Evansville’s Connection to Clara Barton

*Post written by James Wethington, library assistant of the University Archives and Special Collections.

The American National Red Cross For the relief of suffering by war, pestilence, famine, flood, fires, and other calamities of sufficient magnitude to be deemed national in extent. The Association and its Auxiliary Societies operate under the provisions of the Geneva treaty, promulgated at Geneva, Switzerland, in 1864, and signed since then by all the nations of the earth, including the United States, which gave in its adhesion through President Arthur, in March 1882. President of U.S. President of the Board of Consultation. Executive Officers Clara Burton, President Walter P. Phillips, General Secretary George Kennan, Treasurer Trustees Secretary of the Treasury Secretary of War Judge William Lawrence, Vice-President A.S. Solomons, Vice-President J.B. Hubbell, General Field Agent Beginning of the Letter Bedford, Indiana. April 6, 1890 Honorable N. M. Goodlett, Mayor of Evansville, Indiana, It gives me great pleasure to learn through tour communication of the 4th that your city, always among the foremost in good works, when help is needed, has again come to the front for the relief of its smaller neighbors, so suddenly and widely stricken down. In response to your thoughtful inquiries concerning such information as the representatives of the Red Cross were able to gather in their tour of inspection, I am most happy to transmit their statements to you. Through a volunteer committee of Henderson, they learned that in the district near Blackford, which they had visited, there were eight families desolated by the tornado and in urgent need of help. West Louisville was reported to have been severely damaged, many buildings, having been destroyed and some lives lost. This information was gained by actual residents who had come to make the situation

Part 1 of Correspondence from Clara Barton to Evansville Mayor, N. M. Goodlet (1890)

known and there was no reason to doubt its authenticity. No other point needing special assistance was found until reaching Metropolis. Here the damage was apparently done by an extremely high wind instead of an actual cyclone destroying several buildings on the river front, which, fortunately had been practically abandoned some time previous, which materially qualified the damage. The main damage was due to the uprooting of buildings and blowing down chimneys: Mr. Trousdale gave it as his opinion that the greater need exists in the country between Metropolis and Bay City – in the path of the storm – among the smaller isolated families remote from friends and help. Our representatives desire to suggest that Metropolis is a town of small means, containing very few people of accumulated wealth, and generally composed of persons owning little beyond the modest home in which

Part 2 of Correspondence from Clara Barton to Evansville Mayor, N. M. Goodlet (1890)

they live, and thus, far more capable of receiving harm than rendering assistance to others. There was reported considerable damage at Grand River, Kentucky, amounting to the destruction of ten or fifteen small houses. This point had been visited by Mr. Noble I. Dilday, assistant Editor “Paducah Standard” who fell that the suffered were in need of help, and also felt it to be the duty of Paducah to render such, and publicly expressed himself to that effect. An effort was being made at Henderson to assist the eight families referred to – a first effort had not met with success but another meeting was called, the results of which we have no knowledge. In the opinion of our representatives, Metropolis is the only point which should really fall to the care of Evansville or outside cities. They feel that Paducah should be equal to the necessities of Grand River and Henderson to the Blackford District and Owensboro to West Louisville although the two latter points (Owensboro and West Louisville) were not personally visited by them. Glad if there points can be of any service I remain esteemed sir. Very sincerely yours, Clara Barton

Part 3 of Correspondence from Clara Barton to Evansville Mayor, N. M. Goodlet (1890)

Born on Christmas Day in 1821, Barton was a trailblazer in American history. Some would equate Burton’s work to Florence Nightingale during the Crimean War years earlier. During the American Civil War, Barton gained the nickname of “the Angel of the Battlefield” by the soldiers. She did what only seemed natural to her by helping soldiers. After the war, Burton went to help in the Franco-Prussian War in 1870 and lobbied for the United States to sign the Geneva Convention in 1873. Those events led to the creation of the American Red Cross in 1881. At the age of seventy-seven, Barton served as a relief worker during the Spanish-American War in 1898; however, in 1904, she resigned from the Red Cross. Barton passed away on April 12, 1912 (The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica, 2011).

Barton wrote the letter in 1890 after a tornado outbreak occurred in the Midwest, causing 24 tornadoes and close to 150 people died. Burton thanks Evansville mayor N.M. Goodlett for their assistance and giving him a report of the damage in the Tri-State area.

These letters were donated by the Meyer-Schlamp Family and are view-able by request (MSS 157).

Reference

The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica. (2011, March 18). Clara Barton. Retrieved October 28, 2015, from https://www.britannica.com/biography/Clara-Barton

Evansville’s Connection to Clara Barton

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