Clara Barton, known as the “Angel of the Battlefield” during the Civil War, was a nurse, teacher, and humanitarian, and today is honored as the “Founder of the American Red Cross.”

Much of the inspiration for her life of service came from her father, Captain Stephen Barton, a Master Mason, who impressed her with the tenets of Freemasonry.

Captain Barton, a native of Oxford, Massachusetts, enlisted at age 19 to fight in the Indian Wars in the west under General Anthony Wayne.  After his return to Oxford, he married, and later moved to the farm where Clara was born.  He was chosen as Captain of the militia and served as moderator of town meetings, selectman, and a member of the legislature.  

Two months after his marriage, he became a Mason in Olive Branch Lodge.  Brother Barton combined a military spirit, gentle disposition, and spirit of philanthropy — characteristics inherited by his daughter.

After his death, Clara said, “As the daughter of an accepted Mason, he bade me seek and comfort the afflicted everywhere.”  Before his death, he presented his daughter a gold Masonic emblem to wear in his memory for luck and protection.  Clara Barton wore that emblem throughout the Civil War.

Later in life, Clara became a member of the Order of Eastern Star, and was initiated by Rob Morris, the founder of the Order.

Just after her Eastern Star initiation, she said, “My father was a Mason; to him it was a religion, and for the love and honor I bear him, I am glad to be connected with anything like this.”

(Source: Emessay Notes, October 2013-Royal Arch Mason Magazine, Summer, 2013, from article by George L. Marshall, Jr.)