Black-and-white head-and-shoulders studio photograph of an older woman with dark hair pulled back, facing the camera, wearing a dark high-collared dress.

PUBLIC DOMAIN source

Clara Barton

1821–1912

role:American Civil War nurse and founder of the American Red Cross; sought treatment at James Caleb Jackson's Our Home on the Hillside water cure, Dansville, NY, and later kept a Dansville residence

connection:In 1873, exhausted and in poor health, Barton was encouraged by friends to seek treatment at Our Home on the Hillside under Jackson's care (Dansville Public Library, "Clara Barton in Dansville"). She went on to maintain a residence in Dansville for roughly a decade, 1876 to 1886, and the first local chapter of the American Red Cross was chartered there on 22 August 1881 with the support of "members of the Jackson family, proprietors of the sanatorium" (Dansville Public Library). By 1890, the institution's own promotional booklet -- by then renamed the Jackson Sanatorium -- carried a testimonial attributed to Barton.

confirmed:yes

APPEARS IN CASES

jackson-hillside-water-cure-1858-1890 patient

EXTERNAL REFERENCES

NOTES

Clara Barton (25 December 1821 to 12 April 1912) was an American Civil War nurse remembered as the “Angel of the Battlefield” and, from 1881, the founder and first president of the American Red Cross. Worn down by decades of relief work, she arrived at James Caleb Jackson’s Our Home on the Hillside water cure in Dansville, New York, in 1873 on the recommendation of friends, and remained closely tied to the town for the following decade, eventually chartering the Red Cross’s first local chapter there in 1881 with support from the Jackson family who ran the sanatorium. By 1890, the institution’s own promotional literature was using her name and an attributed testimonial to market itself to prospective patients.