[Illustration: _Sarah Grimké_] [Illustration: _Angelina Grimké_] 1837 Martin Van Buren becomes President 1839 Clara Barton begins teaching school in North Oxford and continues teaching for the next 11 years; Mount Holyoke, first college for women, opens [Illustration: _Clara Barton as a schoolteacher_] 1841 William Henry Harrison becomes President, dies April 4 and is succeeded by John Tyler 1842 Use of anesthetics begins in U.S. 1844 First telegraphic message sent by S.F.B. Morse 1845 James K. Polk becomes President; Margaret Fuller publishes _Woman in the Nineteenth Century_; Frederick Douglass publishes _Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave_ 1846 Mexican War begins, ends in 1848 1847 American Medical Association is founded 1848 First Women’s Rights Convention is held in Seneca Falls, New York 1849 Zachary Taylor becomes President, dies July 9, 1850, and is succeeded by Millard Fillmore; Elizabeth Blackwell becomes first woman to receive M.D. degree 1850 Clara Barton plans to enter Clinton Liberal Institute, Clinton, New York; Harriet Tubman begins helping slaves escape via Underground Railway [Illustration: _Harriet Tubman_] 1851 Clara Barton’s mother dies 1852 Clara Barton starts free school at Bordentown, New Jersey; Harriet Beecher Stowe’s _Uncle Tom’s Cabin_ is published [Illustration: _Harriet Beecher Stowe_] 1853 Franklin Pierce becomes President; Singer sewing machine factory opens 1854 Clara Barton moves to Washington, D.C., and becomes clerk in Patent Office—at that time the _only_ female employed by U.S. Government 1857 Battle of Solferino is fought June 24; James Buchanan becomes President 1859 Edwin Drake drills first oil well 1860 U.S. population is 31,443,321 (includes 3,953,760 slaves and 448,800 free blacks) 1861 Clara Barton begins aid to Union soldiers; Abraham Lincoln becomes President, is assassinated April 15, 1865, and is succeeded by Andrew Johnson; American Civil War begins with firing on Fort Sumter, South Carolina, and ends 1865 at Appomattox Court House, Virginia [Illustration: _Union soldiers near Falmouth, Virginia_] [Illustration: _Abraham Lincoln_]