December 25, 1821
Clarissa Harlowe Barton is born in North Oxford, Massachusetts, the youngest of five children of Stephen and Sarah Stone Barton.
1825 - 1836
Gains an education by attending local schools and home tutoring from older brothers and sisters.
1833 - 1835
Cares for brother David Barton, injured and bedridden following a fall from a barn roof.
1836
Noted phrenologist L. N. Fowler advises Clara Barton's parents to have her teach school.
May 1839
Passes examination and begins teaching career in district schools near Oxford, Massachusetts.
1845
Establishes a school for the children of her brothers mill workers.
April 19, 1846
Sister, Dorothea (Dolly) Barton, dies.
1850 - 1851
Spends a year furthering her own education at Clinton Liberal Institute, Oneida County, New York.
July 18, 1851
Mother, Sarah Barton, dies.
October 1851
Travels to Hightstown, New Jersey to visit school friend, Mary Norton, and resumes teaching school.
1852 - 1854
Establishes first free public school in Bordentown, New Jersey. Enrollment grows rapidly, a new building is built, and a male principal is hired. Miss Barton leaves Bordentown and the teaching profession.
1854 - 1855
Moves to Washington, D.C. and works as a recording clerk at the U. S. Patent Office for Commissioner of Patents Charles Mason. Her salary is equal to that of the men employed in her office, $1,400 a year.
1855-1857
The status of female government workers is uncertain. Secretary of the Interior Robert McClelland is opposed to women working in government offices. Miss Barton's position as a clerk is reduced to copyist. She is paid ten cents per each 100 words copied.
1857 - 1860
Miss Barton returns to Massachusetts and lives with relatives and friends when her position at the Patent Office is eliminated by the Buchanan Administration.
Fall 1860
Returns to former Patent Office position as a copyist with the election of President Abraham Lincoln.
Web Page designed by Volunteer Jade Curtis
Chronology authored by Staff and Volunteers
Clara Barton National Historic Site
United States Department of the Interior
National Park Service
url: www.nps.gov/clba/chron1.html
last modified 7/10/98