PICTURED BY THEIR CHILDREN: President Garfield, by his Daughter Mary Garfield Stanley-Brown

Left- Mollie with her father, James A. Garfield
Right- Mollie as a young woman

Father's Day was initiated in the US in the early 20th Century – to complement Mother's Day –to celebrate fathers, fathering, and fatherhood. Mollie (Mary) honored her famous father before that in an article written for the magazine, The Youth's Companion, in 1893. Most of America knew James A. Garfield as a politician, lawyer, farmer, and short-lived president. Victorian parents were not commonly close to their offspring. The Garfields were the exception. Mollie brought her father “to life” as the man that she and her four brothers personally knew.

“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.

While our education, in general, was much like that of other children similarly situated, his supervision over it was ceaseless, and he continually sought to translate experiences of his broader life into simple sentences for our childish comprehension. He constantly endeavored to keep before our minds, by fitting illustrations, the advantages of accuracy and thoroughness in study and recreation, and was ever ready with some ingenious method of merging one into the other.

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—that hour of the day when children are most irrepressible. …The ‘Nonsense Book’ was a constant source of delight and laughter…

…To one of his nature, how simple was the transition from the relation of parent to that of playmate! We were always happiest when he joined us in our games of ‘Puss-in-the-corner’ or ‘Blindman’s bluff.’ …Father had a keen appreciation of harmless jokes, and was always in sympathy with the joker, no matter if the laugh were at his own expense.

My father’s faculty of mixing work with play was well shown when, in order to cultivate our observations, he planned walks, during which we were to take mental notes of all we saw, and on our return were to tell him what we remembered, even to the minutest detail.
One winter he read to us selections from Audubon, and in connection with those readings a visit was made every week to the Smithsonian Institution, where we saw the veritable beasts and birds…so lifelike that we never forgot them.

With the same unflagging interest and enthusiasm he read to us Lamb’s ‘Tales from Shakespeare.’ In later years we realized how much more we enjoyed seeing and reading the plays, from having become first familiar with the stories, so simply and charmingly told.
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.

He entered into all our outdoor sports with a rollicking, almost boyish zest and enthusiasm akin to our own. At one period croquet was the sport of the day, and when father took the mallet we knew we had a vigorous opponent to deal with.

…In looking back over those years—years so full of exertion, trial, and harassment to him—it is incredible that he was able to give us so much of his time and thoughts. …No duties of his long public career were so arduous, no position of political preferment was ever so high as to exclude companionship with his children.

…The day of the tragedy and darkness came, and there passed from our eyes, but never from our lives, one of the dearest comrades, one of the staunchest friends, one of the noblest fathers children ever had.” - Mary Garfield Stanley-Brown

The Youth's Companion (1827–1929), known in later years as simply The Companion—For All the Family, was an American children's magazine that existed for over one hundred years until it finally merged with The American Boy in 1929. The Companion was published in Boston, MA by the Perry Mason Company (later renamed "Perry Mason & Co." after the founder died). From 1892 to 1915, it was based in the Youth's Companion Building, which is now on the National Register of Historic Places.

Its circulation increased in the 1890s, with sales peaking in 1893 – the year of the World Exhibition in Chicago and of Mollie’s article. In keeping faithful to its beginnings, The Youth's Companion did not mention nor advertise drugs or alcohol, nor did it delve much into politics. When it did, it usually did so in a humorous way.

Special Note: Erle Stanley Gardner (1889–1970), as a child, was very fond of the magazine. When he embarked on his own writing career, Gardner borrowed the name "Perry Mason" for his famous fictional attorney-detective. We can now connect James A. Garfield to Perry Mason in fewer than 6 steps!

Written by Debbie Weinkamer, Lead Volunteer – JAGNHS
(Information gleaned from the Garritt Scrapbook, Vol. 3, Lake County History Center, Painesville, OH and Wikipedia.org.)