Born on December 25, 1821 in Oxford , Mass. , the youngest of 5 children in a middle-class family, Barton was educated at home, and at 15 started teaching school. Her most notable antebellum achievement was the establishment of a free public school in Bordentown , N.J. Though she is remembered as the founder of the American Red Cross, her only prewar medical experience came when for 2 years she nursed an invalid brother. In 1861 Barton was living in Washington , D.C. , working at the U.S. Patent Office.