Editor’s Note: This is part one of a four-part history series that identifies all 51 signers of the American Association of the Red Cross constitution in 1881. The series is copy-edited by Susan West. Included images are public domain unless otherwise noted.

By Bill Thawley

What was the purpose of this oddly named group, and who were its members? On May 21, 1881, 51 “persons” signed the constitution of a new organization they called the American Association of the Red Cross. The group’s name came many years later from one of the signers, Emma DeGraw, and the story is told in the book Clara Barton, Humanitarian, by Cora Bacon-Foster.

These signers included journalists, authors, telegraphers, and government workers. There were Civil War heroes, physicians, clergy members, good friends of Barton, and a few from the U.S. Treasury. Most were from Massachusetts and Ohio. Some spoke up for the rights of women, Native Americans, and African Americans. All of these 51 were luminaries of their day, and yes, Clara Barton was one of them.

Research sources include ancestry.com, and Find a Grave, and Wikipedia; the contributions of Annie Werbitzky, historical programs and collections volunteer from Red Cross headquarters in Washington, D.C., and Susan Watson, archivist, are gratefully acknowledged. 

1. Clara Barton
Clarissa Harlowe Barton needs no introduction. After her return from Europe, Barton spent many years shuttling between Dansville, NY, and Washington D.C., as she built a team to form a Red Cross society in the United States. She consulted with U.S. presidents, Congress members, senators, journalists, and others as part of her tireless campaign to launch the organization. In 1933, Barton was included among the 12 great women leaders chosen by readers of Ladies’ Home Journal and the Christian Science Monitor. Her contemporaries on the list included Susan B. Anthony, Frances E. Willard, Julia Ward Howe, and Harriet Beecher Stowe.

2. Stephen Emory Barton
Stephen was the son of Clara’s brother David Barton, but he was more like a son to her than a nephew. A talented telegrapher, Stephen served tirelessly in relief service during the Spanish American War. In 1895 he became the second vice president of the American Red Cross and eventually served as its chairman of the board.

3. A.S. Solomons
A philanthropist, Adolphus Simeon Solomons was a cofounder of the Jewish Hospital in New York City, later known as Mount Sinai Hospital. Solomons moved to D.C. in 1859, where he established the publishing house Philip & Solomon; he became a charter member of the city’s Providence Hospital in 1861. Many of the organizational meetings for the Red Cross were held in his parlor. He was the first treasurer and a two-term vice president of the American Red Cross. In 1884, Solomons and Barton were appointed by President Chester Arthur to represent the U.S. at the International Congress of the Red Cross, in Geneva, where delegates from 37 nations elected him a vice president.

4. William Lawrence
This Ohio judge, lawyer, and politician helped create the U.S. Department of Justice and played a crucial role in getting the Geneva Convention ratified by the United States. In addition to serving in Congress, Lawrence was a valuable ally to Barton in getting the American Red Cross up and running. He was the organization’s first vice president and continued in that role for several years.

5. Abby Brown Upton
This signer was the wife of U.S. Representative Charles Horace Upton, who was later appointed consul to Switzerland in 1863 by President Lincoln. The couple lived in Geneva until his death in 1877. Her Massachusetts origins and familiarity with the Geneva Convention led to a strong interest in the Red Cross, which carried on to her family.

6. R.E. Throckmorton
Roberta Ellen Throckmorton was the daughter of Charles and Abby Upton. Her husband, Hugh William Throckmorton, was a farmer in Falls Church, Virginia, but they both hailed from Massachusetts. Hugh William is listed as an employee of the federal government and a clerk in the war department.

7. E.N. Throckmorton
Though the lettering is ambiguous, this is the signature of Ernest Upton Throckmorton, son of Roberta and Hugh William Throckmorton. He was born in Washington, D.C. and was about 20 years old in 1881 when the document was signed. He served as a U.S. Treasury clerk and later took on entrepreneurial endeavors as a cigar store owner and restaurateur in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

8. S.A. Martha Canfield
Sarah Ann Martha Canfield was the wife of Lt. Col. Herman Canfield Jr., who was killed early in the Civil War. Throughout the war she acted as minister, nurse, and mother to many of the soldiers of the 72nd Ohio Regiment. According to regiment captain Orin England, “She did more good than all of the chaplains in the army. If we had one in every brigade, yes, one in every division, how much good they could do!” After the war she assisted at a hospital founded by her sons. She served as a member of the first executive board of the American Red Cross.

9. John Hitz
Hitz succeeded his father as consul general to Switzerland and held that post until 1881. Clara Barton considered him a wise, trusted, and loyal adviser in the early days. He was helpful in getting the treaty of the Geneva Convention signed by the United States. During the 1884 Mississippi River floods, Hitz assisted with Barton’s relief effort on the riverboat Mattie Bell. In 1989, at the age of 70, he  became blind and taught himself how to read Braille.

10. George Bailey Loring
This Unitarian minister’s son was a schoolteacher, a Harvard-educated physician, and a Massachusetts legislator, among other titles. He served in the U.S. Congress from 1877 to 1881, after which he became U.S. Commissioner of Agriculture. He was a trustee of the American Red Cross along with Robert T. Lincoln, son of Abraham Lincoln. Loring’s wife, Mary Toppan Pickman, was also instrumental in the founding of the organization.

11. R.N. Tilton
Rufus Newell Tilton and his wife both resided in Washington, D.C. He worked for the U.S. Treasury. His wife, Lydia, was the secretary of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, as well as a poet, correspondent, and schoolteacher.

12. F.H. Truesdell
Frank Heath Truesdell was a private secretary for a U.S. Senator in 1880. He also worked for the Associated Press along with two other signers, Walter P. Phillips and George Kennan.