Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1880-06-16
OUR NEXT PRESIDENT.
4 Brief Sketch Of the Life of Self
Made Mdn-His Career an the
Field and an Congress.
A Sketch Of the Coming Vice Presi-
dent.

Field and an Congress.
A Sketch Of the Coming Vice Presi-
dent
The following sketch of the nominee
was prepared by Mr.. E. v Smalley, a
personal and political friend, and is ac-
curate in its details, as we'll as just
estimate of the characte, of the man
who will be our next President:
James Abraham Garfield was born
November l9, 1881, in the township of
Orange, Cuyahoga county, Ohio, about
fifteen miles from Clevela Id p
father, Abraham Garfield, me from
New York, but like his mother, was of
New England stock James was the
youngest of four children. The father
died in 1888, leaving the family de-
pendent upon a small farm and the ex-
ertions of the mother There was
nothing about the elder Garfield to
distinguished him from the other plod-
ding farmers of the rather sterile town
ship of Orange. No one could discern
any qualities in b; which, transmitted
to the next genera on, might help to
make statesman, unless it was indus
try; but his wife, who is still living at
an advanced age, was always fond of
reading when she could get leisure from
her hard house old duties, and was a
thoroughly cap be woman, of strong
WI, stern principles I'd more than
averare force of character OF the
children, no one besides James has
made the slightest mark in the world.
The older brother is a farmer in Michi-
gan. and the two sisters are, believe,
farmers wives James had a tough
time of it as boy. He toiled hard on
the farm early 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 had an absorbing ambition
to get an education, and the only road
open to this end see ed that of manual
labor. Ready money was hard to get
in those days. The OHIO Canal ran
not far from where he lived, and find
ing that the boatmen got their pay in
cash and earned better wages than he
could make at farming or carpentry, he
hired out as driver on the tow-path
and soon got up to the dignity of hold
ing the helm of boat Then he de-
termined to ship as sailor on the
.kec, bat an attack of fever and ague
incerfered with lis plars. He was i'll
three months, and when he recovered
he decided to go to q school called
Geauga Academy, in an adjoining
county His mother bad saved a small
sum of money, which she gave him, to-
gether with few cooking utensils and
stock of provisions. He hired q 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 as
sisyance By working at the carpen-
ter's bench mornings and evenings and
vacation times, and teaching country
schools during the winter, he managed
to attend the academy during the
spring and fall terms, and to save a
little money towards going to college.
He had excellent health, robust frame
and q capital memory, and the attempt
to combine mental and physical work,
which has broken down many farmer
boys ambitious to get an education,
did not hurt him
GARFIELD AT COLLEGE.
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, provided
he could begin, as he hoped, with the
junior year. He got life insurance
policy and assigned it to a gentleman
as security for a loan to make up the
amount he lacke'. In the fall of 1854
re eatered the junior cluss of Williams
College, Massachusetts,, and graduated
in 1856 W tn the metaphysical honors
Of his class. / have seen u daguerreo-
type OF him taken about this time. 1t
represents rather awkward youth,
with a shock of light hair standing
straight up from big forehead, and a
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 connected himself with the Disci-
pies, sect having a. numerous men,
bership in Eastern and Southern Ohio,
West Virginia and Kentucky, where
its founder, Alexander Campbell, had
travelled and preached. The principal
peculiarit;es Of the denomination are
their refusal to formula G their beliefs
into u creed, the independence Of each
congregation, the hospitality and fra
ternal feeling of the members and the
lack of regular ministry. When Gar
field returned to Ohio it was natural
that he should soon gravitate to the
struggling little college Of the young
sect ut Hiram, Portage county, near
bis boyhood's home. He became pro-
fessor of Latin and Greek and threw
himself with the energy and industry,
which are leading traits of his charac-
ter into the work of building up the in
stitution. Before be had been two
years in his professorsbip he was ap-
pointed president of the college. Hiram
is lonesome country village, three
miles from railroad, built upon a high
hill, overlooking twenty miles of cheese
making country to the southwark. 1t
contains fifty or sixty houses clustered
around the green, in the centre of
which stands the homely red brick col
lege structure. Plain living and high
thinking was the order Of things at Hi
ram College in those days. The teach
ers were poor, the pupils were poor
and the institution was poor, but there
was great deal of hard, faithful study
done and MANY ambitious plans form