Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1880-06-18
JAMES A. GARFIELD.
sketch of hi. LII. and Publ Il, service.

B JAMES A. GARFIELD.
Sketch nj his Lilo and Public Services.
James Abraham Garfield was born Novem-
Der 10, 1881, in the township Of Orange, Cuya-
hoga county, Ohio, about fifteen miles from
Cleveland. His father, Abraham Garfield
came from New York, but like his mother, was
OF New England stock. James was the young
est Of four children. The father died In 1888,
leaving the family dependent upon small
farm and the exertions of the mother. There
was nothing about the elder Garfield to dis
tnguish him from the other plodding farmers
OF the rather sterile township of Orange, No
one could discern any qualities in him which,
transmitted to the next generation, might
dustry; but his wife, who is still living at an
advanced age, was always fond Of reading
when she could get leisure from her hard
household duties, and was thoroughly capa-
Bile woman, of strong will, stern principles and
more than average force of character. OF the
children no one besides James has made the
slightest mark in the world. The older bro
ther is farmer in Michigan, and the two sis
tiers are, believe, farmers wives. James had
a tough time of when a boy. He toiled
hard on the farm carly and late in summer
and worked at the carpenters bench in win
ter. The best of it was that he liked work.
There was not a lazy hair on his head. He
1; an absorbing 80, ambition to get an educa
that Of manual labor. Ready money was hard
far from where he lived, and, finding that the
boatmen got their pay in cash and earned
better wages than he could mako at
ou Or Driver eaf Gp Try Ne hired agd
10 %lo of
helm 81 a boat. Then he determined to sh si
as sailor on the lakes, bnt an attack of fever
and ague interfered with his plans. He was
i'll three months, and when he recovered he
decided to go to a school called Geauga Acad-
envy. in an adjoining county. His mother
had saved q small sum of money, which she
gave him, together with a few cooking uten-
small room and cooked his own food to make
his expenses as light as possible. He paid
his own way after that, never calling on his
mother for any more assistance. By working
at the carpenters bench morning and even
ings and vacation times, and teaching coun-
try schools during the winter, he managed to
attend the academy during the spring and fall
ing to college. He had excellent health,
robust frame and capital memory, and the at
tempt to combine mental and physical work,
which has broken down many farmer boys
ambitious to get an education, did not hurt
him
When he was twenty three years of age he
concluded he had got about all there was to
be had in the obscure cross roads academy
He calculated that he had saved about half
enough money to get through college. pro-
vided he could begin, as he hoped, with the
junior year. He got life insurance policy
and assigned it to gentleman as security for
loan to make up the amount he lacked. In
the fall of 1854 he entered the Junior class of
Williams College, Massachusetts, and gradu-
ated in 1856 with the metaphysical honors of
his class. I have seen daguerreotype of
him taken about this time. It represents
rather awkward youth, with shock of light
hair standing rather straight up from big
forehead. and frank, thoughtful face, of very
marked German type, There is not drop Of
German blood in the Garfield family, but this
picture would be taken for some Fritz or Carl
just over from the Fatherland.
Before he went to college Garfield had con-
ing numerous, membership in Eastern and
Southern Ohio, West Virginia and Kentucky,
where its founder, Alexander Campbell, had
travelled and preached. The principal pecu-
liarities of the denomination are their refusal
to formulate their beliefs into creed, the in
dependence of each congregation, the hospi-
tslity "a, and fraternal feeling Of members and
field returned to Ohio it was natural that he
should soon gravitate to the struggling little
college of the young sect at Hiram, Portage
county, near his boyhood's home. He be-
came professor of Latin and Greek and threw
himself with the energy and industry which
are leading traits OF his character into the
work of building up the institution. Before
was appointed president of the college. Hi
ram is a lonesome country village. three
miles from a railroad, built upon high hill
overlooking twenty miles of cheese-n4aking
country to the southwark. It contains fifty
or sixty houses clustered around the green,
in the centre of which stands the homely red
brick college structure. Plain living and
thinking was the order of things at Hiram
College in those days. The teachers we're
poor, the pupils were poor and the institution
was COOr, but there was great deal of hard,
faithful study done and many abitious plans
formed. The young president taught, lee
tured and preached, and all the time studied
as diligently as any acolyte in the temple of
knowledge. He frequently spoke on Sum-
days in the churches Of the towns in the vi
cinlty to create an interest in the college.
Among the Disciples any one can preach who
has mind to, no ordination being required.
From these Sunday discoursos came the sto-
ry that Garfield at one time was minister.
lie never considered himself such and never
lltO duy luLouGlOu VI C1l CCI IN tuC
pulpit. His ambition, if he had any outside
of the school, lay in the direction of law and
politics.
During his professorship Garfield married
Miss Lucretia Rudolph, daughter of a farmer
in the neighborhood, whose acquaintance he
had made while at the academy, where she
was also pupil. She was quiet, thought
full girl, of singularly sweet and refined dispo-
sition, fond of study and reading, possessing
=, ~ os,>1 =, -
steady growth. The marriage was love af
fair on both sides and has been thoroughly
happy one. Much of General Garfeld's sub
sequent success in life may be attributed to
the never-falling sympathy and intellectual
companionship Of his wife and the stimulus
of loving home circle. The young couple
bought neat little cottage fronting on the
poor and in debt, but with brave hearts.
In 1869 the college president was elected to
the State Senate from the counties of Portage
and Summit He did not resign his presiden-
cy, because he looked upon q few months in
the Legislature as an episode not likely to
change the course of his life. But the war
came to alter all his plans, During the win
measures for arming the State militia, and his
eloquence and energy made him conspicu-
Gus leader of the Union party. Early in the
summer of 1861 he was elected colonel of an
infantry regiment (the Forty-second) raised in
Northern Ohio, many of the soldiers in which
had been students at Hiram. he took the
field in Eastern Kentucky, was soon put in
command of a brigade, and by making one OF
the hardest marches ever made by recruits
surprised and routed the rebel forces, under
Humphrey Marshall, at Piketon.
From Eastern Kentucky General Garfield
was transferred to louisville and from that
place fastened to join the army of Genera
Buell., which he reached with his brigade in
time to participate in the second days fight
ing at Plttsburg Landing: He took part in
along the Memphis and Charleston Railroad.
In January, 1863, he was appointed Chief of
Staff of the Army of the Cumberland and bore
prominent share in oil the campaigns in
Middle Tennessee in the spring and summer
of that year. His last conspicuous military
service was at the battle Of Chickamauga.
For his conduct in that battle he was pro-
NOTED to major generalship. It is said that
he wrote all the orders given to the army that
day, and submitted them to General Rosecrans
for The ho