin, January 12, 1901 acknowledging the repayment of ten cents.

Quotes about Clara Barton

• for my part, I think never was given such an excellent answer on the suffrage question as was given by Clara Barton, that majestic and wonderful woman.
  • Catherine Breshkovsky in The Little Grandmother of the Russian Revolution edited by Alice Stone Blackwell 1918

• Clara Barton, doing clerical work in a department of the Government and declining to receive compensation therefor, attracted no attention. But Clara Barton in hospitals an don hospital transports, bringing order out of chaos, hope our of despair, and holding death in abeyance; Clara Barton at Andersonville, where 13,000 soldiers had yielded up life under the prolonged horrors of a military prison, and had been ignominiously buried in long trenches, uncared for, united and unknown, attracted the attention and aroused the gratitude of the nation. For she ordered the trenches opened, the unknown dead exhumed and decently buried, each man in a separate grave, with a headstone recording his name, his rank, and the date of his death.
  • Mary Livermore, “Industrial Gains of Women during the Last Half-Century” (1888)