Photo: civilwaracademy.com
Clara Barton, Civil War nurse and founder of the America Red Cross spoke at the present Hill United Presbyterian Church on Brady and Second Streets when she came here to help with the great Typhoid Epidemic in 1903/1904. 127 people died in Butler and there were some 1,500 cases. About 1 out 13 people in Butler/Lyndora had typhoid. This was to be Barton's last mission for the Red Cross. It was her visit which started the Red Cross here in Butler. Clara Barton nursed at the Battle of Antietam.
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Barton's last field operation as President of the American Red Cross was the relief effort for the victims of the Galveston hurricane of September 1900. effort. As criticism arose of her management of the American Red Cross, plus her advancing age, Barton resigned as president in 1904, at the age of 83.
She nursed at the battles of Antietam and First and Second Bull Run, Chantilly, Cedar Mt. South Mt. Fredericksburg, and Fort Wagner, just to name a few.
Thanks for an interesting piece of info about Butler's history.
She did not speak at the Hill church. She spoke at what is now called St. Andrews which in 1903 was called the United Pres. Church. She spoke about her life on the battlefield and her relief efforts during the Gavleston Hurricane and the Johnston Flood. She was only in Butler for two days and stayed at the Lowry Hotel (first three story brick building in Butler) on the corner of Main and Jefferson (now the vacant PNC Bank)
She pinned three Red Cross badges on three Butler Women--Mrs. Jennie Graham, Mrs. William Kennedy, and Miss Mabel Graham before she left. These women went on to start the Butler Red Cross that is still in existence today.
It was the Hill Church it was what is now know as St. Andrews.
It must have been Saint Andrews. Hill United Presbyterian was founded by the members of Saint Andrews Presbyterian Church, as an outreach, in 1911. Hill is celebrating it's centennial anniversary this year, 2011. Hill was originally called Second Presbyterian Church.
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