Garfield Telegraph October 2023

In a November letter to a friend, Garfield wrote, “It seems to me that we are many years older than we were when the dear little boy died. His little baby ways so filled the house with joy that the silence he has left is heartbreaking.”

National Park Service

A Death in the Family

October 1876 was an eventful month for James Garfield and his family. On the thirty-first, Garfield purchased his farm in Mentor, a happy conclusion to a month that otherwise brought great sadness. Just six days earlier, on October 25th, the Garfields’ youngest child, Edward (Neddie) died at the Garfield home in Washington after a week-long bout with whooping cough.

The poor little fellow became ill earlier in October. Congressman Garfield noted in his diary for the 19th that, “Little Neddie is still quite ill; but is not considered so ill that I may not safely leave…” Four days later the boy was unconscious.

Neddie rallied on the 24th, but the doctors said there was no hope for him. Garfield was moved to write that, “the spectacle of that beautiful boy, struggling so bravely for life, fills me with the very helplessness of sorrow.”

The end came the next day, at 9:30 in the morning. Neddie’s brothers and sister were all broken-hearted. Their parents tried to give them “the better and more cheerful view of death.” Six-year-old Irvin kissed his deceased little brother and talked to him in the tenderest way.

A service was read for Neddie that evening in the parlor, and a little while later his parents accompanied his body by train back to Ohio.

Neddie was buried in Hiram, next to his sister, Eliza Arabella, the Garfield first child. She died on December 1, 1863.

This piece attracts a lot of oohs and aahs from our visitors when they notice the inlaid spider, web and fly on the rosewood table top.

National Park Service

“Spider” Side Table

Maker: A. and H. Lejambre, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Style: Anglo-Japanesque

Date: c. 1880

Materials: Rosewood (wood), pewter, copper, mother-of-pearl (inlay), brass (feet)

Location: James A. Garfield National Historic Site, Memorial Library

This truly exquisite table features a delicate inlaid spider, web, and fly on the tabletop.

The design reflects the ornament favored by furniture makers who looked to the arts of Japan.

Squirrel peanut butter was a Canadian brand that was marketed starting in 1915.

prices4antiques.com

Fun quote doesn’t hold up when you look at the dates

“Man cannot live by bread alone. He must have peanut butter!” – James A. Garfield

Interesting thought, but James Garfield never expressed it. He couldn’t have. Peanut butter didn’t exist in Mr. Garfield’s lifetime.

Though peanut butter and roasted peanuts are common today, it wasn’t always so.

Peanuts did not become a commercial crop until the early 1800s. At that time, they were used as animal feed, and as a cheap food source, but not a common one.

That changed during the Civil War. Union and Confederate soldiers took a liking to them, and their popularity grew. It’s probable that James Garfield became familiar with them when he was in the army.

Years later, in 1877, he told his young son Abram an anecdote about peanuts while on a legal case in the South.

“Our train stopped a moment at a little station in Southern Alabama. Among the crops growing in the field was one which looked something like a cabbage plant. It grew in long rows – someone asked what they were. The old darkie answered ‘Dey’s goobers, sah!’ But what are goobers? ‘O, dey grows in de groun like taters sah, only dey has shucks on. When deys done growed and dug out we sends em up norf, & de yankees calls em pea-nuts. But dey ain’t nuffin but goobers.’

My Abe shall have some.”

Though the story is told using dialect that might be problematic or offensive for contemporary readers, it was written by the same James Garfield who spoke out against slavery and was an advocate for Black civil rights and education throughout his political career.

But what of peanut butter? First came a patent issued to Canadian Marcellus Edson in 1884 for peanut paste. It was used in the manufacture of peanut candy. On the heels of that hallmark in the history of the peanut spread came a patent for peanut butter, in 1895, to John Harvey Kellogg. Kellogg, whose brother started the Kellogg’s cereal company, was an advocate of easily digestible foods. Peanut butter was initially a “health food” used at sanitariums.

Still, the popularity of peanut butter took off when C. H. Sumner offered it at the St. Louis World’s Fair of 1904. In the 1920s, the convenience of pre-sliced packaged bread made the PB&J standard fare for many school children.

Come hear a performance of works by Edgar Allen Poe

David Keltz will perform as Edgar Allan Poe at James A. Garfield NHS on Thursday, Oct. 19, through Saturday, Oct. 21.

James Garfield was familiar with the writings of Poe. There’s a set of Poe’s stories in the Memorial Library of the Garfield home. And in October 1875, Garfield made reference to reading “The Raven” and Poe’s account of how he came to write it.

There will be 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. presentations each night for a total of six programs.

The 6 p.m. shows will feature the epic poem “The Raven” and the story “The Premature Burial.” The 8 p.m. shows will feature the epic poem “The Raven” and the story “The Tell-Tale Heart.”

Tickets are $32 each per performance. This event is for those ages 16 and over. Tickets are limited, required and can only be purchased online at tinyurl.com/epoe2023 .

FREE monthly events

Oct. 11 at 12 noon at Mentor Public Library: Leaders & Legacies of the Civil War Era: “The Wounds of War: Mental, Physical, and Emotional.” Learn about the physical, mental, and emotional tolls the Civil War took on its veterans. Call the library at [phone] for reservations.