Page:Woman of the Century.djvu/65

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BARTLETT.
BARTON.

and theologian, Dr. James Martineau. in his Scottish highland home. When looking into different lines of philanthropic work while she was abroad. Miss Hartlett went about with the slum officers of the Salvation Army. Miss Hartlett is a fluent orator. Her conversion to the cause of woman's political enfranchisement did not come until after some years of public work, but she had only to be convinced in order to become an ardent supporter of the political, as well as the social, educational and legal advancement of women. She preached the senium before the National Woman Suffrage Convention in Albaugh's Opera House, in Washington, in March, 1891.


BARTLETT, Mrs. Maud Whitehead, educator, born in Gillespie, Ill., 10th September, 1865. Her maiden name was Whitehead, and herself and one brother were the only children in her family. With her parents she removed to Ohio in 1879, and to Kansas five years later. She studied music under Prof. Cutler, of Pana, Ill., and later under MAUD WHITEHEAD BARTLETT. Prof. Fuehring. of Shelbyville, Ill. Fascinated with music, she left school before she was graduated that she might, by teaching, be able to finish her musical education. After teaching both day school and music, she finally adopted the former as a profession, and for nine years, the last three of which were spent in the El Dorado, Kans., schools, she devoted herself to the duties of the schoolroom, meanwhile steadily pursuing her musical studies. A member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, her life for years has been one constant sacrifice to the happiness of those about her. On 10th September, 1891, she w as married to Harry Bartlett, of Denver, Col., which place has since been her home.


BARTON, Miss Clara, philanthropist, was born in North Oxford, Worcester county, Mass., about 1830. Her father was a soldier with General Anthony Wayne. She received a good education in the public schools of her native town. When she was sixteen years old, she became a teacher. After teaching for some years she took a course of study in Clinton, N. V., and then went to Trenton, N. J., where she engaged in teaching. She taught for a time in Bordentown, N. J., and in that place she established a free school, which, in spite of all opposition, grew to large proportions. Overwork there in 1853 caused her health to fail, and she went to Washington, D. C, to visit relatives and rest. There was at that time much confusion in the Patent Office, growing out of the treachery of clerks, who had lietraved secrets of inventors applying for patents, and Miss Barton was recommended to the Commissioner of Patents as a person qualified to take charge of affairs. She was employed, and the male clerks tried to make her position uncomfortable, employing direct personal insult at first, and slander at last. Instead of driving her out of the Patent Office, her abusers themselves were discharged. She remained in the Patent Office three years, doing much to bring order out of chaos. Under the Buchanan administration she was removed on account of her " Black Republicanism," but she was recalled by the same administration. When the Civil War broke out, she offered to serve in her department without pay, and resigned her position to find some other way in which to serve her country. She was among the spectators at the railroad station in Washington when the Massachusetts regiment arrived there from Baltimore, where the first blood had been shed. She nursed the forty wounded men who were the victims of the Baltimore mob. On that day she identified herself with army work, and she shared the risks and sufferings of the soldiers of the Union army to the close of the great struggle. Visits to the battle-fields revealed to her the great need of provision for the nursing and feeding of the wounded soldiers. She made an attempt to organize the work of relief, but women held back, and Miss Barton herself was not allowed at first to go to the battle-fields. She gathered stores of food and supplies, and finally she prevailed upon Assistant Quartermaster-Genera] Rucker to furnish transportation facilities, and she secured permission to go wherever there was a call for her services. She at once went to the front, and her amazing work under the most distressful conditions, her unwearying devotion, and her countless services to the Soldiers earned for her the name of "Angel of the Battlefield" During the last year of the war she was called to Massachusetts by family bereavements, and while there she was appointed by President Lincoln to attend to the correspondence of the relatives of missing prisoners after the exchanges. She went to Annapolis, Md., at once, to begin the work. Inquiries by the thousand poured in, and she established a Bureau of Records of missing men of the Union army, employing several assistants. Her records are now of great value, as they were compiled from prison and hospital rolls and burial lists. At Andersonville she was able to identify all but four-hundred of the thirteen-thousand graves of buried soldiers. In her work she used her own money freely, and Congress voted to reimburse her, but she refused to take money as pay for her services. She managed the bureau for four years, and her connection with the great conflict has given her a permanent and conspicuous place in the history of the country. In 1869 she went to Europe to rest and recover her wasted energies. In Geneva she was visited by the leading members of the International Committee of Relief of Geneva for the care of the wounded in war, who presented to her the treaty, signed by all the civilized nations excepting the United States,