biography of clarissa barton
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Clarissa Harlowe Barton is renowned as the founder of the American Red Cross. Born on December 25, 1821, in North Oxford, Massachusetts, she was the youngest of five children. Her father, Captain Stephen Barton, was a farmer, horse breeder, and a respected member of the community. Her mother, Sarah managed the household. Clarissa's siblings had much the responsibility of her vast and diverse education.
At age 17, Clarissa became a teacher in Massachusetts. During the next 6 years of her life, she taught in several schools before establishing her own school in North Oxford. At the age of 29, after teaching for more than 10 years, Barton yearned for a change, and has a result entered the Liberal Institute in Clinton, New York, an advanced school for female teachers. In 1852, after a year in Clinton, she established in Bordentown, New Jersey, a free school that soon became so large that the townsmen would no longer allow a woman to run it. Rather than subordinate herself to a male principal, she resigned...