Moran portrays Barton at Woman’s Forum

Deborah Moran is a retired drama teacher who has further honed her skills by injecting herself into several characters in the 1800s. One of those characters is Clara Barton and others are Ben Franklin, George Washington, Abigail Adams, Molly Goodnight and Dolley Madison. Additionally, Moran portrays a Buffalo Calf Road Woman, Mary Virginia Ellet Cabal, who was one of the four founders of the DAR.

Members of the Daughters of the American Revolution with the local unit of the Picketville ladies invited Clara Barton to speak and invited other local DAR groups to the Women’s Forum to hear her presentation. There also was a group of young ladies who are being home-schooled and they came in their Sunday best dresses for the presentation and the tea that followed.

Clara Barton was educated by her mother and many close by sent books for her to read and learn from in continual education. They would often find another box of books on the front porch for Clara. She also played with the boys with her two brothers and could and would do anything they could do until the day her younger brother fell from the top of the barn. He had a severe concussion and broken ribs and was in a coma for weeks. Her parents followed the doctor’s orders by using leeches to drain his blood. Clara was 11 at the time and asked to take over his care. She immediately stopped using the leeches. Clara turned him over more often and exercised his arms. Eventually, he recuperated and Clara was given credit for helping him recover so well.

By the age of 16, Clara was ready to try a new challenge. She took a test to become a teacher and passed it with flying colors. As a teacher, she had the choice of four uniform dresses with colors of grey, black, brown and Navy blue. She went to Canada to teach first and was not intimidated by the boys once she jacked up her dress to ride a horse. Next, she went to Georgia and then New Jersey in Bordertown, where she taught with a friend. They had 12 or 13 students in the morning and then flipped to take the other class in the afternoon. Their test scores were so improved that the members of the community decided to build a new school for $4,000.

For the full story, see the Wednesday, Feb. 19 edition of the Breckenridge American.