Garfield Telegraph June 2023

Mollie, right, wrote an article in "The Youth's Companion" honoring her father, James A. Garfield.

National Park Service

Mollie honors the memory of her famous father in magazine article

The origins of Father’s Day go back to 1910, though it did not become an “official” holiday until 1972. But well before either year, Mollie Garfield honored her father’s memory with an article in 1893, in a popular children’s magazine of that day, The Youth’s Companion.

“My father was not only our guide and counsellor, he was our comrade. He was interested in all we were thinking about and doing. He was the director of our work, the willing sharer of our play. He constantly endeavored to keep before our minds, by fitting illustrations, the advantages of accuracy and thoroughness in study and recreation …”

As she recalled her “Papa,” she alluded to her four brothers – Hal, Jimmie, Irv, and Abe. “None of us will ever forget the many rhymes and jingles, together with all the good and wise sayings he taught us between courses at the dinner table.

“As Father believed there was no place like a farm for children, it was our good fortune to have a generous taste of country life. For six or seven months of the year we lived out-of-doors; were initiated by him into all the mysteries and delights of farm life, and laid away a goodly store of health, strength, and vigor. The farm was Father’s haven of rest – the only place where he felt he could breathe freely.”

James Garfield assigned nicknames to all his children. At one time or another Harry was Halicarnassus, or Hal; Jimmie was “Jim,” “Bim,” and “Bimster;” Mollie was Whack (because she whacked her head when she ran into things); Irvin was “Old Dutch Brig” and “Clipper Ship”; and Abram was “Nabor.” Even Mrs. Garfield had a nickname: “Lady Kensington.”

In later years Mollie and her brothers gave their own children nicknames. James R.’s son Rudolph was known as “Bobs.” Irvin’s son Irvin McDowell, Junior, was known as “Mike.” Abram’s daughter Mary Louise was “Polly,” and Mollie’s son Rudolph was called “Lad.”

Papa's loving guidance and interest was never forgotten, and his endearing practice of assigning nicknames to those he loved carried on into the next generation of Garfields.

James A. Garfield was an observant recorder of the events and people of his community.

National Park Service

“It mangled him terribly…”

James A. Garfield was a lad of eighteen when he composed his diary for June 1850, nowhere near the fatherhood described in the story above. His brief comments present the thoughts and feelings, the actions and reactions of a young man immersed in study and consumed with the fervor of his recent religious conversion, an observant recorder of the events and people of his community.

Only three months before, Garfield had joined the Disciples of Christ. Now in June, he traveled in the company of other Disciples to Aurora, and then to Mentor, Ohio, for religious revivals.

“When we arrived at the place [Aurora], they were just raising the great tent. About 10 o’ clock the people convened under the broad spread canvas to celebrate the praise of the Lord in their annual festival.” That was on Saturday, June 1. The following Saturday found Garfield in Mentor. There, “we found the tent raised and the people collecting.”

Garfield documented a natural and human disaster that struck the area that month. On June 14, “it commenced raining … I think it rained the hardest I ever saw it.” The next day, “It rained most all night very hard… Arrived at home and heard that Sydney Smith was killed by lightning last evening while crossing the road. It mangled him terribly.”

He continued, “This has been a most destructive rain. Bowels’, Stoneman’s, and Willey’s dam have all gone and a great many mills. The water rose so that it came into Widow Smith’s house about one foot.”

Young James Garfield could have been writing, observing, and thinking in our own time. His June 1850 concerns remind us of our own, the place of religion in our communal and individual lives, the discomfort and destruction an unbalanced natural world can bring.

Neighbor recorded history as it happened

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. .

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 was 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 to vote 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, and the G.B. [Green Back party] 10.”

On Nov. 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.

Monthly Events

June 8 at 7 p.m.: The University Heights Symphonic Band will perform an outdoor concert on the lawn. Bring your own lawn chairs and picnic. (Alcohol is not permitted.)

June 10 at 2 p.m.: Author Dr. Brian Matthew Jordan will discuss his book “A Thousand May Fall: Life, Death, and Survival in the Union Army.”
His new book centers on the wartime experiences of the 107th Ohio Volunteer Infantry.
The program will be in the visitor center’s auditorium.

June 17 at noon: Join members of local Boy Scout troops as they retire used American flags. Visitors are encouraged to drop off flags they would like to have retired in the Visitor Center before the ceremony.

June 14 at noon at Mentor Public Library: Leaders & Legacies of the Civil War Era:
“Mapping the Civil War”: Learn about the methodology of historical archaeology and GIS mapping, and the ethical issues surrounding excavation of Civil War artifacts.
Call the library at [phone] for reservations.

July 1 at 7 p.m.: The Cleveland Shakespeare Festival presents “As You Like It” on the lawn behind the Garfield home. No reservations are required. Bring your own lawn chairs and picnic. (Alcohol is not permitted.)