E.T.C. Aldrich

E.T.C. Aldrich

The Historical Society Quarterly from Lake County, Ohio

E.T.C. Aldrich was James Garfield’s next-door neighbor. He kept a diary. “One—or when history was really in the making—two lines a day for forty years,” according to his granddaughter. He watched and sometimes assisted as Garfield improved his farm and home, and he carefully recorded the excitement of the 1880 presidential campaign next door to his home.

His diary for October of 1880 lists group after group visiting the Garfield farm: 867 Cleveland businessmen, 440 Indiana men, 1,267 soldiers, 570 ladies from Cleveland, 441 Germans, and many others. Evenings were busy with meetings in Garfield’s office. A parade was even held in the General’s meadow.

Some visitors felt free to take home "souvenirs" of their visit to the candidate's home. Aldrich was able to see the damage. Vegetables were stripped from their gardens, fruit pulled from the orchards, and someone even stole the front gate! The yard around the house and campaign office were so trampled that new sod had to be laid.

On the day before the election, “Went to Old Veterans about going to election.” Several of Garfield’s local supporters volunteered to bring older veterans to town hall on November 2, so that they could vote for their townsman. On election night, Aldrich was with other supporters in Garfield’s campaign office awaiting results, which he recorded in his diary, “Election. Garfield elected. Mentor Repub. 36, Dems, 99, G.B. [Green Back party] 10." On November 3, he recorded that a delegation of 700 from Oberlin was at the General’s. The next day Aldrich was at his neighbor's home to see the newly elected president, James A. Garfield.

Read more about ETC Aldrich here.