Among the Red Cross relief supplies given out was this chair awarded to a family burned out in the Michigan Forest Fire of 1881. Survivors of the Michigan Forest Fire of 1881 that left thousands homeless. A family fleeing from the advancing flames. Refugees at the Bad Axe Hotel, from a series of sketches by Charles Graham. Supplies at Cass City, from a series of sketches by Charles Graham.

Early Disaster Relief
Prior to the formation of the American Red Cross in 1881, the U.S. War Department was the primary responder to most of the nation's large-scale disasters. Typically, the Army Signal Corps issued warnings to the local population, the Army Corps of Engineers conducted rescues, and the Commissary General issued subsistence rations and clothing--all under orders from the Secretary of War. Congress usually appropriated funds for the War Department to carry out these relief programs, and while the payroll of the army staff involved in disaster relief work was not counted in the appropriation, it was often a sizable portion of the overall expense.

When the American Red Cross began to respond to disasters in the 1880s, it did so on a vastly smaller scale than the federal government. In its first decade, the organization wasn't able to generate nearly enough funds and supplies to meet all the needs of the thousands of people left homeless by disasters, nor did it have a large enough staff trained in disaster response and the type of social work required to help rebuild a devastated community. But in mid-September of 1881, the 5-month-old American Red Cross had its first opportunity to test its abilities in one of the nation's worst wildfires.

The Michigan Forest Fire of 1881
In the Lower Peninsula of the state of Michigan, a widespread drought had begun to dry out pastures, crops, wells and, eventually, forests. The area was rich in timber, and a great deal of it had been cleared for the homesteads of new settlers to the region. By mid-September, the small land-clearing fires of the settlers combined with high winds and dried-up refuse left by the local timber industry to form a wildfire that burned through more than a million acres in 24 hours.

What became known as the Michigan "Thumb Fire" (named after the shape of the Lower Peninsula) killed nearly 300 people (sources vary on this number) and caused $2.5 million in damages. The fire left thousands of rural survivors homeless and without crops, livestock or jobs.

Enter Clara Barton. Already famous for her Civil War relief work among soldiers, Barton saw this catastrophe as a chance to prove to the public and the government what an active Red Cross society in America could contribute. Although the Red Cross was initially conceived in Switzerland as an aid group for wounded and sick soldiers on the battlefield, Barton saw the society's peacetime potential as a major player in times of disaster. "Nothing could give our association more standing and popularity," she wrote to a colleague, "than to issue a call upon its local societies to aid the present emergency."

At the time of the fire, Barton was living in Dansville, New York, where she had already formed a local auxiliary of the American Red Cross. Soon after, Red Cross auxiliaries were established in nearby Rochester, Syracuse and Onondaga County. As soon as news of the Michigan fire reached Barton in New York, she had broadsides made and distributed asking for donations of clothing, food, household items and cash. The Dansville auxiliary was to be the Red Cross coordinator of relief donations for the survivors of the fire. The first shipment to Michigan was eight large crates from the newly-formed auxiliary in Dansville.

Barton never traveled to Michigan herself, instead dispatching two men to oversee the distribution of the relief goods and cash: Julian Hubbell, a young friend of Barton's who was already near the disaster as a medical student at the University of Michigan, and Major Mark Bunnell, son of the Dansville newspaper editor. The reports they sent back from the "burned district" confirmed that newspaper accounts and reports from officials had not exaggerated the scale of the tragedy. "Have seen much that I would not have credited had it been told me before visiting the place," Hubbell wrote to Barton.

In all, the fire burned 70 townships, destroyed 1,521 houses, and left 14,000 people in desperate need of help. The scale of the disaster was clearly beyond the fledgling organization's ability to assist the survivors alone. On the advice of Julian Hubbell, who would later serve as the organization's disaster field representative for more than 20 years, the American Red Cross channeled much of its contributions to the Port Huron Relief Committee. In fact, the local relief committees that had entered the field along with the Red Cross were soon in competition with one another for control of the relief program, to the point that the governor of Michigan was forced to appoint a special committee to administer the large amounts of relief coming in from across the country. The Red Cross contribution totaled approximately $80,000 in cash and supplies.

Despite some confusion and jealousies among the local relief groups, this first demonstration of Red Cross disaster relief proved its worth and helped convince President Chester Arthur and the U.S. Senate to officially recognize the American Red Cross by signing the Treaty of Geneva on March 16, 1882.

"In the early part of the fire campaign a large amount of money was acknowledged as coming from the Red Cross Society, a new organization in the country.... While the Red Cross Societies are especially intended to ameliorate the sufferings of war they are also intended to afford succor and assistance to sufferers in time of national or widespread calamities such as plagues, yellow fever, and, as in this instance to sufferers by devastating fires."

Excerpt from Port Huron Relief Committee, final report, 1881

Top of Page