Michigan Forest Fires (1881)
As a result of a major forest fire in Michigan during the summer of 1881, 125 people died and thousands were left homeless. Clara Barton responded by sending Dr. Julian B. Hubbell to Michigan as the first American Red Cross field representative. As part of the relief effort, supplies and other assistance were contributed to the victims of the fire by the first local Red Cross society in Dansville, New York, and its counterparts in Rochester and Syracuse, New York.

Ohio and Mississippi River Floods (1884)
The steamboat Josh V. Throop, the first inland vessel in America to fly the American Red Cross flag, carried emergency supplies to the victims of the Ohio and Mississippi River Floods. On March 22, 1884, the Daily Inter Ocean reported that "boxes, bales, barrels, and bundles of clothing came in the name of the Red Cross from all over the Union." The report continued, stating, "piles of blankets and quilts, stacks of boots and shoes, coats, vests, and trowsers [sic], without end; underwear and hosiery, hats, caps, and bonnets, and every article of wearing apparel which poverty could suggest and generosity supply, could be found in the Throop's cargo." As a result of the cry for help, the first-known Red Cross youth activity was organized in Pennsylvania.

Johnstown Flood (1889)
When the South Fork Dam at Johnstown, Pennsylvania, burst on May 31, 1889, over 2,000 died. Clara Barton and 50 relief workers provided help to the flood victims. The Johnstown Flood was a major test for the American Red Cross, challenging its ability to deal with a large-scale, man-made catastrophe.

The Red Cross immediately set up feeding stations and provided unprecedented medical care through the nurses of the Philadelphia Red Cross Society. For the first time, the Red Cross set up mass shelters to house and feed the victims of a disaster. These buildings, called "Red Cross Hotels," were run like hotels, but at no cost to the tenants.

Russian Famine (1892)
Although Clara Barton did not travel to Russia to supervise the relief operation for the Russian famine in 1892, she sent her first American Red Cross field worker, Dr. Julian B. Hubbell. Under Hubbell, the Red Cross oversaw the distribution of tons of wheat, corn, rye, and medical supplies in the first major relief effort by the American Red Cross overseas. In a letter to a contributor, Barton wrote that she had been told by the Russian consul general that "corn and breadstuffs will render far more efficient aid than their value sent in money," and that all cash donations would be converted into foodstuffs. The state of Iowa sent 250 boxcars full of corn, but Barton lamented that the "splendid donation of corn will scarcely make more than one supper for this famishing nation." Nevertheless, Barton was decorated by the Russian Czar as a result of having saved one million people from starvation.

Sea Islands, South Carolina (1893)
On August 27, 1893, a hurricane struck the South Carolina Islands, devastating plantations, farms, and homes. The governor of South Carolina called Clara Barton and the American Red Cross, which fed more than 30,000 homeless and starving people, provided medical help, and implemented a planting rehabilitation project that continued for several months. Many of the volunteers were African Americans who had fought in the Civil War and remembered Clara Barton from her days of nursing. These individuals helped rehabilitate black victims of the storm using basic essentials, tools, seeds, and housing materials. They transformed the economy of the islands, rendering it a superior and more self-sufficient community than it had been prior to the storm.

Persecution in Armenia (1896)
During its second overseas relief mission, the American Red Cross provided food and medical relief to thousands of survivors of massacres in Armenian areas of the Turkish empire that grew out of hostilities between Moslems and Christians. The difficult mission marked the first death of a Red Cross worker in the field, a victim of bandits. With the blessings of the Turkish government, the Red Cross sent four expeditions into the interior of the country to assist the victims.

Spanish-American War (1898)
Early in the war, the U.S. Surgeon General permitted only men to work with battlefield casualties; however, public opinion and pressure from his superiors to take better care of the wounded changed his mind. To recruit nurses, Clara Barton and others traveled to various hospitals to find recruits who were screened and contracted to the army, working for approximately $30.00 per month. Conditions at medical camps in Florida and Cuba were deplorable, and yellow fever and typhoid were rampant.

One American Red Cross nurse waiting in Tampa, Florida, for a ship to take her to Cuba reported that "desperately sick fever patients, United States soldiers on United States soil, were lying on cots between heavy military blankets, no sheets, no pillows, no towels, no mosquito netting although they were being tormented beyond words by mosquitoes, flies, and sand fleas." U.S. Army medical officers stated that their operation would have broken down completely without the aid of the Red Cross. President McKinley expressed America's gratitude to the Red Cross for the feeding of U.S. troops and providing medical aid to the wounded.

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