Last updated: November 5, 2020
Article
The Generosity of James Rudolph Garfield
Library of Congress
When the second son of James A. Garfield and his wife was a little boy, he was something of a terror. In her letters to her husband, Lucretia Garfield wrote often of the children, and in his earliest years, "Jimmy," or "Jimmie" gave her a run for her money. He sassed his grandmother. He was good as gold one minute and "pouting and crabbed" the next. When he was nearing his eleventh birthday, his mother wondered what would become of him. Lucretia admitted that it was difficult for her to be patient with him.
James R. Garfield, like his older brother Harry, didn't like books or reading as a young child. He was more prone to athletic pursuits. He rode on horseback very well, liked and played baseball and football as teenager, and in young adulthood took up tennis.
Difficult boys can become remarkable men, as “James R.” did. He and his brother Hal pursued the law as a profession, and they began a joint practice in 1888 in Cleveland. That year, still living with his mother in the family home in Mentor, "James R." was elected to the Village Council. He was deeply involved in local affairs, helping to establish the present library system, and taking an interest in education at the secondary and collegiate levels, as his father had. A taste for political affairs came naturally, and in the coming years Garfield held many elective and non-elective political posts, most notably serving in several capacities during Theodore Roosevelt's presidency during the years 1902-1909.
Yet and still, as a young adult, James R. could be moody and downright disagreeable, as he admitted to Helen Newell, in a letter to her dated July 8, 1889. "Helen dearest had you been at Mentor last night Mother would have told you - in fact you would have seen - that you had taken me for worse, as I was as cross and disagreeable as a bear. I was obliged to ask everyone's pardon this morning at breakfast. …”
Helen Newell. She was a Chicago girl whom he had met in 1885, the daughter of John Newell, President of the Lake Shore and Michigan Railroad. A lively, but tender courtship blossomed. They nurtured each other, and for her part, Helen smoothed James' rough edges. James missed Helen whenever she was away. He said that she made him a better person.
They wed on December 30, 1890, and established their home, “Hollycroft,” in 1893. It stood just a few hundred yards from Lucretia Garfield's home on Mentor Avenue.
Helen died in August 1930. Bereaved, James R. Garfield left Hollycroft to live with his brother Abram, in Bratenahl. The house was maintained, and occasionally occupied, but it was no longer a home in the truest sense of the word. Then, in 1940, Hollycroft got a new lease on life.
Courtesy of Christina James Bush
It was early in June when Mr. Garfield received a letter from Angela James, the widow of Bernard James. The Garfields had known the James' in Washington in the early 1900's. Major James was a Military Attaché at the British Embassy and James R. was a member of the Theodore Roosevelt administration. Now, decades later, Mrs. James wrote to Mr. Garfield as France fell to Germany and a Nazi invasion of England seemed likely. Would he take her children and grandchildren under his protection?
The request was not at all far-fetched in June 1940. For some time, English children in urban centers were being sent to the countryside, out of harm's way. A Children's Overseas Reception Board (CORB) was organized, sending English children to other parts of the Empire or to the United States. Though Angela James' family did not come to Ohio under the auspices of the CORB, arrive they did on July 8.
"They" were Janet Newbery and her three children, Nigel, Pippa, and Bianca, ages eight, five, and four months; Fynvola James and her three children, Michael, Penelope, and Christina, ages seven, five, and two. Two nurses joined them, Katherine Turner and Leonora Zbinden, and two more children. A cousin, Joanna Murray, was four months old, while John Lonsdale, the son of Royal Navy Captain Rupert Lonsdale and his late wife, Christina, was almost three.
Over the next four years the bonds of affection grew strong between James R. Garfield and his "English family." One memorable scene fairly vaults out of his journal entry for December 25, 1940. "All twelve English guests came into my room about sunrise - small Bianca earlier. We brought the stockings to my bed - a happy group opening stockings. The bed has not entertained such a load there many years. A very happy day."
Penelope recently recalled the wonder of that Christmas morning when all the English family was ushered into the Hollycroft library. Gifts were arranged from floor to ceiling - dolls and bicycles, games, books, and clothes. Mr. Garfield, his family and numerous friends made sure that his family from across the Atlantic would have the best of Christmases.
Eighty years have passed since that happy day. Seven of the eight children are still living - in England, Toronto, and Seattle. Recently, Christina James Bush recalled that "Uncle Jim" (as he was known to the children) was "everyone's favorite grandpa." John Lonsdale said that Uncle Jim had made a profound impact on all their lives. Pippa Newbery Kiraly called him 'one of a kind,' an affable, gentle, and generous man.
It came full circle, then, as the crabbed and pouting boy grew into the loving and faithful husband, and later the foster grandfather who in 1940 gave eight little ones from England the chance to live a life of joy, far from the tumult of war.