Clara Barton, founder of the American Red Cross, who was known as “The Angel of the Battlefield” due to her extraordinary work in providing medical supplies to wounded Civil War soldiers, has Framingham connections. 

As Massachusetts celebrates “Clara Barton Days” from December 25 – 31th, Framingham can claim Clara as a local heroine, even though she was born in Oxford, Mass.

Clara was the daughter of Samuel Barton and Hannah Clayes Barton who moved from Framingham to North Oxford.  Hannah was the daughter of Sarah Clayes, one of the lucky women who escaped execution during the Salem Witch Trials.  Sarah’s story has been dramatized in the film “Three Sovereigns for Sarah.” 

As a result of the witch hysteria and perhaps some undocumented help from Thomas Danforth, who was a judge in the witch trials and owned the land that they settled on, several families from Salem relocated to what became known as “Salem End” and then Salem End Road.  (The Clayes House stands in disrepair on Salem End Road in Framingham.)

As a result of Clara’s work to help Civil War soldiers, in 1883 she was invited by the Governor Butler of Massachusetts, a former Union Army General, to return to Massachusetts and head up the Massachusetts Reformatory Prison for Women (now MCI-Framingham), the nation’s first women’s prison.

She accepted a temporary assignment of six months and stayed for nine, making a very positive impact and proving that females could run the institution.

There is a Clara Barton Museum, located on Barton Road, off Rt 12, in N. Oxford.  She is also honored with a plaque next to the statue of the Civil War Nurse in the Nurses Hall at the Massachusetts State House.