Clara Barton, the founder of the American Red Cross, fought the 1903 typhoid epidemic in Butler. Before she left, Barton appointed four women to a committee that would eventually become the Butler chapter of the organization.

One of Red Cross founder Clara Barton's last missions was fighting a 1903 typhoid epidemic in Butler.

Before she left the city, Barton, then 83, appointed four women to a committee that became the Butler chapter of the organization.

Today, the West Central chapter of the Red Cross, which includes Butler, Beaver, Lawrence and Mercer counties, is looking for the descendants of those four founders to be featured in the chapter's May 14 Volunteer Recognition Dinner in Grove City.

Cindy Skiles, administrative coordinator with the West Central Red Cross, said, “The chapter is looking for any of the original descendants of the four original founders of the organization in Butler County following the 1903-04 visit of famed nursing pioneer Clara Barton, who came to the area to aid in the typhoid epidemic that killed 127 people before it ran its course.”

Barton designated four women: Mrs. William Campbell, Mrs. William Kennedy and Jennie Graham and her daughter, Mabel Graham, to a relief committee that evolved into the local Red Cross chapter.

Skiles is asking the descendants of these four women to contact the Red Cross by e-mail at cindy.skiles@redcross.org.

“If they can tell me a story that their great-great-granny was there, I'm not going to interrogate them,” said Skiles. “We hope one of the relatives could come up and say a few words.”

Skiles said the West Central Chapter has nearly 120 volunteers.

She said, “They are everything. They work on the blood drives, disaster education, outreach educations, service to the armed forces, health and safety training and fundraising.”

“It's hard to get volunteers. I think it's because they come aboard and then you have to wait (for an emergency),” Skiles said.

“But we are trying to get some new programs started,” she said.

New programs, she said, include the pillowcase project, which teaches third- through fifth-graders in a classroom setting how to handle an emergency such as a fire.

“We teamed up with Disney. It is a wonderful, fantastic program, so we are always looking for volunteers for that,” Skiles said.And, she said, 100 volunteers will be needed for the May 30 Home Fire Preparedness Campaign.Kevin Brown, Red Cross regional director of communications, said, “This is a national initiative of the American Red Cross.”“The primary goal of the program is to reduce deaths and injuries in home fires by 25 percent in the next five years,” he said.He said the volunteers will be distributing plastic “door hangers” containing fire safety tips and an application for a free smoke alarm.“We partner with the local fire department,” Brown said. “There's an application for a free smoke alarm. They fill it out and it goes to the local fire station. We send the alarms to the station and the firemen install them.”Brown said the times the volunteers will be visiting neighborhoods and which neighborhoods will be visited have yet to be determined.