Grizzly Adams, Clara Barton

This posting is for my sister, Janet.

Do you remember "The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams", a 1972 novel, a 1974 film, and the NBC TV series? Do you know about the "real" Grizzly Adams?

Born in Medway, MA, Adams spent many years in the mountain ranges of the U.S. west (mainly CA) living around animals and sometimes capturing them for zoos. His famous companion was a bear named "Ben" (short for Benjamin Franklin), who died in a zoo that Adams opened in San Francisco in the late 1850s. Adams died while on tour with P.T. Barnum in 1860. He was buried in nearby Charlton, MA, his tombstone paid for by P.T. Barnum.

Also in nearby North Oxford is the Clara Barton Birthplace Museum, operated as part of the Barton Center for Diabetes Education, a humantarian project established in her honor to educate and support children with diabetes and their families.

Clara Barton was known as the "angel of the battlefield" during the Civil War, and is best remembered for organizing the American Red Cross, and serving as it's first President.