submitted by Carol Gaillard
Did you know that Clara Barton organized the American Red Cross in Dansville, New York? Dansville is located in Livingston County; it is a quiet, picturesque village in the Finger Lakes region of central New York. In 1873 when Clara returned from Europe to America she was exhausted and in need of rest. She sought out Dr. James Jackson, founder of Our Home on the Hillside in Dansville for his water cure. This health institute became home to the “Angel of the Battlefield.”
[private]While she was recuperating Clara wrote to Dr. Louis Appia at the Red Cross headquarters in Geneva. She wanted to set up the Red Cross in America. It wasn’t until 1881 that Clara succeeded in convincing President Garfield, himself a Civil War veteran, of the importance of the organization.
Clara’s Dansville friends and neighbors established the first local society of the American Red Cross on August 22, 1881. Fifty-seven members signed the charter.
At the age of 60 years Clara Barton became the first president of the American Red Cross, a position she held for 23 years. That was a remarkable feat for a woman in the 1880s.
Don’t forget to come in and check out a book on women in history and take part in our Grandma Moses raffle.[/private]