Clara Barton

Clarissa Harlowe Barton ( December 25, 1821 - April 12, 1912) was a pioneer American teacher, nurse, and humanitarian. She has been described as having a "strong and independent spirit" and is best remembered for organizing the American Red Cross.


Youth, Education, Family Nursing

Clarissa Harlowe Barton was born on Christmas day, 1821, in Oxford, Massachusetts, to Stephen and Sarah Barton. She was the youngest of five children. Barton's father and mother were abolitionists. Clara's father was a farmer and horse breeder, while her mother Sarah managed the household. The two later helped found the first Universalist Church in Oxford.

As a child, Clara was shy. She had two brothers, Stephen and David, and two sisters, Dorothy/Dolly and Sally, who were at least ten years older than she. Young Clara was educated at home and extremely bright. It is said that her siblings were kept busy answering her many questions, and each taught her complementary skills, her older sisters being teachers. Her brothers were happy to teach her how to ride horses and do other things that, at the time, were thought appropriate only for men.

When Clara was eleven, her brother David became her first patient after he fell from a rafter in their unfinished barn. Clara stayed by his side for two years and learned to administer all his medicines, including the "great, loathsome crawling leeches".

As she continued to develop an interest in nursing, Clara may have drawn inspiration from stories of her great-aunt, Martha Ballard, who served the town of Hallowell (later Augusta), Maine, as a midwife for over three decades. Ballard helped deliver nearly one thousand infants between 1777 and 1812, and in many cases administered medical care in much the same way as a formally trained doctor of her era.

On his death bed, Clara's father gave her advice that she would later recall:

"As a patriot, he had me serve my country with all I had, even with my life if need be; as the daughter of an accepted Mason, he had me seek and comfort the afflicted everywhere, and as a Christian he charged me to honor God and love mankind."

In April 1862, after the First Battle of Bull Run, Barton established an agency to obtain and distribute supplies to wounded soldiers. She was given a pass by General William Hammond to ride in army ambulances to provide comfort to the soldiers and nurse them back to health and lobbied the U.S. Army bureaucracy, at first without success, to bring her own medical supplies to the battlefields. Finally, in July 1862, she obtained permission to travel behind the lines, eventually reaching some of the grimmest battlefields of the war and serving during the sieges of Petersburg, Virginia and Richmond, Virginia. In 1864 she was appointed by Union general Benjamin Butler as the "lady in charge" of the hospitals at the front of the Army of the James.

In 1865, President Abraham Lincoln placed Barton in charge of the search for the missing men of the Union army. While engaged in this work she traced the fate of 30,000 men. When the war ended, she was sent to

Andersonville, Georgia, to set up and mark the graves of Union soldiers. Her work in Andersonville is displayed in the book, Numbering All the Bones, by Ann Rinaldi. This experience launched her on a nationwide campaign to identify all soldiers missing during the Civil War. She published lists of names in newspapers and exchanged letters with soldiers' families.

Barton then achieved widespread recognition by delivering lectures around the country about her war experiences. She met Susan B. Anthony and began a long association with the suffrage movement. She also became acquainted with Frederick Douglass and became an activist for black civil rights, or an abolitionist.

Barton Sees the International Committee of the Red Cross in Action

The years of toil during the Civil War and her dedicated work searching for missing soldiers debilitated Barton's health. In 1869, her doctors recommended a restful trip to Europe. In 1870, while she was overseas, she became involved with the

International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and its humanitarian work during the Franco-Prussian War. Created in 1864, the ICRC had been chartered to provide humane services to all victims of war under a flag of neutrality.

Organizing the American Red Cross

When Clara Barton returned to the United States, she inaugurated a movement to gain recognition for the International Committee of the Red Cross by the United States government. When she began work on this project in 1873, most Americans thought the U.S. would never again face a calamity like the Civil War, but Barton finally succeeded during the administration of President

James Garfield, using the argument that the new American Red Cross could respond to crises other than war. As Barton expanded the original concept of the Red Cross to include assisting in any great national disaster, this service brought the United States the "Good Samaritan of Nations" label.

Barton naturally became President of the American branch of the society, which was founded on

May 21, 1881. John D. Rockefeller donated funds to create a national headquarters in Washington, DC, located one block from the White House.

Barton at first dedicated the

American Red Cross to performing disaster relief, such as after the 1893 Sea Islands Hurricane. This changed with the advent of the Spanish-American War during which it aided refugees and prisoners of war. Barton herself worked in hospitals in Cuba in 1898 at the age of seventy-seven. As criticism arose of her management of the American Red Cross, plus her advancing age, Barton resigned as president in 1904, at the age of 83.

Religious Beliefs

Various authorities have called Barton a “Deist-Unitarian.” However, her actual beliefs varied throughout her life along a spectrum between freethought and deism. In a 1905 letter to her friend, Norman Thrasher, she called herself a “Universalist.”

Harriet Tubman

Harriet Tubman is perhaps the most well-known of all the Underground Railroad's "conductors." During a ten-year span she made 19 trips into the South and escorted over 300 slaves to freedom. And, as she once proudly pointed out to Frederick Douglass, in all of her journeys she "never lost a single passenger."

Tubman was born a slave in Maryland's Dorchester County around 1820. At age five or six, she began to work as a house servant. Seven years later she was sent to work in the fields. While she was still in her early teens, she suffered an injury that would follow her for the rest of her life. Always ready to stand up for someone else, Tubman blocked a doorway to protect another field hand from an angry overseer. The overseer picked up and threw a two-pound weight at the field hand. It fell short, striking Tubman on the head. She never fully recovered from the blow, which subjected her to spells in which she would fall into a deep sleep.

Around 1844 she married a free black man named John Tubman and took his last name. (She was born Araminta Ross; she later changed her first name to Harriet, after her mother.) In 1849, in fear that she, along with the other slaves on the plantation, was to be sold, Tubman resolved to run away. She set out one night on foot. With some assistance from a friendly white woman, Tubman was on her way. She followed the North Star by night, making her way to Pennsylvania and soon after to Philadelphia, where she found work and saved her money. The following year she returned to Maryland and escorted her sister and she sister's two children to freedom. She made the dangerous trip to the SOuth soon after to resuce her brother and two other men. On her third return, she went after her husband, only to find he had taken another wife. Undeterred, she found other slaves seeking freedom and escorted them to the North.

Tubman returned to the South again and again. She devvised clever techniques that helped make her "forays" successful, including using the master's horse and buggy for the first leg of the journey; leaving on a Saturday night, since runaway notices couldn't be placed in newspapers until Monday morning; turning about and heading south if she encountered possible slave hunters; and carrying a drug to use on a baby if its crying might put the fugitives in danger. Tubman even carried a gun which she used to threaten the fugitives if they became too tired or decided to turn back, telling them, "You'll be free or die."

By 1856, Tubman's capture would have brought a $40,000 reward from the South. On one occasion, she overheard some men reading her wanted poster, which stated that she was illiterate. She promptly pulled out a book and feigned reading it. The ploy was enough to fool the men.

Tubman had made the perilous trip to slave country 19 times by 1860, including one especially challenging journey in which she rescued her 70-year-old parents. Of the famed heroine, who became known as "Moses," Frederick Douglass said, "Excepting John Brown -- of sacred memory -- I know of no one who has willingly encountered more perils and hardships to serve our enslaved people than [Harriet Tubman]."And John Brown, who conferred with "General Tubman" about his plans to raid Harpers Ferry, once said that she was "one of the bravest persons on this continent."

Becoming friends with the leading abolitionists of the day, Tubman took part in antislavery meetings. On the way to such a meeting in Boston in 1860, in an incident in Troy, New York, she helped a fugitive slave who had been captured.

During the Civil War Harriet Tubman worked for the Union as a cook, a nurse, and even a spy. After the war she settled in Auburn, New York, where she would spend the rest of her long life. She died in 1913.

Sojourner Truth (Isabella Baumfree)

NAME: Isabella Baumfree (Sojourner Truth)

BIRTHDATE: 1797

BIRTHPLACE: Ulster County, New York

FAMILY BACKGROUND: Sojourner Truth was born in 1797 on the Colonel Johannes Hardenbergh estate in Swartekill, in Ulster County, a Dutch settlement in upstate New York. Her given name was Isabella Baumfree (also spelled Bomefree). She was one of 13 children born to Elizabeth and James Baumfree, also slaves on the Hardenbergh plantation. She spoke only Dutch until she was sold from her family around the age of nine. Because of the cruel treatment she suffered at the hands of a later master, she learned to speak English quickly, but had a Dutch accent for the rest of her life.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS: She was first sold around age 9 when her second master (Charles Hardenbergh) died in 1808. She was sold to John Neely, along with a herd of sheep, for $100. Neely's wife and family only spoke English and beat Isabella fiercely for the frequent miscommunications. She later said that Neely once whipped her with "a bundle of rods, prepared in the embers, and bound together with cords." It was during this time that she began to find refuge in religion -- beginning the habit of praying aloud when scared or hurt. When her father once came to visit, she pleaded with him to help her. Soon after, Martinus Schryver purchased her for $105. He owned a tavern and, although the atmosphere was crude and morally questionable, it was a safer haven for Isabella.

But a year and a half later, in 1810, she was sold again to John Dumont of New Paltz, New York. Isabella suffered many hardships at the hands of Mrs. Dumont, whom Isabella later described as cruel and harsh. Although she did not explain the reasons for this treatment in her later biography narrative, historians have surmised that the unspeakable things might have been sexual abuse or harassment (see the biography on Harriet Jacobs, the only former slave to write about such), or simply the daily humiliations that slaves endured.

Sometime around 1815, she fell in love with a fellow slave named Robert, who was owned by a man named Catlin or Catton. Robert's owner forbade the relationship because he did not want his slave having children with a slave he did not own (and therefore would not own the new 'property'). One night Robert visited Isabella, but was followed by his owner and son, who beat him savagely ("bruising and mangling his head and face"), bound him and dragged him away. Robert never returned. Isabella had a daughter shortly thereafter, named Diana. In 1817, forced to submit to the will of her owner Dumont, Isabella married an older slave named Thomas. They had four children: Peter (1822), James (who died young), Elizabeth (1825), and Sophia (1826).

The state of New York began in 1799 to legislate the gradual abolition of slaves, which was to happen July 4, 1827. Dumont had promised Isabella freedom a year before the state emancipation, "if she would do well and be faithful." However, he reneged on his promise, claiming a hand injury had made her less productive. She was infuriated, having understood fairness and duty as a hallmark of the master-slave relationship. She continued working until she felt she had done enough to satisfy her sense of obligation to him -- spinning 100 pounds of wool -- then escaped before dawn with her infant daughter, Sophia. She later said:

"I did not run off, for I thought that wicked, but I walked off, believing that to be all right."

Isabella wandered, not sure where she was going, and prayed for direction. She arrived at the home of Isaac and Maria Van Wagenen (Wagener?). Soon after, Dumont arrived, insisting she come back and threatening to take her baby when she refused. Isaac offered to buy her services for the remainder of the year (until the state's emancipation took effect), which Dumont accepted for $20. Isaac and Maria insisted Isabella not call them "master" and "mistress," but rather by their given names.

Isabella immediately set to work retrieving her young son Peter. He had recently been leased by Dumont to another slaveholder, who then illegally sold Peter to an owner in Alabama. Peter was five years old. First she appealed to the Dumonts, then the other slaveholder, to no avail. A friend directed her to activist Quakers, who helped her make an official complaint in court. After months of legal proceedings, Peter returned to her, scarred and abused.

During her time with the Van Wagenens, Isabella had a life-changing religious experience -- becoming "overwhelmed with the greatness of the Divine presence" and inspired to preach. She began devotedly attending the local Methodist church and, in 1829, left Ulster County with a white evangelical teacher named Miss Gear. She quickly became known as a remarkable preacher whose influence "was miraculous." She soon met Elijah Pierson, a religious reformer who advocated strict adherence to Old Testament laws for salvation. His house was sometimes called the "Kingdom," where he led a small group of followers. Isabella became the group's housekeeper. Elijah treated her as a spiritual equal and encouraged her to preach also. Soon after, Robert Matthias arrived, who apparently took over as the group's leader, with the activities becoming increasingly bizarre. In 1834, Pierson died with only the group's members attending. His family called the coroner and the group disbanded. The Folger family, whose house the group had moved into, accused Robert and Isabella of stealing their money and poisoning Elijah. They were eventually acquitted and Robert traveled west.

Isabella settled in New York City, but she had lost what savings and possessions she had had. She resolved to leave and make her way as a traveling preacher. On June 1, 1843, she changed her name to Sojourner Truth and told friends, "The Spirit calls me [East], and I must go." She wandered in relative obscurity, depending on the kindness of strangers. In 1844, still liking the utopian cooperative ideal, she joined the Northampton Association of Education and Industry in Massachusetts. This group of 210 members lived on 500 acres of farmland, raising livestock, running grist and saw mills, and operating a silk factory. Unlike the Kingdom, the Association was founded by abolitionists to promote cooperative and productive labor. They were strongly anti-slavery, religiously tolerant, women's rights supporters, and pacifist in principles. While there, she met and worked with abolitionists such as William Lloyd Garrison, Frederick Douglass, and David Ruggles. Unfortunately, the community's silk-making was not profitable enough to support itself and it disbanded in 1846 amid debt.

Sojourner went to live with one of the Association's founders, George Benson, who had established a cotton mill. Shortly thereafter, she began dictating her memoirs to Olive Gilbert, another Association member. The Narrative of Sojourner Truth: A Northern Slave was published privately by William Lloyd Garrison in 1850. It gave her an income and increased her speaking engagements, where she sold copies of the book. She spoke about anti-slavery and women's rights, often giving personal testimony about her experiences as a slave. That same year, 1850, Benson's cotton mill failed and he left Northampton. Sojourner bought a home there for $300. In 1854, at the Ohio Woman's Rights Covention in Akron, Ohio, she gave her most famous speech -- with the legendary phrase, "Ain't I a Woman?" :

"That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud puddles, or gives me any best place, and ain't I a woman? ... I have plowed, and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me -- and ain't I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man (when I could get it), and bear the lash as well -- and ain't I a woman? I have borne thirteen children and seen most all sold off to slavery and when I cried out with my mother's grief, none but Jesus heard me -- and ain't I woman?"

Sojourner later became involved with the popular Spiritualism religious movement of the time, through a group called the Progressive Friends, an offshoot of the Quakers. The group believed in abolition, women's rights, non-violence, and communicating with spirits. In 1857, she sold her home in Northampton and bought one in Harmonia, Michigan (just west of Battle Creek), to live with this community. In 1858, at a meeting in Silver Lake, Indiana, someone in the audience accused her of being a man (she was very tall, towering around six feet) so she opened her blouse to reveal her breasts.

During the Civil War, she spoke on the Union's behalf, as well as for enlisting black troops for the cause and freeing slaves. Her grandson James Caldwell enlisted in the 54th Regiment, Massachusetts. In 1864, she worked among freed slaves at a government refugee camp on an island in Virginia and was employed by the National Freedman's Relief Association in Washington, D.C. She also met President Abraham Lincoln in October. (A famous painting, and subsequent photographs of it, depict President Lincoln showing Sojourner the 'Lincoln Bible,' given to him by the black people of Baltimore, Maryland.) In 1863, Harriet Beecher Stowe's article "The Libyan Sibyl" appeared in the Atlantic Monthly; a romanticized description of Sojourner. (The previous year, William Story's statue of the same title, inspired by the article, won an award at the London World Exhibition.) After the Civil War ended, she continued working to help the newly freed slaves through the Freedman's Relief Association, then the Freedman's Hospital in Washington. In 1867, she moved from Harmonia to Battle Creek, converting William Merritt's "barn" into a house, for which he gave her the deed four years later.
In 1870, she began campaigning for the federal government to provide former slaves with land in the "new West." She pursued this for seven years, with little success. In 1874, after touring with her grandson Sammy Banks, he fell ill and she developed ulcers on her leg. Sammy died after an operation. She was successfully treated by Dr. Orville Guiteau, veterinarian, and headed off on speaking tours again, but had to return home due to illness once more. She did continue touring as much as she could, still campaigning for free land for former slaves. In 1879, Sojourner was delighted as many freed slaves began migrating west and north on their own, many settling in Kansas. She spent a year there helping refugees and speaking in white and black churches trying to gain support for the "Exodusters" as they tried to build new lives for themselves. This was to be her last mission.

Sojourner made a few appearances around Michigan, speaking about temperance and against capital punishment. In July of 1883, with ulcers on her legs, she sought treatment through Dr. John Harvey Kellogg at his famous Battle Creek Sanitarium. It is said he grafted some of his own skin onto her leg. Sojourner returned home with her daughters Diana and Elizabeth, their husbands and children, and died there on November 26, 1883, at 86 years old. She was buried in Oak Hill Cemetery next to her grandson. In 1890, Frances Titus, who published the third edition of Sojourner's Narrative in 1875 and became Sojourner's traveling companion after Sammy died, collected money and erected a monument on the gravesite, inadvertently inscribing "aged about 105 years." She then commissioned artist Frank Courter to paint the meeting of Sojourner and President Lincoln.

Sojourner Truth has been posthumously honored in many ways over the years:

A memorial stone in the Stone History Tower in Monument Park, downtown Battle Creek (1935);
A new grave marker, by the Sojourner Truth Memorial Association (1946);
A historical marker commemorating members of her family buried with her in the cemetery (1961);
A portionof Michigan state highway M-66 designated the Sojourner Truth Memorial Highway (1976);
Induction into the national Woman's Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls, New York (1981);
Induction into the Michigan Woman's Hall of Fame in Lansing (1983);
A commemorative postage stamp (1986);
A Michigan Milestone Marker by the State Bar of Michigan for her contribution (three lawsuits she won) to the legal system (1987);
A marker erected by the Battle Creek Club of the National Association of Negro Business and Professional Women's Clubs (also 1987);
A Mars probe named for her (1997);
A community-wide, year-long celebration of the 200th anniversary of her birth in Battle Creek in 1997, plus a larger-than-life statue of her by artist Tina Allen; and
the First Black Woman Honored with a Bust in the U.S. Capitol (October, 2008)

DATE OF DEATH: November 26, 1883

Virginia Avenel Henderson

An American nurse, researcher, theorist, and author, Virginia Henderson graduated from the Army School of Nursing, Washington, D.C. in 1921. She is an expert in nursing theory and graduated from Teachers College, Columbia University, with an M.A. degree in nursing education. Henderson is famous for defining nursing as a responsibility to aid people, whether sick or not, and help them towards better health and recover under any circumstances. The International Council of Nurses honored her with the first Christianne Reimann Prize in June 1985.

Sophie Mannerheim

Sophie Mannerheim was a nurse known as a pioneer of modernizing the profession in Finland. She was trained in nursing at the Nightingale School at St. Thomas Hospital in London. Subsequently, she was appointed as head nurse of Helsinki Surgical Hospital and later elected President of the Finnish Nurses' Association, a position she held for 24 years. Baroness Sophie Mannerheim was founder of the Children's Hospital in Helsinki as well as the Mannerheim League for Children's Welfare.

Elizabeth Grace Neill

Journalist, Social Reformer and Nurse, Grace Neill was driven by the desire to create change. Her brilliant career established the first Nurses' Registration Act in the world in 1901. Her life was devoted to social reform in the welfare of the poor and the suffrage of women. Her work began the course to a more responsible society.

Hazel W. Johnson-Brown

A retired former head of the United States Army Nurse Corps, Johnson-Brown was the first African-American woman to achieve the rank of Brigadier General in the United States Army. She was the 16th Chief of the Army Nurse Corps, an organization to which she dedicated 26 years of her life. She also served as Director of the Walter Reed Army Institute of Nursing.

Florence Guinness Blake

A distinguished pediatric nurse, Florence Guinness Blake is perhaps best known for her devotion to advanced education in pediatric nursing. Notably she taught pediatric nursing at several universities, and established the graduate program in advanced nursing care of children at the University of Chicago in 1946.

Edith Cavell

An English Nurse, Edith Cavell was the head of a nursing school and Red Cross Hospital during the German Occupation of Belgium during World War I. After aiding the escape of over 200 allied soldiers from the occupied territory, she was subsequently arrested and executed, an event which increased public sentiment against German aggression.

Mary Eliza Mahoney

The first African-American registered nurse, Mahoney graduated from the New England Hospital for Women and Children Training School for Nurses in 1879, and went on to have an illustrious career as a nurse.

Walt Whitman

Whitman is one of the most celebrated American poets of all time, penning such classics as "Leaves of Grass." But did you know that he served as a volunteer nurse in Washington, D.C. during the Civil War? He used the experience to write a collection of poems, "Drumtaps".

Mary Todd Lincoln

Better known as Abraham Lincoln's wife, Mary Todd Lincoln proved her critics wrong (as a Southerner, her loyalty to the Unionist cause was suspected) by putting in almost impossible hours frequenting hospitals, cleaning wounds and consoling and feeding those soldiers suffering unbearable pain.

Margaret Sanger

Born in 1879, Margaret Sanger was a nurse with a much different story. Initially a nurse for the underprivileged in New York's Lower East Side, Sanger began to realize the dramatic effects of unplanned pregnancies in these destitute conditions. She left her nursing work in order to promote the use of birth control and give women everywhere the ability to make their own reproductive decisions.

Though battled from the beginning, her work finally paid off with he formation of the World Population Conference in 1927 in which the effects of overpopulating were discussed with experts from around the globe. Sanger would later form the Planned Parenthood Federation in 1942, which still stands today to educate women about their reproductive health and choices for family planning.

Helen Fairchild

One of the lesser known figures in nursing history is Helen Fairchild. As a nurse in World War I she was determined to make a difference to the injured. She entered the battlefield in 1917, but unfortunately, her story does not end as well as it began.

As one of the sixty-four nurses from Pennsylvania Hospital Unit Ten, she volunteered to be in the American Expeditionary Force to help soldiers who had been wounded. She spent much of her time in a Casualty Clearing Station in Ypres-Passchendaele, and was one of the nurses expected to cover an area comparable to the base hospital's two thousand beds, a difficult challenge at best.

Letters she wrote tell of having to stand in mud to treat patients and that the pace was frenetic. Base hospitals could offer a certain amount of backup and rest time, while the clearing stations were expected to treat patients quickly, then send them to a main hospital, or, if possible, back to the field. Fourteen hour days were often the norm.

While the cause of her death is undetermined, it appears it may have been caused by either the chloroform that was used in surgery or possibly from a mustard gas bombing.

Phillipa Flowerday (1846-???)

In 1878 Phillipa Flowerday, aged 32, became the first industrial nurse. She was employed by J & J Coleman, Norwich (The famous mustard makers) to care for the health of the employees.

Phillipa Flowerday trained at the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital for a year before taking up this post. Wages were 26 shillings a week. Her work included helping a doctor each morning, and taking supplies from the works kitchen to the sick at home--about 45 visits a week. She assisted the Coleman's Sick Society, administering a 'clothing club' and in 1888 she married the head gardener to Coleman's. At that time she was replaced by Sister Quarry.

Phillipa Flowerday's work set the model for Coleman and other companies in the care of their employees.

Ethel Gordon Manson (Mrs. Bedford Fenwick)

Ethel Gordon Manson was Britain's first state-registered nurse. She was Matron to Barts School of Nursing from 1881 until 1887 and significantly extended the training period for nurses.

As Mrs. Bedford Fenwick, after her marriage, she became famous for her campaigning got the registration of nurses, achieving this aim by the Nurses Registration Act of 1919, and being appointed state registered nurse Number 1.

She is regarded as a great founder of professional nursing who spoke of some needs and developments half a century ahead of her time.

Aunt Lizzie Aiken

She was a famous nurse from Peoria, Illinois. A young widow in 1861, she showed up at the headquarters of the Sixth Illinois Calvary, also known and "The Governor Yates Legion". She reported to the head surgeon, Major Niglos, to offer her assistance taking care of the wounded, building morale and doing the hard jobs that even then defined nursing. She also did missionary work, read the Bible to the soldiers, and wrote or read letter for them. Originally she worked without pay, and without a military rank as a volunteer. In 1862 she entered military service at the rate of $12.00 per month, when it was paid. Because of her kindness, the soldiers called her "Aunt Lizzie".

Aunt Lizzie was asked to go to Cairo, but ignoring her own safety she went to Shawneetown, Illinois. In the severe winter of a861-1862, along with one other woman, she took care of twenty to eighty patients each day, each nurse working two six hour shifts daily. In January 1862 both General Ulysses S. Grant and General William T. Sherman visited her to congratulate her for saving the lives of four hundred men.

Aunt Lizzie's birth name was Eliza N. Atherton, and she was born March 24, 1817 in Auburn, New York. In 1837, when she was twenty years old, she married Cyrus Aiken of Vermont. They honeymooned in Boston, then, traveling by stage and flat boat, went to Chicago in the hope of settling on the Rock River at Grand DeTour, Illinois. In her early years in Illinois she lost her three sons and a sister to cholera and had her husband incapacitated by the disease, eventually causing the loss of their home. At the start of the Civil War she nursed and performed missionary duties among the soldiers in Peoria.

She moved with the regiment to Paducah, Kentucky at St. Mark's Hospital with "Mother Sturgis", the wife of another officer. Finally, when the Sixth Illinois Calvary went further south into Confederate territory, Lizzie and Mother Sturgis were left to do general nursing work for Union Soldiers at Ovington Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, and were no longer assigned to just one Illinois regiment. Before the war the Ovington had be the finest hotel in Memphis, but was a hospital run by six Roman Catholic Sisters of the Holy Cross and six Protestant nurses. Aunt Lizzie was in charge of Ward A, with one hundred sick and wounded men. Both armies lost more men to disease and delayed treatment of wounds than to gunfire. She received a note one day that six hundred sick and wounded had arrived at Jefferson Hospital, one of which was her brother Bertrand. She rushed to find him, but could not recognize him, even after he saw her and exclaimed how much she looked like their mother. She took her brother to an other brother in St. Louis, who then took him home to Hoyleton, Illinois.

In February 1864 fifteen thousand Calvary soldiers from the north left Memphis to a march on Mississippi, led by the Sixth Illinois. Hundreds of soldiers came by the hospital to see her and ask her to stay in Memphis so if they were wounded she could care for them. By this time Lizzie's own health was declining and she was sent to another hospital.

In June 1865 after the end of the Civil War, Mother Sturgis helped Lizzie get back to Peoria. Later in the year Lizzie went to Chicago to stay with an friend and recuperate. Since she still needed to support herself she applied for several jobs, including one with a newspaper. For about a year she worked for a refuge for men set up by the YMCA. While one editor turned her down for a job he referred her to the wife of a Baptist pastor who steered Lizzie back to missionary work. Baptist churches were very active in Chicago in the late 1800s and Lizzie took on the job of raising money and setting up a board for the University of Chicago in 1892.

Lizzie became a missionary at the Second Baptist Church of Chicago in 1867 and made as many as 12,000 visits to the ill in 12 years. She remained with the Second Baptist Church until her death 38 years later on January 16, 1906 at the age of 88. Her career in Chicago was almost as well known as her work during the Civil War.

There were many other tributes to Lizzie's life and work from the press in 1906, including this one from The Christian Herald:

"There died recently, in the City of Chicago, a woman whose career was so remarkable for its heroic self sacrifice and dauntless courage, that she could be ranked as high as the bravest soldier who does battle for his country. Her name was, Mrs. Eliza A. Aiken, but perhaps this would have an unfamiliar sound to the grizzled veterans; but say 'Aunt Lizzie' the angel of the hospitals of Memphis and Paducah, and they would raise their hands to the salute, out of respect and love to America's Florence Nightingale."

The following are the rules Aunt Lizzie drew up for herself at the beginning of her work:

"I am resolved that, I will never, either in the morning or evening, proceed to any work, until I have first retired, at least for a few moments, to a private place and implored God for His assistance and blessings."

"I will neither do, nor undertake anything which I would abstain from doing if Jesus Christ were standing visibly at my side; nor anything of which I think it is possible that I shall repent in the uncertain hour of my death."

"I will, with God's help, accustom myself to do everything without exception, in the name of Jesus, and his Disciple, to sigh unto God continually, keeping myself in a constant disposition for prayer."

"Wherever I go, I will first pray to God that I may commit no sin there, but may cause some good."

"I will every evening, examine my conduct by these rules."

"Oh, God, thou seest what I have written. May I be able to read these, my resolutions, every morning with sincerity and every evening with joy."

This is National Nurses Week, which ends on May 12, the birthday of Florence Nightingale. Below is a history of Florence Nightingale, followed by the Practial Nurse Pledge and the Nightingale Pledge, which is recited by Registered Nurses when they graduate. Florence Nightingale was actually only in nursing for two years, but those two years made her famous. There is hope for all of us!!

Florence Nightingale

Florence Nightingale was a legend in her lifetime but the Crimean War years which made her famous were just two out of a life of ninety years.

Early Years Florence Nightingale was born in Italy on 12 May 1820 and was named Florence after the city where she was born. Her parents, William Edward and Frances Nightingale were a wealthy couple, who had toured Europe for two years on their honeymoon. During their travels their first daughter, Parthenope, was born in Naples (Parthenope being the Greek name for the ancient city), followed one year later by Florence. On returning to England the Nightingales divided their time between two homes. In the summer months they lived at Lea Hurst in Derbyshire, moving to Embley in Hampshire for the winter. Lea Hurst is now a retirement home and Embley is now a school.Call From God Florence and Parthenope were taught at home by their Cambridge University educated father. Florence was an academic child, while her sister excelled at painting and needlework. Florence grew up to be a lively and attractive young woman, admired in the family's social circle and she was expected to make a good marriage, but Florence had other concerns. In 1837, whilst in the gardens at Embley, Florence had what she described as her 'calling'. Florence heard the voice of God calling her to do his work, but at this time she had no idea what that work would be.

The years of struggle and the visit to Kaiserswerth Florence developed an interest in the social questions of the day, made visits to the homes of the sick in the local villages and began to investigate hospitals and nursing. Her parents refused to allow her to become a nurse as in the mid-nineteenth century it was not considered a suitable profession for a well educated woman. While the family conflicts over Florence's future remained unresolved it was decided that Florence would tour Europe with some family friends, Charles and Selina Bracebridge. The three travelled to Italy, Egypt and Greece, returning in July 1850 through Germany where they visited Pastor Theodor Fliedner's hospital and school for deaconesses at Kaiserswerth, near Dusseldorf. The following year Florence Nightingale returned to Kaiserswerth and undertook three months nursing training, which enabled her to take a vacancy as Superintendent of the Establishment for Gentlewomen during illness at No. 1 Harley Street, London in 1853. The Crimean War In March 1854 Britain, France and Turkey declared war on Russia. The allies defeated the Russians at the battle of the Alma in September but reports in The Times criticised the British medical facilities for the wounded. In response, Sidney Herbert, the Minister at War, who knew Florence Nightingale socially and through her work at Harley Street, appointed her to oversee the introduction of female nurses into the military hospitals in Turkey. On 4 November 1854, Florence Nightingale arrived at the Barrack Hospital in Scutari, a suburb on the Asian side of Constantinople, with the party of 38 nurses. Initially the doctors did not want the nurses there and did not ask for their help, but within ten days fresh casualties arrived from the battle of Inkermann and the nurses were fully stretched.

The 'Lady-in-Chief', as Florence was called, wrote home on behalf of the soldiers. She acted as a banker, sending the men's wages home to their families, and introduced reading rooms to the hospital. In return she gained the undying respect of the British soldiers. The introduction of female nurses to the military hospitals was an outstanding success, and to show the nation's gratitude for Florence Nightingale's hard work a public subscription was organised in November 1855. The money collected was to enable Florence Nightingale to continue her reform of nursing in the civil hospitals of Britain.When Florence Nightingale returned from the Crimean War in August 1856, four months after the peace treaty was signed, she hid herself away from the public's attention. In November 1856 Miss Nightingale took a hotel room in London which became the centre for the campaign for a Royal Commission to investigate the health of the British Army. When Sidney Herbert was appointed chairman, she continued as a driving force behind the scenes.

For her contribution to Army statistics and comparative hospital statistics in 1860 Florence Nightingale became the first woman to be elected a fellow of the Statistical Society. In 1865 she settled at 10 South Street, Mayfair, in the West End of London and apart from occasional visits to Embley, Lea Hurst and to her sister at Claydon House she lived there until her death.

Nightingale Training School for Nurses Florence Nightingale's greatest achievement was to raise nursing to the level of a respectable profession for women. In 1860, with the public subscriptions of the Nightingale Fund, she established the Nightingale Training School for nurses at St Thomas' Hospital. Mrs Sarah Wardroper, Matron at St Thomas', became the head of the new school. The probationer nurses received a year's training which included some lectures but was mainly practical ward work under the supervision of the ward sister. "Miss Nightingale", as she was always called by the nurses, scrutinised the probationers' ward diaries and reports. From 1872 Florence Nightingale devoted closer attention to the organisation of the School and almost annually for the next thirty years she wrote an open letter to the nurses and probationers giving advice and encouragement. On completion of training Florence Nightingale gave the nurses books and invited them to tea. Once trained the nurses were sent to staff hospitals in Britain and abroad and to established nursing training schools on the Nightingale model. In 1860 her best known work, Notes on Nursing, was published. It laid down the principles of nursing: careful observation and sensitivity to the patient's needs. Notes on Nursing has been translated into eleven foreign languages and is still in print today. Public Health Florence Nightingale's writings on hospital planning and organisation had a profound effect in England and across the world. Miss Nightingale was the principal advocate of the 'pavilion' plan for hospitals in Britain. Like her friend, the public health reformer Edwin Chadwick, Florence Nightingale believed that infection arose spontaneously in dirty and poorly ventilated places. This mistaken belief nevertheless led to improvements in hygiene and healthier living and working environments. Florence Nightingale also advised and supported William Rathbone in the development of district nursing in Liverpool and many Nightingale trained nurses became pioneers in this field.

Old Age Although Florence Nightingale was bedridden for many years, she campaigned tirelessly to improve health standards, publishing 200 books, reports and pamphlets. In recognition of her hard work Queen Victoria awarded Miss Nightingale the Royal Red Cross in 1883. In her old age she received many honours, including the Order of Merit (1907), becoming the first woman to receive it. Florence Nightingale died at home at the age of 90 on 13 August 1910 and, according to her wishes, she was buried at St Margaret's, East Wellow, near her parent's home, Embley Park in Hampshire. Florence Nightingale's farsighted reforms have influenced the nature of modern health care and her writings continue to be a resource for nurses, health managers and planners.

The Practical Nurse’s Pledge

Before God and those assembled here, I solemnly pledge:

To adhere to the code of ethics of the nursing profession.

To cooperate faithfully with the other members of the nursing team and to carry out faithfully and to the best of my abilities the instructions of the physician or the nurse who may be assigned to supervise my work.

I will not do anything evil or malicious and I will not knowingly give any harmful drug or assist in malpractice.

I will not reveal any confidential information that may come to my knowledge in the course of my work.

And I pledge myself to do all in my power to raise the standards and prestige of practical nursing.

May my life be devoted to service, and to the high ideals of the nursing profession.

The Florence Nightingale Pledge

I solemnly pledge myself before God and in the presence of this assembly, to pass my life in purity and to practice my profession faithfully. I will abstain from whatever is deleterious and mischievous, and will not take or knowingly administer any harmful drug. I will do all in my power to maintain and elevate the standard of my profession, and will hold in confidence all personal matters committed to my keeping and all family affairs coming to my knowledge in the practice of my calling. With loyalty will I endeavor to aid the physician in his work, and devote myself to the welfare of those committed to my care.

This modified Hippocratic Oath was arranged by Mrs. Lystra E. Gretter and a Committee for the Farrand Training School for Nurses, Detroit. It was called the Florence Nightingale Pledge as a token of esteem for the founder of modern nursing.

For My Parents

May 14th would have been my mother's 93rd birthday and May 21st is my father's 94th birthday. My mother passed away several years ago, but my father lives in St. Joseph in the Pines Assisted Living Facility in Southern Pines, North Carolina. He is very hard of hearing, but otherwise does fairly well for someone his age. He still does everything for himself, and while he may forget some things, at 94 he is entitled to. My parents had three children, there are five grandchildren, and nine great grandchildren. My mother was not fortunate enough to know any of her great grandchildren, but I know she would have loved each one of them in the way only she could that made everyone feel they were the most special. My mother would also be so touched that Clara and Jonathan have the names they do. My mother's parents were John and Clara, and while I know my granddaughter Clara is not named after my grandmother and Jonathan is actually named after both of HIS grandfathers, my mother would be so pleased. I am glad my father has been able to meet and hold Clara and Jonathan. My father is also very special and while he may not be very extroverted he was and is a good father. At the end of this blog is a slide show of pictures of my parents at various ages--more of my father than my mother. The pictures also include their children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. I know my mother would be so proud of her family, and I know my father is always happy to see any of us when we visit. My husband and I will be going to see my father in a couple weeks to wish him Happy Birthday in person. In the mean time this is for my parents. Happy birthday Mom and Dad.

Happy Birthday Bobby and Pat!!

These picutres were taken at the celebration of my father's 90th birthday. They were taken at an Inn in Southern Pines, North Carolina. My father now lives in an assisted living facility there. The left picture shows Pat Small, Bob Small, Jeremy Small and Stephanie Small. Below is Pat and Francis Small.

Above is Pat Small, Bob Small and his wife, Gay Small.

The left picture shows Pat Small, his wife, Stephanie Small and Bob Small. Above is a pictue of the two people all these pictures are dedicated to, my brothers, Patrick Francis Small and Robert Daniel Small. Happy Birthday to both of you, and may you have many, many more.

This is a picture of Anna Small, Bob Small and Regina Small Shinners. Anna is Bob's daughter, and Regina is my father's youngest sister. This picture was taken at the Small Family Reunion held in Baltimore, Maryland in September 2000.

The picture on the left is Pat. This was also taken in Alabama. The picture above is Pat and his son, Jason Small. Jason was in the Marine Corps, and this picture was taken in Jacksonville, Florida on Jason's wedding day.

This is a picture of me, my father, Francis Small, my brother Pat Small and my brother Bob Small. This was taken at our aunt's home in Gulf Shores, Alabama. My parents had moved to Alabama after my father retired. We were all in Alabama to celebrate my father's 80th birthday.

Gay and Bob Small and Their Children Jeremy and Anna

This is a picture of my brother Bob, my mother, Bernadine Small, my father, Francis Small, my nephew, Jeremy Small and my neice Anna Small. Since it looks like it is Spring, I would guess this was also taken at Easter.

These pictures were taken one Easter. This was our house in Green Haven, Maryland. On the left is a picture of Bob and Pat and on the right is Bob, our father, Francis Small, and Pat.

This is Bob, me and Pat in our grandmother's back yard in Baltimore, Maryland. When we were little we lived four doors down from our grandmother.

Bob Small on the left, Pat Small on the right. These pictures are obviously School Pictures.

Pat Small

This is my brother Pat. The horse he is riding was made by our grandfather.

My brother Pat celebrated his 62nd birthday on March 13th, and my brother Bob will celebrate his 64th birthday on May 12th. Unfortunately we are not as close as some siblings. By the time I was in high school both of them were in college, so for several years I was like an only child. Pat lives in Marina del Rey, California and Bob lives in Atlanta, Georgia. We don't get to see each other very often, so I thought I would post these pictures to tell them both Happy Birthday and let them know I am thinking of them. The picture on the left is my father, my brother Bob and my mother. On the right is my brother Bob.

Famous Quotes By Famous People

Recently a very good friend of mine--one that I have known for many years--sent me an e-mail of famous quotes by famous people. It was a three minute video produced by "Simple Truths". I was very impressed by the video and many of the quotes were extremely touching and applied to so many things in our daily lives. I wanted to share these quotes with as many people as I could, but I am aware that many times when we forward e-mails from one person to everyone in our address book they get deleted or ignored. I don't know that more people will see these quotes by posting them here on my blog--I really don't know that very many people make it a point to read my blog very often-- but at least they will be out there for anyone who happens on my blog to see. I am sure the majority of people seeing them will recognize all the famous people whose quotes are here, and I hope everyone will take time to read them and reflect on what meaning they may have in your life. I found some of these to be very powerful quotes, some more than others. Read and enjoy them and leave any comments you feel are appropriate. I hope you are able to apply them to your own life.

"Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts."

Winston Churchill

1871-1965

"If you can dream it you can do it."

Walt Disney

1901-1966

"Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character."

Albert Einstein

1876-1955

"A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both."

Dwight D. Eisenhower

1890-1969

"Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again more intelligently."

Henry Ford

1863-1947

"An investment in knowledge pays the best interest."

Benjamin Franklin

1706-1790

"We must become the change we want to see in the world."

Mahatma Gandhi

1869-1948

"The boisterious sea of liberty is never without a wave."

Thomas Jefferson

1743-1826

"The best and most beautiful things in life cannot be seen, not touched, but are felt in the heart."

Helen Keller

1880-1968

"Liberty without learning is always in peril; learning without liberty is always in vain."

John F. Kennedy

1917-1963

"Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy to a friend."

Martin Luther King, Jr.

1929-1968

"The best thing about the future is that it comes only one day at a time."

Abraham Lincoln

1809-1865

"The quality of a person's life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellance, regardless of their chosen field of endeavor."

Vince Lombardi

1913-1970

"A good head and a good heart are always a formidable combination."

Nelson Mandela

1918-

"In this life we cannot always do great things. But we can do small things with great love."

Mother Teresa

1910-1997

"If a man loses his heart, what else is there?"

George S. Patton

1885-1945

"The worst prison would be a closed heart."

Pope John Paul II

1920-2005

"Recession is when a neighbor loses his job. Depression is when you lose yours."

Ronald Reagan

1911-2004

"No one can make you feel inferior without your consent."

Eleanor Roosevelt

1884-1962

"To reach a port, we must sail--sail, not tie at anchor--sail, not drift."

Franklin Delano Roosevelt

1882-1945

"Do what you can, with what you have, where you are."

Theodore Roosevelt

1858-1915

"Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful."

Albert Schweitzer

1875-1965