Ashtabula weekly telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1880-1886, 1880-06-18


nominated as its candidate for President
stands to-day the ablest man in the House Of
Representatives and one of the ablegt Of
American statesmen.
General Garfield was born in the village of
Orange, Cuyahoga County, Ohio, a few miles
from Cleveland, on the 10Th OF November
1881, the youngest Of four children, who were
orphaned by the death Of their father within
two years after the birth OF this last OF them.
Both his parents were Of New England ex-
traction. The father Abraham Garfield,
though born in Otsego County, N. Y, was Of a
family that had resided In Massachusetts for
several generations. The mother, Eliza Bal
lou niece of Rev. Hosea BalOu, the noted
Universalist clergyman was born in Cheshlre
County, N. II. The death Of Abraham Gar
field in 1883 left the widow and her four young
children without fortune in the baokwoods.
But there was little farm and on this they
worked. the youngest by and by coming to be
able TO bear q share Of the burden. In the |
winter there was a village school with such I
small store OF books as the neighborhood af- !
forded for private reading. SO the winters |
and the summers passed till the family had /
grown up, and the young9st wnen sixteen |
years OF oRc, had learned little Of the car
penters trade.
but this did not prove very remunerative. !
SO In his seventeenth year young Garfield se- |
cured employment on the Ohio Canal, and
from driver on the tOw-path rose after !
time TO be a bOatman. This irregular life dis
agreed with him, and the fall of lSiS found him
back under his mothers roof, slowly recover
ing from a three-mouths' siege of the fever
and aRue. Up 10 this time he would seem TO
have cherished little ambition for anything
beyond the prospects offered by tholabOrlous
life he had entered. But 1t happened that the
winter school was taught by promising
young man named Samuel Bates. He had at
tonded high school In an adjacent township,
known as the "Geuuga Seminary" and with
the proselyting spirit common 70 young men
m the backWOOds, who were beginning 10 taste
the pleasures Of education, he WIS very anX-
ious 20 take back several new students with
him. Garheldlistencd and was tempted. He
had intended 10 become a sailor on the lakes,
but he was yet too ill to carry out this plan,
and so he finally resolved TO attend the high
school one term and postpone sailing till the
next fall. That resolution made "a scholar
MalOr-Gcnornl, a Congressman, o Senator
elect, and Presidential candidate out OF him,
instead Of a sailor before the mast ON Lake
The boy never dreamed of what the man
would be.
Chester THE site Of the Geauga Academy in
company with his cousin and another young
man from. his village; They carried with
few school books, They rented room in an
old, unpaintgd frame house near the ncAdemy
and went to work, Garfieldbought the second
Algehra he had ever seen, and began to study
it. English Grammar, Natural Philosophy and
Arithmetic were the list OF his studies. His
mother had scrnped together little sum Of
money to aid him At the start, which she gave
him with her blessing when he left his humble
home. After that he never had dollar in his
hf9 that he did not earn. Az soon es be began
the carpenters of the village for employment
at his trNdo. He worked mornings, even
ings and Saturdays, and thus earned enough
. came he had a longer interval for work; ana
sOWhen the fGdl termed opened he had enough
money LAID upto pay his tuition and give him
by the end of the fall term Garfield had
made such progress that, though a
% district u'SSh} school. IL TRS Then I the " future
seemed easy to bim. The fruits Of the
Winter'e teaehing were enough, with his
econ0tnifni naungplent 70 piyth eHpenses OF
the spring ard fall terms at the ncademy.
Whatover be could make at bis murIiing and
evening york at his carpenters tride would
go 70 swell another fund, the need Of which
he had begun TO feel
For the backwOods lad, village carpenter,
tow-path canal hand, would-be sailor had now
resolved toenter cpllege. p" 10 Is u groAt point
gainod," ne said ysaps afterward t'when, in
our hurrying times, ayoung man makes up his
mind 70 devote several years TO the accom-
pliahment of definite work" IL WIS so now in
his own case. With definite purpose before
him he began 10 save all his earnings and 10
shape all his eXertiOns 10 the one end. Through
the summer vacation of 1850 he worked at his
trade, helping TO build houses, within stone s
throw Of the academy. During the next ses-
sion Of the academy he was able 20 abandon
boarding himself, having found boarding
house where he found the ueoessnries of HE
for Sl.O8 per week. The next winter he taught
again, and In the spring removed 70 Hiram to
terward to preside, 30 no continued teaohing
a term each winter, attending school through
winter and fall, and keeping up with hislolass-
os by private study during the time he was ab-
sent Before he had left Hiram Institute hp
was the finest Latin and Greek scholar TINT the
sGao9 had a. ssS aa t rea6S SS
the summer Of 1861, our Carpenter and tow.
path boy had gone ns far AZ the high school
and academies Of his native regime could car
ry him. He was nov nearly twonty-threey years
old. Tho struggling, bard-Working boy had de
Yeloped into self-reliaht man.
lie was tho neighbOrhood wonder for
scholarship and general tavOrita for the
hearty, genial ways that had never deserted
him. He mad been brought up In the Church
Of the Disciples" as y loved 70 call ITSELF, OF
light Al an cnrly ngg he had followed tho
example Of his parents in connecting himself
with this church. Ills lite oOrresponded with
trusted him. lle had saved from his school
teaching and carpenter work about half
enough mOney 20 GARY him through the two
years ID which no thought ho could finish the
Ordinary college course. He was growing old
and ho determlued that he must go thut fall
How 20 procure the rest Of the needed money
WIS y mystery; but al last his good character
and the good will this brought him solved the
question. He was IN ylgor0ns lusty health
and a life insurance policy was easily obtain
I'd. This ho nsslgtlod TO u gentleman who
thOreupon louued him what money was need
ed knowing that II he lived he would pay It
Peouniary Pee ny di6olIs6ss thus "i disposed or h
was ready 20 start. but whore2 He had
Originally intnnded % nttend Hethany College
tho institution sustatned by the church OF
which he was member, and presided over by
Alexander Campbell, the man above all Others
whom whom ne n had been been, taught y admire and 70 70
larRed his vision, he hnd came 10 see that
there were better institutions outside tho
limits OF his peculiar sect. .atHI
So in tho Tall of 1864 the pupl OF GeGugl
Seminary and the Hiram Institute applied FOL
admission ut the venerable doors OF Wllliami
college. lie knew no gnldlate Of the college
dent he only knew that 10 had pdidIshed !
volume OF lectures which he liked, aud that he
had written kindly word TO him when b,
spoke OF coming. The western cnrphpter unt
Village school teacher received many shQch
10 the new sphere he had now enterqe. Or
every hand he was made 10 feol the sooia
superiority OF his fellow students. 1helr WAY.
were FREQ from the awkward habits Of tn,
-untrained labOring youth Their spoebh wal
free fromthO unp0uih phrases of the prdvinoia
circles Ia which he moved Their toilets mad,
the haudlwOrk Of his village tailor sadly shah
by. Their free.handed expenditures contrast
cd strikinqly with his enforced pArslmdny. TX
some tgugh-iiberod hearts these woud hav,
been only petty aunoyances. To the warm
social, generous mind Of young Garfield thel
seem, nom more than ohe Indication of NJ
oollegelile that We can gather 70 have been
source OF positive anguish. but has bOr
hrayeY up, malntaiped the advance standing
in the Junior class TO which he had heen ad
mitted on hIs arrival, and az the end of hi
two years course tin 1861 bore on the ulet0
physical honor of his Claaa-rockOnod at VIII
iams among the hlghost within tho gift Of tn
institution 70 hor graduating members. III
was four hundrtdnud dfty d liars IN debt, an
~ had only his clothes, his books and hi
nut nov, on bis return 10 his home IN
ypuuf man who had gone 80 far East rs 10 oi
Williams, md hud come back decorated wit
her houorH, was thought good for anything.
ID L He.wRs stralRhtwpy made tutor OF Ldtin an
ufeok 10 the Hiram Eclecrio Institute, q
Whlqh Only two years before no had boen
pupil, and 20 he began to work for m0ney 4
pay his dohts. 50 nigh position did 10 taxi
and 50 popular did he hecomc, that the nal