Editor’s Note: This is the final post in a four-part history series that identifies all 51 signers of the American Association of the Red Cross constitution in 1881. Part 1  introduces the series and identifies signers 1-12; Part 2 identifies signers 13-26; and Part 3 identifies signers 27-38. Part 4 identifies the final 39-51 signers. The series is written by Bill Thawley and copy edited by Susan West. Included images are public domain unless otherwise noted.

American Association of the Red Cross constitution signers 39-51:

39. Olive Risley Seward
The adopted daughter of the statesman William H. Seward (of Alaska Purchase fame), Olive Risley Seward was an accomplished writer in her own right and cofounded the Literary Society of Washington. A statue honoring her, by the American sculptor John Cavanaugh, stands in D.C.’s Capitol Hill neighborhood. Her head is turned to the left as if gazing toward nearby Seward Square, named for her adoptive father.

40. Imogene Robinson Morrell
A celebrated artist, Morrell was an active member of the D.C. arts community and a founding member of the National Academy of Fine Arts, serving as its director for 10 years. In 1876, the Boston Journal said of her paintings, “They are the result of long years of study and labor… and show great genius, inspired by patriotic enthusiasm.” She painted a portrait of President Garfield, who was instrumental in the founding of the American Red Cross. In 1896, some 200 of her paintings were destroyed by a warehouse fire, leaving her destitute.

41. Richard Josiah Hinton
Hinton was a journalist, author, and abolitionist; he helped recruit African American troops for Civil War service and retired from the military as a colonel. Later he held many posts both here and abroad with federal agencies, including the U.S. Freedmen’s Bureau. Hinton’s legacy as an abolitionist endures: In 1900, he wrote, “I am glad also I was able…in a small way…to make the union secure and the whole of the state free from the curse of chattelism.”

42. Walter P. Phillips
The Massachusetts-born Walter Polk Phillips (1846–1920) left school at age 12 to work on a farm. Despite his lack of formal education, however, he became an expert telegrapher and thrived as a journalist for the Associated Press and other outlets, earning praise as one of the nation’s leading news gatherers. He also created the Phillips Code, which introduced the acronyms POTUS and SCOTUS. Later he headed up the United Press (now UPI) and served as Red Cross general secretary. Clara Barton was quite dependent on Phillips, as evidenced by their extensive correspondence before and after the society’s founding.

43. F.C. Phillips
A Massachusetts native, Francena Adelaide Capron Phillips (1847–1914) was the wife of Walter P. Phillips.

44. Albert C. Phillips
Born in 1871, Albert Capron Phillips eventually became a reporter for the New York Sun and New York Times. But in 1881 when the Red Cross constitution was presented, Albert was 10 years old. What the heck, he signed too.

45. Emily Thornton Charles
As a new widow at age 24 with two young children to support, Emily Thornton Charles knew she needed a career. So she began to write. Her first volume of poetry (published under the pseudonym Emily Hawthorne) was a literary and financial success, and she began a successful journalism career as a correspondent, reporter, and editor. She was named managing editor of the Washington World in 1881 and later founded the D.C. National Veteran. Charles was also a popular public speaker, addressing such large events as the National Women’s Suffrage Convention and the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition.

46. Lizzie B. Walling
Very few records exist for Elizabeth B. Walling. She was a magazine writer and lived for a while with her father, Henry F. Walling, a noted civil engineer and cartographer in Massachusetts. She is listed in the 1900 census as a resident of Washington, D.C. It’s possible she was related to Mary Cole Walling, and her association with Clara Barton is likely through her New England residency and her father’s government work.

47. Joseph E. Holmes
Joseph Ellicott Holmes (1805–1893) graduated from Howard University as a civil engineer. City directories of this period list him as a draftsman, inventor, and engineer, and he was one of the principal engineers of the Erie Canal. Clara Barton often would stay with “Papa and Mama Holmes” when she was in Washington, and the family (which included daughter and son-in-law Fidelia and Fenner Taylor) often traveled back and forth between Dansville, New York, and Washington. Prior to and after the formation of the Red Cross, Clara Barton communicated closely with Holmes and the Taylors—who, along with William Merritt Ferguson, were among her closest friends.

48. Mrs. Fidelia H. Taylor
The daughter of Joseph Holmes, Fidelia Holmes Taylor (1834–1889) was a member of Clara Barton’s inner circle, having spent time with her and the Holmes family in Europe in the 1870s. The Taylors were married in Massachusetts, lived in Ohio, and as of 1880 census resided with Joseph E. Holmes in Washington, D.C.

49. F.B. Taylor
Fenner Baldwin Taylor (1824–1894), a draftsman, was the husband of Fidelia Holmes Taylor and son-in-law of Joseph E. Holmes. All three are buried in Rock Creek Cemetery in Washington, D.C.

50. Mrs. Lillian L. Walker
There is scant information on the final two signers and their relationship with Clara Barton, so we’re left with educated guesses. The book Clara Barton and Dansville notes that Lillian Walker had a desire to work with the Red Cross. She may have had a relationship with Jessie Gould, daughter of William Merritt Ferguson. But there was also a Lillian L. Walker living in Boston in 1890. Possibly relevant is the fact that Stephen Emory Barton’s second wife was Elizabeth Harriet Walker; however, a genealogy search yielded nothing to show a relation.

51. A.M. Smith
For this final signer, the following two individuals might be possibilities. An Abraham Herr Smith served in Congress from March 4, 1873 to March 3, 1885; however, the signatures on file for the Red Cross constitution and Dickinson College, from where Abraham graduated, do not match. The second possibility is Ada Helen Smith, a member of the Dansville group in which Clara Barton was a member. (Both middle initials are H, which could have been mistaken for an M.)