XCVII

I am so glad to see you; I was afraid you wouldn’t get here intime.Clara Barton.From “Notes” at Oxford, Massachusetts, Oct. 2, 1911.

Accompanying the letter under date of December 14, 1909, came data from Clara Barton to be used in her proposed biography, and which data the author had previously promised to make use of as soon as his private business would permit him to give the time necessary to do this literary work. Commenting on the author’s final acceptance of her commission, in her letter she said: “Your talent to writing a biography of me—of me! Your talent and time for such as this! ‘Why was this waste made’?” The object hoped for in her letter of September 21, 1911, wherein Clara Barton says “I must see you” and therein the “dispatch” referred to, was that she might consult the author on her biography and to make a final request that after her passing he would protect her good name which, continuously being assailed, she then thought to be in jeopardy.

Arriving at Oxford, Massachusetts, at the end of a special trip from California for the final consultation as to the facts and motives involved in her persecution,on October 3, 1911, in the sick room and at the time when she thought that she had but a few hours to live, the author made the promise. The further object of the visit at Oxford, on the part of the author, was to try to stimulate her health, through a possible sea voyage. That there had been in anticipation for several months previous such sea voyage was well known in her household, and is personally indicated by her in her Easter Greetings for 1911. In this letter she writes: “And we may expect you in the East!! That is more than Idaredhope. It would surely be a luxury to visit the oldoldcountries of the world. I should indeed be glad to see them with you.”

I may come to California this winter; will do so, if I am able.

Clara Barton.From “Notes” of a visit in the sick room atGlen Echo, Maryland, Oct. 20, 1911.

Clara Barton.

From “Notes” of a visit in the sick room at

Glen Echo, Maryland, Oct. 20, 1911.

A few days after the consultation at Oxford she rallied, and on a Pullman was taken to her Glen Echo home. Seriously ill and thinking this would be her last ride, she expressed the wish to have for the party of three, consisting of her physician, her nephew and herself, the Pullman exclusively. The cost for the use of the car would be three hundred dollars. This having been made known to her she protested the seeming extravagance whereupon a friend, after having been refused such tender by the Pullman office in New York, himself made the tender of the car, without cost to her. Characteristic of her, she declined to acceptthe courtesy, but said she would have accepted such courtesy from the Pullman Company. She accepted, instead, a drawing room—to save the proposed expense, even by another. Early on the way to Glen Echo, she is reported to have said to those accompanying her: If he were here now I would not leave the car until I shall have reached California, where I would make my home with my friend as long as I live, thereby accepting his invitation to become his guest permanently—in his home nearby and overlooking the Pacific ocean.

She stood the journey so well, says her physician, that again she said to us just before reaching Washington that she would be glad to remain on the train and continue on to California, emphasizing “That’s what I’d like to do.” The physician further comments: “Her faith in her friend’s loyalty would have been sufficient tonic to make the journey easy and a delight, and I feel sure now that had she taken the journey then, as she expressed the wish, the end of the journey would have found her in animproved condition, with constant-increasing physical strength.”

In the author’s diary for October 20, 1911, is found the following:

At ten A.M. visited Calumet Place. Mrs. John A. Logan and I then went to Glen Echo on the street car. Visited Miss Clara Barton, who was in a chair awaiting our presence. Spent an hour or so with her. She was in good spirits, happy and much improved in health. Mrs. Logan and she talked over personal matters. She received me most cordially, and said she was most happy to see me; also said she would like to go to California with me. Mrs. Logan, Dr. Hubbell, Stephen E. Barton and I had a talk in the room downstairs on matters of personal interest to Miss Barton, formulating a plan for her vindication.

FORECASTING THE BIOGRAPHY

In April, 1912, her physician, Dr. Julian B. Hubbell, wrote from Glen Echo that a few hours before her passing Clara Barton expressed the wish that, if not exclusively so, in any event the authormust beassociated with her biographer. The protection of her “good name” by her biographer was more to her than a recital of her deeds of valor. She had in mind in selecting her biographer not what fame thereby might come to him, not kinship nor the family name, not what profit there might be in her biography. She had in mind her own “good name,” and the cause such “good name” represents. These were to her vital; these to her were dearer than life itself. Respect for the wish of the dying, and the dead, is regarded sacred; such wish has been regarded sacred, and binding, throughout the centuries, alike by Christian and Pagan. To do violence to the sentiment and well known wish of Clara Barton, on the part of the author, similarly would do violence to the sentiment of the country which would protect her “good name,” a name historic and beloved by the people—violence to the sentiment pervading all humanity.

As the financial executor had possession of, and control of, the historic data prerequisite, for all practical purposes he could name the biographer of the nation’s heroine;—could dictate what data and sentiment must be, and must not be, included in the biography of his Aunt. As soon after her passing as it could be written and reach California there came from her nephew, Mr. Stephen E. Barton, of her nearest of kin and by her made the Executor of her Estate, the following letter:

ONE OF MY AUNT’S LAST REQUESTS

Boston, Mass.,April 20, 1912.Col. Charles Sumner Young,Los Angeles, Cal.My dear Col. Young:—

Boston, Mass.,April 20, 1912.

Boston, Mass.,

April 20, 1912.

Col. Charles Sumner Young,Los Angeles, Cal.

Col. Charles Sumner Young,

Los Angeles, Cal.

My dear Col. Young:—

When the death of our beloved occurred at Glen Echo on the morning of the 12th inst. Doctor Hubbell thought you were at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco and I immediately wired you there, but I was notified that you had left the city. I was exceedingly glad to receive your beautiful message of the 13th from Los Angeles.

I followed your wishes by placing some beautiful flowers in your name upon her bier at Oxford and I knew that the sympathy and tenderness of your great heart were with us that day. I am sending you Worcester newspapers, which will give an account of the last ceremonies, all of which were carried out just as she desired them, both at Glen Echo and Oxford....

I am sending you enclosed a copy of the tribute written by Mrs. Logan and read at the Glen Echo services by her daughter.

Has it not the ring of eloquence, of justice and of fearless friendship? I gave it to the Associated Press, but I believe it was used only in a garbled form. You are at liberty to use it in any form which you choose.

At this moment I have not time to say more, but I hope to hear from you and to see you again. There is much to do and to say in the future. I shall need the good advice and guidance of such friends as your good self and one of my Aunt’s last requests was that I invite you with a few other such friends to compose a committee to advise with me in the future.

Very truly yours,(Signed)Stephen E. Barton.

Very truly yours,

(Signed)Stephen E. Barton.

Concerning the biography of my Aunt, she desired that I call to my assistance several of her good friends, including your dear self.

Stephen E. Barton.

From a letter to the author, and dated November 18, 1912.

I judge from your letter that you may not be aware that a preliminary biography of my Aunt has been written by Reverend Percy H. Epler, of Worcester, and published by the Macmillans.

I have organized a literary committee composed of Reverend William E. Barton of Oak Park, Illinois, Reverend Percy H. Epler of Worcester, Massachusetts, Honorable Francis Atwater of New Haven, Connecticut, Dr. Julian B. Hubbell of Glen Echo, Maryland, and myself.

Stephen E. Barton.

From a letter to the author, and dated February 29, 1916.

Charles Sumner Young was authorized by Clara Barton to write the history of her life and so far as I know the only person so authorized.

Julian B. Hubbell.

Clara Barton’s General Field Agent for the twenty-three years she was President of the American Red Cross.

Glen Echo, Maryland,July 8, 1922.

Glen Echo, Maryland,

July 8, 1922.

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