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James A. Garfield National Historic Site
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“My life has been made up of a series of accidents, mostly of a favorable nature. I am perpetually in a series of unexpected fixes, not at all share how I shall come out or always clear how I ought to come out.” James A. Garfield. In 1881, James A. Garfield, Twentieth President of the United States, was laid to rest in Ohio. It was said that the nation poured out its grief in greater measure than on the day Abraham Lincoln was b in Illinois buried only sixteen years before.

Within this mausoleum lay the remains of the man some thought to be most prepared individual ever occupy the White House. Newspapers reported that Garfield would…” Hold as large place in the loving memory of his countrymen as any who have preceded him, and that history would accord (him) a niche of fame in its loftiest temples.”

Garfield was the last president born in a log cabin, raised in hardship in the Ohio wilderness of the 1830s. His mother, Eliza, was convinced her son was destined for some greatness. She became the first mother in America to see her son inaugurated President. She also outlived him by seven years. Life was not kind to young Garfield. He lost his father to fever when he was two. His mother and siblings were left to work their little farm by themselves. At 16, Garfield left the drudgery of frontier life for Lake Erie and the exciting life of a sailor. He settled for driving the mule teams that pulled boats through the Ohio and Erie Canal. He never learned to swim and drowned several occasions. His last episode left him with a raging fever, and he convalesced at home. Eliza decided she would not lose her son again, at least to something as nefarious as the life of a sailor. With her entire lifesavings of $17, she bought him a year of study at a local free-will Baptist Institution called Geauga Seminary. Something about the school, its 250 students and diversity of courses caught the 17-year old Garfield’s interest. He never mentioned the sea to his mother again. At Geauga he began a diary, a habit he would continue until his death, recording the continual metamorphosis of his life.

“At Disciple meeting, Sun. evening. Determined to follow the gospel. Signified my intention of so doing.”

The next day, Garfield was baptized in the waters of the Chagrin River. This began a lifelong relationship with the Disciples of Christ, a faith not born of emotionalism or unexplainable spiritualism, but of reason and intellect. He became dissatisfied with Baptist philosophy and eventually left in pursuit of a teaching career. After weeks of fruitless searching, he dejectedly returned home only to find a representative from a local school with an immediate opening for a young teacher. Garfield took it and was convinced thereafter never to seek employment on his own. He was convinced that to do so would defeat any opportunity that divine providence had sent his way. After a year, Garfield left his teaching position to enter the Disciple-operated Western Reserve Eclectic Institute in Hiram, Ohio. Here he flourished among his friends, his fellow disciples, and a broader scope of studies. He worked 19 hours a day between classes and homework, while taking odd jobs to pay for room and board. He challenged himself to learn 12 new words daily and became obsessed with performing every task better than any other student. Unknown to him at the time, he met his future wife, Lucretia Rudolph, in Greek class at the Institute. More apparent to him, he discovered his true talent of public speaking.

“I am no longer a cringing scapegoat. I know without egotism that there is some sleeping thunder in my soul and it shall come out.”

His voice would resound from pulpits of the Reserve, but not from the stump or legislative podium...at least not yet.

“Politics are now raging with great violence. I am profoundly ignorant of its multifarious phases, and am not inclined to study it. I am exceedingly disgusted with the wire pulling of politicians and the total disregard for truth in all their operations ”

Yet after two years at the Eclectic, Garfield decided to continue his education in the liberal and abolitionist atmosphere of the East at Williams College. He stopped onto the Williams campus at the age of 23, wearing the coarse threads of frontier life, alone, socially out of step, and fearful of the competition.

“I lie here alone on my bed at midnight, tossing restlessly while my nerves and sinews crawl and creep...and I almost feel that there are but two tracks before me – to stand at least among the first...or die.”

He continued his grueling pace of classical studies, languages, and debate, all the while preaching at local churches, teaching classes, editing the school quarterly, and leading debate societies. By sheer determination and will, he became an outstanding student – and by degree, in those days before the Civil War, a Unionist.

“I feel as though a great united effort should be made, and that effort should have but one aim...and that should be the suppression of Slavery in every newly acquired territory. At such hours as this I feel like throwing the whole current of my life into the work of opposing this giant evil. I don’t know but the religion of Christ demands some such action. “

But after graduating with honors, he felt obliged to return to Hiram, and did so with reluctance. But within a year he was chosen to replace the president of the Institution, and after a long and doubt-filled courtship, married Lucretia. His Eastern influence and invigorating teaching brought new life to the Eclectic and its curriculum. As a professor and preacher, his reputation on the Reserve grew ever larger. Yet as a husband, he was letting his marriage to Lucretia unravel. He boldly confessed to her that he believed their union was a mistake. Lucretia calculated that they had only spent 20 weeks together through the first four years of their marriage, and she would later in life refer to that period as the “dark years.”

Still, Garfield’s intellect and faith buoyed his reputation, and it led him into a high-profiled debate staged on the Reserve. He was asked to defend the creation of life and matter according to the book of Genesis against a traveling , well-versed, atheist debater named William Denton. Garfield was anxious for the challenge and threw his entire scholastic experience into the fray. The 7-day event, marked by 20 speeches by each man, brought Garfield such notoriety that the Republican Party of the Reserve asked him run for state senate, which he proudly claimed a product of divine providence.

“In entering upon this work I told my friends; I should make no pledges to any man or any measures; I should not work for my own nomination other than to let my friends know that my name was up; I ran at their insistence not mine.”

His disciple brethren thought the election a tragedy, often fearing that one day he would go to the devil. Now, if he went to the Capitol, they were should he would. Garfield saw the situation entirely in reverse.

When I ask who are the intellectual leaders of our people, I find not the lawyers but the teachers, the preachers, educators, and authors. These are our men.” But state politics did not satisfy his yearning for more promising financial gain, and he soon set out to learn law, mastering enough for admission to the Ohio bar. While in the Ohio legislature, he bought his first home, and his first child was born, though he admitted he was not prepared for fatherhood. With the advent of the Civil War, Garfield found himself impatiently waiting for providence to show him what grand position he should play in this momentous event. He begged the Governor for a command, and was given the 42nd Ohio Volunteer Infantry. it didn’t exist, nor did Garfield’s qualifications to lead men into battle. But using the pulpits of the Reserve, as a Colonel in the Union Army, Garfield began to recruit the very young men he had baptized from the Reserve. Garfield led the Sandy Valley Campaign in Kentucky, which was critical nor without merit. Garfield’s actions earned him the rank of Brigadier General and the love of his men. But he paid a dear price in lost innocence. “A noble young man from Medina County died a few days ago. I enlisted him, but not till I had spent two hours in answering the objections of his father who urged he was too young to stand the exposure. He was the only child. I assure I would rather fight a battle than to meet his father.”

The war brought changes to his domestic life. Home on sick leave from camp fever, Garfield and Lucretia experienced the honeymoon they never had. Their love finally came to fruition, and neither could have been any happier. Between assignments, Garfield had spent considerable time in Washington as a house guest of the Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase, meeting the country’s best economic minds over dinners and luncheons. Garfield became an able student and expert economist. This became providential when Garfield was elected in the United States Congress in 1862 while still serving in the army. Lincoln personally asked him to resign his commission and continue the war from a Congressional seat. Garfield found his political calling , working to make the nation’s budget effective and fiscally sound. Yet politics seemed to be at direct odds with his scholarly manner. Even as a young student, he had been described as a man cursed with the unique ability to see both sides of an issue squarely. His lack of partisan ideals drew the ire of his party and some voters. “It is a terrible thing for men to live in fear of their constituents. It is vital and necessary to have the approval of one’s self.”

Still, his manner and gregariousness kept him re-elected each term. By 1876, Garfield had built a house in Washington, and bought a farm in Mentor, Ohio, for his family of fours boys and one girl. His family remembered that the farm was the one place their father was at peace , away from public demands. Garfield’s approval with the public led to his election to the Senate. He attended the 1880 Republican Convention to nominate his friend John Sherman, and watched 34 ballots end in deadlock. Shocked and dismayed, he sat dumbfounded as his name was entered on the next ballot as the Republican nominee which won overwhelming support. The presidency was not his immediate target, and it came unexpectedly. Still, he did more than any other presidential candidate until that time to get himself elected. From the front porch of his Mentor farm, he received visitors by the thousands, and ran what became the “Front Porch Campaign.” He issued statements and made speeches for anyone who came by, and also had them conveyed to the press. His bootstrap success story struck a cord with the public, and the elected him to the White House. Garfield was hailed in the press as having nothing to learn from any man. There was no department in the government that he could not master. Had he lived, he may have proven it true. President Garfield was faced with thousands of office seekers as part of the Spoils System of national elections. Every day, job seekers lined up along the White House walls and corridors demanding employment in the government whether qualified or not. Garfield was expected to see each and every one. Garfield unknowingly met his future assassin the day after his inauguration, as Charles Guiteau waited in line to seek his fortune. Unqualified and unknown, Guiteau was repeatedly ignored. On July 2, 1881, the president and his two oldest boys were on their way to the Jersey shore to join Lucretia for a summer vacation. As Garfield and his Chief of Staff entered the Baltimore & Potomac railroad station, an unbalanced and desperate Guiteau shot the president in the back. Garfield told the doctor attending him on the floor of train station that he was a dead man, yet he lingered for 80 days, wasting away as doctors probed dirty fingers and instruments into his wound in a futile attempt to find the bullet lodged in his back. Finally, on September 19, 1881, Garfield died.

In his 49 years of life, Garfield had achieved many positions. He was an honor student, teacher, and college president, Christian preacher, Civil War general, economist, Congressman, farmer, Senator-elect, and ultimately the President of the United States. The public idolized him for his bootstrap success story, but Garfield contemplated other facets of his life. Only his diary knew the secret desire of his heart.

“I lament that so much of my present life must be given up to the great questions of office and the endless wants of a great grasping crowd. When the day is done, it is every year more sweet to lose myself in the sweet circle which has gathered round my hearthstone. The triumph of love could not be more complete.”

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Duration:
18 minutes, 46 seconds

The official park film, Garfield, provides viewers with an in-depth look at the life and accomplishments of the nation's 20th President. This film is provided with open captions and closed captions for your convenience.

 
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Duration:
2 minutes, 57 seconds

Jay and Tom Garfield talk about working on the James A. Garfield National Historic Site in their twenties under their grandfather, James Rudolph Garfield II. Jay and Tom are the great-great-great-grandsons of the assassinated president. We hear from Jay first. This interview was recorded in partnership with StoryCorps. Learn more at storycorps.org.

Last updated: October 4, 2020

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8095 Mentor Avenue
Mentor, OH 44060

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440-255-8722
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